Trapped by a spell Twilight and Starlight must live through the events of Hearth's Warming. Only the events aren't playing out exactly like the history books. All while a mysterious wendigo makes a move that might changes the future they once knew.
An ancient spell activates, sending them into the distant past. Now, with no way home, forced to live through events of the past, two ponies try their best to stay out of history's way. However, things don't go as planned when they get pulled right into the middle of a war between the immortal alicorns and mortal ponies. All while a mysterious wendigo claiming to be a king attempts to change history.
******
Series in seasonal TV show style format. That means breaks during Summer(Most of June & July) and Winter(January & February) with mid-season finale in December and proper season finales in May. Try not to get too overwhelmed as there is only one chapter each month except for May which gets a double. Nine episodes per season with a prologue split into three parts(Past, Present, Future) and a very short intermission.
Give into the monster. The bastard, the killer, and the butcher.
I was once asked this. It was posed to me by a wendigo that seemed to have an eternal hatred for the world.”
I didn’t want to give in, nor ever believe his words. Why would such a thing ever seem right? But after hearing everything I look back on my journeys.
From fighting a mare that would later become my friend and my student to traveling across many timelines desperately trying to find my way home. Should I have given in to what nature had intended for us, or should I have saved as many as I could, no matter the cost of my sanity?
Should I have joined him on his crusade, or should I have left him to rot away? As I look back, I can only pray that the right choice has been made. The cost of being wrong could be worse than being right.
******
Snowflakes wander through the maddening cold of the frost-covered beach as the waves kick in defiance of the ice trying to form over it. A deer-like monster leaned over a group of corpses. The monster scratched and pulled at the bodies. He shivered and twisted, removing his claws when no response was given. He lifted his head to the Moon and snowflakes fell from his face. An object on his neck glowed maroon red and pulsed like a heart. Clutching it, without even looking, he yanked it off and exhaled heavily as he heard footsteps approach him.
The monster turned and roared at the approaching figure, bucking his deer-like horns right at the figure’s heart. His eyes widened, and he drew back at the sight of a thin blue goat on all four legs.
“They are all dead, aren’t they?” the goat examined, lowering his head to one body and taking in a deep whiff. “And yet she is not among them?”
The monster’s eyes narrowed, and his cheeks stretched back to reveal his teeth. He bucked his horns and roared at the goat again, yet the goat refused to yield. The monster’s eyebrows furrowed over his eyes as he looked at the object in his hand. He squeezed it until the edges cut his flesh and cast it to the ground and the goat vanished.
The monster watched the object until its glow faded. He knocked it away and swung around to the waters a few meters behind him. His feet gritted into the ground as he lowered down to all fours. He pushed forward, crashing his feet into the water, and landing on its surface. The rebellious water bent to his rage, stopping solid under his feet. The stillness of ice spread like a plague with each step as he galloped into a run.
******
Miles across the water stood a magnificent castle. It stood in defiance against the giant waves. Inside the castle's outer walls, many stood at the ready. Despite the cold shivering them to the bone, they refused the falter.
In the front, a bold blue stallion with a dark green mane in silver armor and a royal blue cape stood ready. He smiled as he felt the cold hit his face. “The monster will soon be here.”
“Yes, my King,” a red stallion approached. “Soon we will have revenge for what he did to our land. But most of all…” He stopped and stared at the ground.
The King glanced at his general, before letting his own eyes fall. For a single moment, his smile gritted, but that dissolved when his eyes raised back to the general. He placed his hand on the soldier’s shoulder. “It’s okay, I, above all of you, want revenge.”
"It would have been easier if that other king hadn't..." Abruptly, the general was stopped as a white mare in a nurse’s uniform ran onto the field. The general’s eyes went wide upon seeing her. “What is it, Chorale?”
She peered at him for one moment before turning toward the King. “Your majesty, I’m sorry to disturb you at such a time, but it has begun.”
The King shifted his sight to the nurse and frowned at her words. He gripped his sword tightly and looked toward the red stallion. “General, defend these walls until I return. Do not let that monster in here.”
“I understand my king,” he nodded as the King took his leave.
The King directed his movement toward the path that the mare had come from. He walked rather slowly as if uncertainty was setting in. The moment he heard the screams, his movement broke into a run. He passed by many empty chambers. The echoes of screams increased in loudness the deeper he went into the castle.
Shortly he arrived at the source of the screams, a door that glowed with a fiery light. His eyes strained and his breathing trembled as he reached for the knob. He stopped mere inches from touching it as his arm persisted back. He fought through his hesitation and twisted the knob
Opening the door caused cold air from outside to clash with the warm torches as they flickered from the change in the air current. The dim light barely reached a bed at the center of the room. Lying on the bed a scarcely clothed light lavender mare with a long brown mane screamed and twisted around. Blood was pouring out of her at a moderate rate. Nurses ran around left and right with towels, trying to clean the blood as the lead nurse stood by her head with a wet rag.
“Keep pushing, my queen,” the lead nurse urged her.
The King drew closer to the bed, and the grip on his sword weakened. His free hand extended out and gripped the Queen’s hand tightly. “Don’t give up, soon you will be free of this curse.”
The Queen turned her face to him with a weakly and seemingly doubtful smile. She softened her screaming as best as she could and pulled him closer. “My king, please don’t be angry with--” The pain interrupted her, and she cried out.
The King’s eyes strained into tears. “I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at the monster that defiled you with this curse.” The tears broke from his eyes as his teeth gritted. "But don't fret, I will make things better."
The Queen’s smile turned to a frown as her eyes widened. She shoved him away as the final pushes broke forth. Her screams intensified as she struggled with all her might. The nurses backed away out of fear as the sound became more terrifying. Blood fountained outward over the covers, quickly followed by ice that spread in every direction, even over the Queen's flesh.
The King trembled at these sights as he arose from the bed. He gazed at the sword in his hand, his grip returning to full strength. His eyes rambled over to all the nurses as they stared at him. Seeing his face, they gazed down and walked toward the exit without saying a single word.
Doubt poured over his paling complexion as he turned back to his wife. He took a deep gulp of breath and gripped his sword tighter, lifting it above the bed.
The Queen weakly raised her hand to the sword. Her sight was now too blurry to see anything, but once she felt edges, she gripped it and moved her mouth back and forth, speaking with a wordless voice.
The King's face broke down at the sight of this. His eyelids closed as he turned the tip downward. “I will avenge you.”
He dropped the sword. The ice halted its advance over the bed. The Queen shivered as she reached for the King. Her hand pulled at his armor until her shivering stopped. The fires in the room went out, and the cold intensified. Silence filled the darkness as her hand fell to the bed.
Seconds passed like hours as the nurses stood outside of the room expecting an answer. They looked at each other, mumbling unclear words. Ultimately, one of them even reached out to the door. Yet, they quickly pulled back as a rage-filled roar. They held their mouths as their feet carried them away.
The King’s roar echoed through the castle and carried through to the outer wall. The general heard his king and turned away. The nurse grabbed her mouth in horror. He pulled her close and placed his head on hers. “I’m sorry. I knew he would be forced to do it. It was needed if we were to win.”
Quietness pursued the winds, and even the waves came to an abrupt halt. The two drew away at the sight of snowflakes falling around them. The nurse looked at the sky and trembled at the sight of no clouds. “How are there snowflakes?”
“Snow and cold shall always follow in his wake. Be warned, for the first sign of him... is a snowflake.” The General stared upward as he gripped his sword in its hilt.
“Soldiers, soldiers,” one guard on the watchtower shouted. “He's here--”
Instantly the soldier stopped as the snowflakes swarmed around the watchtower. They moved like blades, cutting through the tower until it toppled to the ground. The soldiers scattered out of the way from the crash as it tore an opening in the outer wall.
The general unsheathed his sword. He swung it up high, shouting to the surrounding others, “Stand your ground!” Hearing his words, they shook free from the shock. He pointed his sword toward the opening and the soldiers charged toward it. He glanced back at the nurse. “Stay safe.”
“Come back alive,” she reached out.
The general smiled at her words and faced forward. His mind filled with vigor, he ran faster through the remains of the watchtower and jumped into the ocean outside. He slipped at first but quickly got his footing on the now frozen surface. He saw his soldiers already clashing with the monster and charged forward.
Many of the soldiers were already turning to ice in the claws of the monster as he tossed them to the ground. The monster stood strong and larger than any of them. The guards threw spears at him; they tore through his back and shoulders, yet he refused to relent.
The general held his sword in front of his face and chanted in a strange language. The sword glowed with his words. Once the brightness of the sword was too much, he stopped his chant and swung. Sounds from the sword moved through the air, cutting like a saw. The monster charged forward, not stopping upon hearing the attack.
The attack hit them head on, digging into the monster’s flesh and pushing him back to the ground. The monster rose back up as if the attack did nothing but annoy him. The general rushed forward and jumped into the air. He landed and dug his sword deep into the monster's back.
The general wailed in agony as the blood from the wound froze up his arms. “Bring it down!” Hearing his words, every guard nearby jumped forward, stabbing their swords into the monster.
The monster's blood splattered over many of them, freezing everything and holding him to the ground. The guards themselves were glad to be frozen solid if it held the monster in place.
The nurse ran over to top of the rubble and screamed the general's name, “Fugue Dazzle!” She gazed at him as tears fell from her face.
The general glanced at her and smiled, chanting ultimate words. “Vivat Rex!” He pulled with all his might. He ripped out his sword as it glowed a new color, tearing the monster’s back wide open. Blood splattered over the entire monster and the general. They were both frozen to the bone.
The nurse gaped at the sight of this as the battle went silent. The remaining guards stood ready for anything while she rushed to the frozen block. One guard tried to stop her, but another stood in their way. She came to a dead stop at the sight of it. She reached out to the general at the top.
Without warning, cracks appeared. The mare trembled, and she backed away. However, what happened next sent shockwaves through them all.
“You took what was mine!” the monster spoke as the ice shook. “You took what was mine!!” Chunks of ice broke away as he pulled his body free. With one last twist, he broke free completely and jumped forward. He grabbed the mare in his jaws and fell into a roll.
The guards rushed forward. They tore their weapons into the monster's mouth. The monster swung the mare around in his jaws. She wailed in agony but pulled out a sword hanging out of his body. She stabbed the sword under his eye, making him let go of her.
He dropped her to the ground and drew away. He reached for the sword, tearing it out. The guards ran over to the mare, only to find her somehow unharmed. Two of them pulled her up and moved her to safety.
Meanwhile, the monster took the sword and beat it against the ground as he twisted and shivered. “You took everything that was mine. Now give them back to me!”
“I’m sorry, they're dead.” the King stepped out of the castle, his sword at the ready covered in maroon-red blood. “But with their blood, I shall finally smite you, monster!”
The monster smelled the blood coming from the sword. His eyes widened. “No!!” he roared.
The King smiled and held the sword up high. “Do your worst?”
The monster jumped forward. The King slid to the side, dodging and rushing forward, slashing his sword across the monster's chest. He rolled out of the way as the claw swiped at him. He stopped his rolling and jumped backward. His sword sliced into the monster’s arm, cutting the limb completely off as he landed back in front of the castle. The king smiled at the sight of no ice forming on his sword. Turning around, he stormed outward again, aiming for the heart. This time, the monster grabbed him and threw him back into the castle.
The King crashed through several walls before landing with a hard thud. He pushed at the ground, ignoring the blood pouring from his mouth. Holding his sword tighter, he roared back as the monster charged into the castle.
The monster bit his teeth into the king’s arm as the sword tore through his mouth. The force of the movement pushed them deeper into the castle, making much of it crumble around them. The monster stopped and lifted the King into the air, before tossing him to the side. The monster spat up some blood. He shifted away from the King and ran down a hallway.
The King slowly arose. He found his arm completely broken and blood was pouring out of his side at a fast rate. His eyes widened at the sight of a long piece of wood that was now skewing through his stomach. It was too long to remove, so he left it and stood his ground as the castle crumbled around him. He knew where the monster had gone.
The King looked at his guards as they watched from the outside. He gritted his teeth and shouted to the nearest subject, “Burn the castle. I will not let the monster leave.” Hearing his words, they regrettably did as he asked. He smiled as the fires quickly covered everything in sight. He spat up some blood and stared at the hallway that the monster left. He took the sword into his free hand and pushed forward.
The deeper he went in, the greater the fires got. Soon the only thing that could be seen of him was the fires of his rage and the snowflakes of the monster.
******
“When the rumble was clear, only two beyond burnt bodies were found.” The old white stallion took a breath as he grabbed his warm tea. He took a sip slowly before peering down at the filly that was holding his leg the whole time.
He rubbed her head and then looked at another pony, who was sitting in the chair across from him. The other pony was a rather old unicorn with a long beard. “It was believed that the bodies belonged to the King and the Monster he fought.”
“That was a fine story, but are you sure they were wrong about what they found?” The bearded unicorn inched his chin, pulling slowly at each hair.
The white stallion’s eyes narrowed. “I know what I saw. That monster killed my ancestor Fugue Dazzle and my kingdom’s last King. That vicious creature, massive deer horns, and a taste for the flesh of others. It was the same monster I saw three nights ago--” He stopped as coughing filled his voice.
“Fine,” the bearded unicorn looked at the picture of three fillies in his hand. “So do you want revenge or…” His eyes fell on the filly by the white stallion’s leg. It was very much one of the fillies in the picture.
“All I want you to do is save my granddaughters from that monster before he does to them what he did to our once beautiful Queen.” He stopped and glanced to his left. The grip of the young filly made him more concerned than ever. The filly had not spoken a word during the entire story, yet the emotions about her sisters being taken spoke volumes louder than any word ever could speak.
The bearded unicorn stood up and took a bow. “I understand. I will do what I can, old friend.” He turned toward the door to take his leave when he was stopped by the next words of the white stallion.
"Wait, please take her with you." The white stallion pointed to the little one. "She is no longer safe here either."
The bearded unicorn turned and frowned sadly. "She would only be in the way..."
"Yes, but she cares for her sisters greatly. She is the only heart they have left right now. Beside..." Harder coughs stopped his words.
"Don't push yourself, Grandpa." The filly argued.
"I'm not long for this world." He pushed the filly away from his leg. "Starswirl, I trust you... more than any other creature in this world."
"I... I understand, old friend." Starswirl walked back over and placed his hand on the filly's shoulder, lightly pulling her away.
"I... I..." The filly was practically in tears now. "I'll find my sisters, Grandpa, you wait."
The white stallion smiled at her words. "Thank you."
******
Starswirl walked the filly outside several steps before reaching a small dock. Standing at the edge was a golden earth pony. “Let’s go Fredricson.”
“Oh, we have a guest coming with us.” Fredricson followed behind them. "Is it true? Has he returned?"
“It seems so. We must get this message to the alicorns immediately. Indigo Frost… has returned.” The two walked over to an airship as smoke raised from its chimneys.
******
Silence encased the place after they left. The only thing that could be heard was the soft creaking of wood. The white stallion looked at his tea once more. It had grown cold way too fast. His eyes widened and his body filled with trembles at chills. His breath became visible, and his eyes wandered over to a window nearby. His pupils shrank at the sight of…
“Snowflakes… snowflakes…” His voice slowed to a deathly halt and ice rose over his body from his feet to his face. Pushing with what strength he could muster, his voice slowly pleaded, “I’m sorry… that… they… called… you… a… monster…” The ice completely covered him with that final word and the room’s cold became almost too painful to hear, see, or even breathe as cracking followed.
However, in this cold, a smokey breath poured forth from the shadows of the room. Bare footsteps approached the white stallion’s body. “Oh, but you did and always will call me by that name. It is what I am, and what we all are.” An icy blue hand lowered to grab the teacup.
“The message has been given. That’s two pieces down, seven more to pull in.” The tea was brought to the smokey breath. The frozen drink tipped over and crunched in mighty jaws.
Crunching followed by a second voice from behind the white stallion’s frozen body. “Indeed, and once all the pieces are on the board, their light shall be consumed by our darkness.”
Little to no warning was given as the icy wind tore the warm evening air. It attacked the heat and shredded every piece and quickly swallowed it with no hesitation, leaving a blanket of graying darkness without end. Faint white crystals swept over every remaining warmth as they cowered in place.
The snowflakes fell over a small ancient village on the outskirts of the Unicorn Providence to the north. The village had been around for many centuries and was a border place long before the unicorns claimed this land. It had sturdy stone structures lining the center like a circle, an altar that had long lost its use when living sacrifices became less decent during the last two millennia. A tall clock tower stood behind it, it was relatively new compared to even the outer parts of the village. The outer parts of it were mostly wooden and more modern enough to differ from the stone structures, but old enough to have their age to them.
The snowflakes drifted back and forth to the sounds of blades clashing as they flew over the area in the westernmost part of the village. Finally, they landed around a brown spider as he watched a battle from atop a wooden warehouse. He shivered and knocked off the snow before crawling closer to get a better view. The two mares fought in a small pasture of uneven grass between the warehouse and the back of an old tavern.
On one side, a lavender alicorn mare with a purple eye and blue eyepatch was slightly covered by a spiked-up navy blue mane, who wore bits of unevenly sparse armor. The armor’s style was more like a knight. Under it, she wore a long sleeve light blue shirt and a purple skirt with a pair of light blue leggings and purple tall shoes with bits of armor on them. She wielded two kopises. The blades of the kopises were a bold blue, and the handles were purple.
On the other side was a light purple unicorn with light blue eyes and a long purple and turquoise mane, with the front part on one side. She wore a bit more even armor but still sparse. Her armor was more eastern-like in style. Under it, she wore a thin purple jacket and a teal long-sleeve shirt, and gray torn jeans with a pair of short purple steel-toe shoes. She wielded a single gentlemare's sword with a purple blade and a teal handle.
The unicorn struck from above. The alicorn swung her left kopis up to meet the attack, then went in for a stab with her other kopis. The unicorn jumped into the air and flipped over the alicorn. The alicorn tried to grab the unicorn with her wings, but the unicorn saw this and lit her horn up. This pushed the wings to the side, allowing the unicorn to land behind the alicorn.
As the unicorn landed, she crouched and quickly swung her leg around, knocking the alicorn off her feet. The unicorn followed this by jumping and spinning around to face her opponent as the alicorn did the same and aimed her gentleman sword at the alicorn’s throat.
She stopped her attack centimeters from the skin. The two looked at each other for a moment as the snow that had been kicked up from the grass by them settled to the ground. A momentary silence fell over both of them, as they didn’t move a muscle. It was so quiet that the only thing they could hear was the snow hitting the ground.
“Looks like I finally won. Huh, teacher,” the unicorn's boastfulness finally broke the silence.
“Not quite my young student.” The teacher’s single working eye looked down.
The student followed her and saw that both of the teacher’s kopises were in the perfect position to cut her in half. She frowned upon seeing this while sucking in her gut tightly.
Moments later, they retracted their weapons and began laughing. The brown spider wiped his head of sweat and knocked more snow around before leaving.
As they finished laughing, an old gold earth pony with apple red eyes and braided, slightly graying red mane in an old gray thick dress, white stockings, and old brown boots walked with her ivory cane swinging about as she carried something. “Twilight, Starlight enough for now. You two are too darn good at that fancy schmancy swordplay.”
Starlight and Twilight got up and dusted themselves off as they looked toward the old mare. “Hello Granny Apple,” they greeted her as she walked up to them.
“That should be enough training for today. We need to get the place ready before the evening rush arrives.” She handed Twilight a cloak.
Twilight unhooked her armor and pulled in her wings tightly. She took the cloak and wrapped it around her wings, tying a thin rope around her gut. Once she was finished, they walked into the tavern.
The two entered through the door and ducked their heads a little to not hit the stuffed deer's head above them. They set their armor aside in the backroom and then went to fix the place up.
The tavern was three stories of thick brown oak with a tough silver wolf’s head standing over the outside of the front door and a metal golden lion's head standing over the outside of the back door.
It was called the Wolf’s Apple and was a cider and eating stop for workers and travelers as they entered the Unicorn Providence. Ponies and other creatures would stop here for a drink and some food and despite the place being on the outskirts, it would occasionally get plenty of customers.
Starlight went into the kitchen to cook while Twilight took a wash rag in her magic and moved it across every table. Granny Apple walked over to a sink full of dishes. As they were working Twilight jumped at the sound of the bell ringing with the opening of the front door.
A tall light green young stallion with rusted silver eyes, a medium-length shining silver mane with a few cracked ends in a brown trench coat and red tunic with dark silver slacks and shined silver toe boots walked into the tavern carrying a newspaper. “Hey, mom I'm sorry for picking up the evening edition, but you have to see the crazy stuff happening in it.” He set aside his coat on the hanger.
Granny Apple walked up while wiping a cup in her hand, "Let me see Silver Pear.” She put the cup down and took the paper. “Hmm, our Princess Platinum is fighting with the alicorns again, wendigoes and changelings are on the rise and there has been another sighting of the mysterious faker prince. This isn’t crazy, this is the usual stuff.”
“No not that. Check the final page.” Silver Pear walked over and bowed to Twilight. Twilight rolled her eye at his gesture.
“Fine,” Granny Apple flipped and began reading. Quickly her left eyebrow raised. “Moving sculptures, that's impossible.”
“I know right?” Silver Pear laughed as he walked over into the kitchen. The kitchen was filled with an incredible aroma of boiled carrots and freshly chopped celery. He knew the smell well but he was after a more… plump prize. Getting as close to Starlight as before being noticed he reached out to grab...
"You know Twilight can't stand it when ponies bow to her." Starlight smiled and Silver Pear hesitated.
"What can I say? I love to knit pick, right, Lovely?" Silver Pear grinned bigger as he continued his advance.
She frowned in annoyance at the nickname he had for her. Yet before he could claim his prize, she shoved a spoonful of boiling liquid right into his mouth. “Flirt with me all you want. don't even think about grabbing my ass.”
Silver Pear fell backward in pain but kept his eyes on that rear of hers. He ran over and poured out some cold water into a cup and began gulping.
Once his tongue had cooled off, he walked back over slowly, humming with his eyes closed. “You could at least try to give this lone stallion some attention back.” His catch failed and he dropped to the ground. He opened his eyes and looked up in confusion, only to find that Starlight was gone.
He got up and looked around. She was nowhere in sight, but the stove fire had been put out. “She must have teleported away from me again. Will I ever get another chance to touch that soft...” He hummed with delight and turned to the food before sneaking another spoonful into his mouth, only for it to burn again.
******
As Twilight got done setting the tables, a noise by the counter perked her ears. She turned to see Starlight set up the drinks, “I thought you were handling cooking this evening.”
“Well, Teach, I got done and thought I would head out here to help you.”
Twilight smiled and walked over beside her to help. “You know, you can’t keep turning him down without a reason.”
“This coming from the mare who keeps turning down any stallion who makes a move on her. Besides, it’s not like I’m the only mare he flirts with?” Starlight waved the cup in her hand through the air in distress.
“Yes, but you are the only one who gives him plenty of fight?” Twilight laughed, “Stallions like him prefer a challenge.”
“Okay, then why doesn’t he go after you then?” Starlight glared at her.
Twilight laughed. “Oh yeah, right? You know very well I don’t fit his… taste.” She tossed her glare back at her.
Starlight dropped her bravado. “Fine, but then comes the next question?”
“And what is that?”
“We're from the future. What if he’s related to me?”
Twilight laughed even harder. “Oh, come on. You know the legends state that your relatives would have either dark or light magic in them. Silver Pear and Granny Apple don’t use either. That's why I knew we could trust them.”
“Hmm, I guess you're right.” Starlight placed down the empty cup.
“Besides Applejack and Pinkie Pie, once dated, and they are related.”
“What?!” Starlight dropped the cup.
“Well, it was only once. And truth be told, it was way before they found out they were related. Plus, the date didn’t go any further than the dinner table.”
Starlight grabbed a towel and cleaned up the mess she made. “Well, what happened?”
“Applejack broke it off when Pinkie Pie ordered a two-foot tall cake and three pies for them to eat. She simply could not afford such a dinner.”
“Maybe I should make Silver Pear pay for a two-foot tall cake and three pies as well,” Starlight snickered.
“Yeah…" Twilight's laughter simmered down, "Look there should be no problem with the relationship between distant family members as long as the line isn't direct.”
“Direct, hmm.” Starlight gave a clever grin. “Is that why you keep turning down every stallion?”
“Wait what?” Twilight’s face went red, and she dropped the stuff in her hand and jumped at her words.
“Oh, come on, I was there too when Realta told you that your previous incarnation’s father lived in this timeline.”
Twilight’s face now went a distinct pale. “No, no, no, it’s not like that at all. I know his name so all I have to do is stay away from anypony with that name.”
“To avoid time paradoxes, right?”
“Of course, a meeting or…” She gulped heavily, “a relationship with such a direct family member could remove me from existence.”
“Fine.” Starlight dropped her grin but laughed on the inside at the sight of her teacher’s face. “That still doesn’t answer why you won’t date stallions or even mares?”
“Wait a minute.” Twilight’s eye narrowed tightly, “When did this turn into an interrogation of me over you.”
Starlight gave a cheeky grin to her teacher. Eventually, though, Twilight dropped her look and busted into laughter as well. The student pursued her teacher’s example.
Outside, the snowflakes on the window loosened up. Out of the flurry flew a distinctly lone snowflake. This lone snowflake flew very separate from the others and even had a different color, a very unique red. It moved onto and above the road as a glowing hue covered it. Without warning, it flew upward into the sky.
******
The uniquely red snowflake tore through the winds and floated on higher into the sky as the Sun sat on the edge of the Cerberus Plains, a dark blue grassy patch of land that was covered in much smaller ruins. Ruins so old that they could barely be seen from that height. Wastelands of an ancient kingdom long forgotten.
The red snowflake drifted higher and through the upper atmosphere and into a far-off land away from the ruins and village. It passed over more villages that seem to pepper the plains with more ruins between them; a young world trying its best to prosper. Finally, it arrived outside of the Cerberus Plains and came upon a more rocky and volcanic environment.
The ice within the red snowflake got heavier as the heat rose from below. The red snowflake melted as it fell into a massive caldera. Deep within this rather stable caldera was a city, a city made of gemstones.
The city shined with hues of red and purple with patches of green and black. Fire sprayed over many openings along the buildings. Ponies with fiery manes walked through the flames with little care in the world. The still glowing now red raindrop fell through the sky, catching the attention of a few onlookers. They thought it was rather strange for a drop of rain to make its way in there. In this city, only more acidic liquids could survive.
They watched it as it floated across the winds until it finally landed on a castle of pure white gypsum with a massive immaculate colored window as well as several smaller windows that surrounded its tallest point. The colored window showed a black alicorn mare with massive wings and a purple mane flowing around her like fire.
The red raindrop acted strange as it sank into the wall of the castle. It crept through the microscopic cracks to find its way inside. Beyond the walls, t fell onto a fine, clean, plated floor in a splash. There it stayed still for a moment until…
A black high heel stepped down and barely missed it. The heel belonged to a fiery green stallion who wore very mare-like clothing. He walked around a beautiful rose-pink dining room with dark red fire-covered spikes peppering the walls and a stainless tungsten table in the center with a random amount of charcoal-colored chairs around it.
As he walked, he traced his hand over every chair until he found a mare and another stallion that was tied to chairs facing away from each other.
The tied-up mare was a seafoam green unicorn with light blue eyes and a short green mane in a brown hooded cloak with a light blue tunic and blue slacks over a pair of black old-fashioned overshoes.
The stallion was a grayish-brown batpony with bold green eyes and a spiky black mane in a white top hat and a reverse white and black ballroom suit with bright white dress shoes.
The seafoam green unicorn seemed rather annoyed as she scowled in all directions, while the batpony had an almost clueless look to him. The batpony looked a lot younger than the unicorn, she didn’t seem that old herself, late twenties, while he looked like he had gotten out of high school.
The fiery green stallion walked around them twice before stopping in front of the unicorn’s chair and grasping the end. He leaned over the unicorn’s body and sniffed her face, taking any scent of perfume with great taste. The seafoam green unicorn pulled away and twisted more in her bindings.
“Okay, this isn’t going according to plan,” the seafoam green unicorn leaned her head back to the grayish-brown batpony.
“Very true. But at least, we got a meeting with the legendary Annity Dutchess Claymore,” the grayish brown batpony spoke with a very french accent and played up his words to perfection.
Annity turned to the brown batpony while the seafoam-green unicorn’s eyes wandered across the walls. Annity reached around and pinched at the grayish-brown batpony’s cheek, making him pull away as it burned. “So this cutie knows who I am?”
“Of course... milady, who hasn’t heard of the famed queen of drugs hiding under the ifrit’s thumb. I feel sorry for you if you feel like that… the beautiful face should never be hidden.”
"Oh, don’t be too flattering." Annity pulled away from the grayish-brown batpony and leaned away from the seafoam-green unicorn. He pulled tightly at the mare’s mane, making her grit her teeth. "Unfortunately, the same can't be said about you." Annity smiled and pulled tighter as he drifted away from the chairs. “And who said I was hiding? The ifrits have long forgiven me and my curious ways. The best thing about my species is their longevity and their forgivingness.” Finally, he let go of the hair as the pain brought out a single tear from the mare’s eye. Annity pulled back his hand and let loose a wicked smile. “Give them enough time and they will forgive anything.”
The seafoam green unicorn pulled her face down as the tear dropped to the fine-plated floor. She hid her face with her mane as she looked around the room once more. She scanned until she saw the entirety; in particular the shadows, before finally looking back at her captor. The mare gave a teeth-gritting smile and spoke, “Even the fact that you are currently working for the deadly Indigo Fros--”
“Oh no, oh no, that be wrong little mare.” a crooked seeming repetitive voice interrupted the unicorn. Both the grayish brown batpony and seafoam green unicorn turned toward the voice and their eyes widened. “He is Lord Frost to you mortal ponies,” spoke a short black earth pony stallion covered in bleach white stitches with copper red eyes and bright blue clown-like mane in a black clown costume with green buttons, blue frills, and big blue shoes. He rode over to them on an almost demonic-looking black and silver unicycle.
The seafoam green unicorn’s face fell, and her eyes went back to work. Meanwhile, the grayish-brown batpony spoke up as he turned his face sideways. “Seriously, now we meet the disgusting Carnival Carnage.”
“Complements, compliments for the drag queen, but none for me.” He snickered, “You will call me Carny. And who are you two?” Carnival rode over in front of them and looked them over extremely closely, more so than Annity had already. He was so close that they could smell the bad breath.
“Mon Grand Etalon, batpony Frenchman,” Mon tried giving his best bow while tied up.
Carnival seemed to ignore him and raised his hand to the seafoam green unicorn’s face. He pulled her to face him as he moved in so close that their faces were almost touching. He smiled so largely that his large, very unkempt dark green teeth and blackish rotting gums could be seen as clear as day. “And what is your name, beautiful?”
The seafoam green unicorn veered back as best as she could until she saw something sparkle in a shadow on the other side of the room. She let a smile slip out as she spoke, “Who am I? I’m going to be your worst nightmare if you don’t back off.”
“Oh wow, oh wow. Was that a threat?”
“No, it was more of a demand.” On that, the seafoam green unicorn smashed her head into his. Using the force of pushback, she knocked the chairs sideways toward the ground.
Suddenly, silver chains flowed out of the shadows and flew across the room. Annity jumped over the chains, while Carnival, being too slow, was wrapped up and tossed to the wall.
“What is this? What is this?” Carnival struggled.
The seafoam green unicorn smiled as a pair of charcoal-colored hands reached out of the shadows around her and Mon. The hands undid the binds and vanished back into the shadows. The two got up and turned their attention to Annity. “Our backup got here, so there's no escape.”
Annity smiled, “What backup? You are a unicorn. Do you think this is my first time dealing with a telekinetic?”
“Really? But Clover is terrible at telekinetic magic,” spoke a voice from nowhere.
Annity spun around. “Who are you? Where are you?”
“Who am I? That is a good question,” the voice continued as every shadow in the room moved on its own. The shadows swarmed to a center point. All the shadows collided, and every light source in the room went out.
Chains shot out of the center point and anchored themselves around everything and a shadowy figure grew out from the center as all the light source returned and the chains unanchored and flew around him.
Annity and Carnival came to attention at the sight of a tall thin charcoal stallion covered in many blue Arabian-style cloths and scarves wrapped around his upper body, broad shoulders and arms, and around his neck and forehead. His face, short unkempt navy blue mane, and the abs along his thin belly were the only things exposed. Below he wore wide, long white trousers with the bottoms tucked in his black stringless shoes, along with many silver chains wrapped around his complete form, especially over his arms.
Annity’s face was covered with sweat as he backed away from the charcoal stallion. “It can’t be Rex Moba, the alicorn's warlock knight!” He raised his hands upward and flames shot up from the ground around Rex and engulfed him.
The fire spun around like a tornado as it reached the very top of the ceiling. Annity smiled as things around the tornado melted from the heat. After several moments, the tornado depressurized; revealing a ball of silver chains over the spot where Rex stood. The chains pulled away to show Rex still standing unharmed.
Annity’s eyes lay wide open as he backtracked even more. He looked around in all directions. His eyes loosened their wideness as they spotted a vent. He smiled at Carnival and jumped far back, “Sorry, Carny, alicorn is far less forgiving than ifrit.” Fire shot out of his back like wings and he took to the ceiling. He looked toward the opening of the vent and flew over to it.
Rex shot a few of his chains at him, but he escaped. He gritted his teeth and turned back to Clover and Mon. “Mon, Clover, she got aw--”
“You're late!!” Clover slapped Rex across the face. “You realize that Carnival could have easily raped me while you were taking your sweet time getting here.”
Rex pulled his face forward as he retracted his stance. “Well, I’m sorry. Do you realize how hard it was to place all of those shadows in such a fiery place?”
“And why would you need to place so many?” Clover took a step forward.
“Fear is an excellent tactic in battle. Now that drag queen is running scared.” Rex leaned in.
“So you willingly let him escape, huh?” Clover smirked at him as he retracted again.
“What…. I mean… Fine, I guess I could have moved faster.” Rex raised his hand to his face and leaned his head into it. “I’m sorry.”
This time Clover’s face retracted and her mane fell over her eyes, “Be better next time.”
“Are you two done with your banter yet?” Chuckles from Mon broke their thoughts.
Mon held his hands up to the dark glare, moving them back and forth as he backtracked and turned toward where Carnival was being held. Mon's eyes widened, “Lady… Sir?”
“What?” they both answered in unison. Their eyes widened too at what they saw. While the lower half of Carnival was still chained up, the upper half was flat-out gone.
Clover walked over to the chains, “How the fuck did he do that?” She punched the body. It fell from the chains, yet no blood flowed forth. “The body is an empty shell. There aren’t even organs in this.”
Rex frowned as he pulled back his chains. “The reports don’t mention Carnival as any form of undead.” He raised his hand into the air as a shadow stretched out to Clover and Mon. “He may simply have all his important organs stuffed into a certain part of the body while leaving the rest of him hollow.” His eyes glowed and weapons floated out of the shadows by Clover and Mon. Clover took hold of her bow staff, while Mon took up his cutlass.
Clover gripped her staff tightly. “Well, with his legs here, he couldn't get that far. We can handle it from here. How about you capture the one you let escape?”
Rex gave a begrudging grin. “Okay, remember we need them alive.”
“Said the stallion who killed our last target,” Mon chimed in.
“Fine.” On that, Rex fell into his own shadow and vanished.
******
Annity flew through the vents until he found her way outside. Feeling the warm winds on his back, he smiled. It quickly faded as he felt the frigid grip on the chains ripping him straight down. He winced in pain from the hard thud as he rolled across the roof of the highest part of the castle. Pulling himself free of the chains, he stopped his rolling and jumped to his feet. Swinging back and forth, looking for the source of the chains, he found nothing but an empty void.
“Where are you--” Pain under his chin stopped his words as he was tossed upward by a fist while Rex landed beyond him.
Rex raised his arms outward and his chains pulled back around his arms. Once the chains were back in place, he folded his arms over and slowly walked to Annity. “I suggest you give up. We want your leader, but the Order of One would want to meet you and your sister.”
Annity frowned at the idea. “I see that you have done your homework. Vanity and I left that life behind long ago when I found being a drug lord paid so much better. Besides, it's not wise to turn against Indigo Frost.” He threw his hands outward and flame whips shot out from them.
"Really? Is he that terrifying?"
"He's a monster with no bounds or chains to hold him down." Annity charged at him with a few swings, only for Rex to spin in the air, and slide between them. “He would sooner feast on my liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.”
“Fine, have it your way.” Rex landed and shot his chains outward and wrapped them tightly around Annity’s arms, making the flame whips go out. He pulled on the chains, knocking him down where his face hit the ground.
Annity ignored the blood pouring over his face and stood back up, laughing. “We have been talking about my past and what I is, but what about you? Some call you the last kind of shadow, while others call you a murderous shade. So which is the real?”
Rex's face fell, “It’s a little of both.”
Annity glared with a smile and heated the chains wrapped around his arms. Once the heat became too much to bare even for an ifrit, he charged right at him. Rex gave no reaction to his chains melting away. However, he did duck under Annity’s attack and threw him over his shoulder.
The ifrit clawed at Rex’s head as he flew over, yet still no reaction. He gritted his teeth on landing upon the other edge of the roof. The movement knocked over a small rock. Bouncing off the edge of the roof and then off the edges of the colored window below and falling toward the ground, shattering like glass.
Annity pushed himself up but constantly lost balance. “What's happening? You barely threw me?”
“Fear, that's what happened.” Rex pointed toward Annity’s shaking legs. “While you thought you could scare me with the mentioning of my past, I was setting my strings tightly over your legs.” His hands raised and the dimming sunlight shined over every string that stretched from his shadow to Annity’s legs.
Annity’s eyes widened at the numbness of his legs. He tried to straighten his footing, but his legs continued to fall out from under him. “But how? I thought your only weapon was...”
“You thought wrong.” Rex charged right at him.
Annity fought through the pain enough to throw some more flames. Unfortunately, these were much smaller. Rex went through the flames over the building’s edge. As he fell, he pulled on the strings tied to Annity’s legs.
The ifrit gritted in pain as he shot flames over his legs and burned off the strings. Rex felt the gripping of his strings vanish and he continued to fall.
Annity turned around and blew a fiery kiss at Rex as he watched him. “Bye, bye--” He stopped at the bold smile on Rex’s face.
Waiting until the very last second, Rex then shot chains off his arms at high speed. The chains shot straight upward and stabbed right through Annity’s shoulders. The ifrit coughed hard as they dug through and tied around his back.
Rex used the leverage to land softly on the ground. Once on the ground, he yanked hard. Annity screamed had held himself into place.
Annity gritted his teeth and filled his hands with fire. He placed them over the wounds; burning them shut. Afterward, he moved his hands over the chains, grasping. He smiled as the feeling in his legs returned.
“My turn.” Annity pulled at the chains and ran in the other direction. Rex’s eyes swelled as he felt the ifrit yank him back up.
Unfortunately, Annity was so distracted, and his legs were more damaged than he realized. He didn’t see or even feel which direction he was even going, as before he could even stop himself, he toppled over to the other side.
As Rex landed on the roof, Annity swung through a small window into the floor below as the chains ripped out of his shoulders. The ifrit finally realized what was going on and tried to stabilize his flying. He ended up crashing through another window, this time, the giant one with the alicorn on it. Rex jumped around and reached outward to grab Annity with his chains.
Annity knocked them away, still not fully seeing where he was still flying to. The ifrit winced when his back hit the wall of another building, knocking his flaming wings out. Unable to control his flying, he fell right downward, smacking right into the ground.
Rex pulled back and raised his hand to his face. He retracted it as he felt that the wrapping around his head was gone. He quickly looked around but stopped as he heard ifrits, down below, walking around and shouting. He turned back around gritted, seeing other witnesses around the crash.
The ifrits walked around, looking over Annity's mangled body. All of them whispered back and forth to each other the closer they got. A large one in what seemed to be a police uniform walked over to Annity. He placed his hand over the neck before pulling it away with a clenched fist. “Who did this?”
“Up there.” One of the ifrits pointed. “He did it.”
The large one looked up at Rex, and his eyes widened. “A glowing curved horn?” His hand raised and pointed to the blue horn on Rex’s head that had been hidden under the cloth. “He’s an umbrum. He’s a murderous shade.”
Rex pulled back upon the large one's words. He looked to the other ifrits as anger grew in their eyes. His face could only flinch erratically at them before pulling back completely and turning away. He stepped off the edge and walked faster than his feet could take him. He stopped as he saw Clover holding the cloth that was usually used to hide his horn. Her face was lowered.
She handed it to him with a sad smile, “You dropped this.”
He wrapped it back over his head. “Thank you.” He tied the knot up tight. “We need to go. Where is Carnival?”
“We didn’t find him. But we found something worse.” She turned around to lead him when she was stopped by something that hit her nose.
“What's wrong?” he questioned.
“I don’t know.” She raised her hand to her nose. “Did I feel… rain?”
“Impossible. This city is built inside a caldera. Maybe it was ashes.” He walked over in front of her and scanned her. His eyes stopped on her face and on an ice droplet that tipped her nose. “Wait, that isn't rain… that’s--”
He was cut off as they both saw a snowflake fall between them and hit the ground before evaporating in the heat of the city. Rex quickly viewed the sky and his eyes stretched upon seeing several snowflakes falling over the fiery city.
“Snow and cold shall always follow in his wake. Be warned, for the first sign of him is a snowflake.”
Rex backed away from the edge slowly. His face was pale as could be. Clover grabbed his hand, but she winced as it was ice cold. “What is it? What is causing this?”
Rex gripped her hand tightly as he tried to pull the cold away. “It’s as the legend says… He’s here.” The two ran out of there as fast as they could.
******
Down below in the room, the red raindrop glowed even brighter. Eventually, the echoes of footsteps filled the room. Voices barked back and forth, followed by the sounds of an opening. The red raindrop jolted and twisted, rising into the air. The raindrop got colder and colder until it returned to its red snowflake form while flying.
Soon it flew past a charcoal arm and into a brand-new pathway. The arm vanished from sight and a wall replaced it. A jolt of wind hit the red snowflake again, knocking it to the ground. There it lay for several seconds until it changed shape.
Evening’s light tore over the Wolf's Apple, followed by a rush of ponies going through the doors. Starlight twisted back and forth through the crowding ponies, passing out trays. Her eyes wandered through the sweat, in search of Twilight. She frowned at her teacher having way less trouble navigating, especially since Twilight was reading a book at the same time. "How does she do that with no depth perception?" She caught her words before nearly slipping over a few more drunk ponies and landed her last tray on a table covered in several empty glasses. She took a breath, “Damn vultures.” Brushing the sweat off her forehead, she grabbed the two glasses off her tray, “Here you go Rainbow Dartz."
"Thanks, Starlight," the rainbow-colored mane dark blue pegasus stallion quickly grabbed the first glass and rushed it to his face.
Starlight rolled her eyes as he finished the first one quickly. “I knew I should have brought just one over.”
“Don’t be like that. I hold my liquor a lot better than these drunks can.” He leaned back and forth, twirling his light blue toga in his seat.
“Let’s hope so, or I may have to call Red Steel on you.” Starlight grabbed the empty glasses and placed them on her free tray and walked away from the table, only to be nearly knocked over by a green flash of movement. Luckily, she jumped out of the way of the green blur as it passed by. However, her actions threw the glasses on her tray into the air. As her eyes filled with shock, the green blur flew by, grabbed all the glasses, and placed them all back on the tray.
"Oh, I’m so so sorry, Starlight. I need to pay attention to where I am going or I may cause the accidental death of more unfortunate glasses. Anyway, I want one cider and three hotdogs. No, wait, make that three hotdogs and two ciders. No, wait, one hotdog and one cider. No, wait, one cider, an apple, and two hotdogs," spoke a voice from nowhere as the green blur vanished from sight.
Starlight puffed some air to knock her mane out of her eyes as they had followed the green blur across the place. “No problem, Hermes.”
The bell above the door rang again, catching Starlight's attention. Starlight held out a pretty smile to hide the returning sweat on her forehead from the sight of more creatures entering. Backtracking, she made her way to the kitchen. Her smile instantly turned into a frown upon the sight of Silver Pear cooking.
She turned to Granny Apple and handed her the glasses before turning back to Silver Pear and huffing loudly, "Why am I out there?" Silver Pear's reaction was to turn and hum at her annoyance. She quickly dropped her huffs and walked over to the counter.
"What's wrong? You can be so lovely--" Silver Pear was stopped as she stuffed a pork whiney into his mouth, to which he spat out in disgust. "Besides, Twilight is out there with you."
"Yeah, but I was supposed to be cooking today. Stress is not my friend, despite what that teacher of mine thinks."
"Hey, you left your post to dodge me, so I had to take over."
"Fine." Starlight finished making Hermes' order. "Make some food for Rainbow Dartz. I think he is going to drink himself under… again."
"Sure," Suddenly he stopped and turned toward her, "Oh if you're going back out there, Red Steel's food is done and so is Lighttone's." He handed her two other trays. One was a small meal, and the other was enormous.
“No problem,” Starlight sighed and grabbed them in her magic, walking to the door. She looked back at Silver Pear and saw him giving her a thumbs up. “Look, I’m sorry for my attitude. I had everything planned for the next few days.”
“Next few days!” Silver Pear jumped. “Don’t worry. I'll have everything ready instead.”
“What?! I was supposed to arrange everything.” Starlight leisurely walked back over. She placed her arm beyond his back, making him blush.
“Don’t worry, I can handle it. Besides, you are better at distracting that teacher of yours than I am.” He leaned into Starlight's sultry.
Instantly, she teleported back to the door. “Nice try, but I’m annoyed, there is a difference.”
“You are a mean one, Lovely.” He waved his spoon at her.
A thin red hue flashed on her face at his words, “Enough with that nickname, we have work to do.”
Starlight turned back toward the door and walked out. She scanned around for only a moment and spotted the one she was after. Walking over to a table and put down two trays. "Here you are Hermes and Red Steel."
The tall wall of muscle steel-colored buffalo bull with red horns dusted off his native-style clothes and turned to the food and gave little if any look to the dry grass sandwich. He picked up the meal and took a few bites before finally giving a tentative nod.
“Still no words today huh, Red Steel.” Starlight smiled and tried to keep one eye on Twilight. The buffalo lifted one of his eyebrows and went back to eating. However, he stopped as one of his ears lifted. He scooted away from Starlight, leaving her confused until she heard what he was hearing as clear as day.
Jumping back, Starlight barely dodged a green blur running past her and stopping mere centimeters from the table.
A white and green griffon in nothing but a speedo and biker gear appeared from the green blur as it vanished. He looked left and right before sitting down. "Oh, this is a perfect spot for me. the right temperature and humidity and placement. Plus, the chairs are at the perfect height here. Tell me, Starlight, how did you know I would choose the exact spot in space and time for my spot? Temperature, humidity, or placement?"
Starlight’s eye twitched, and a crooked smile formed. However, all that vanished upon seeing Hermes’ kind eyes. Starlight took a breath and calmed herself into a proper smile. "But of course, how could I forget? You… you always sit here."
"Really? Are you a future seer? A time traveler? Or maybe you are a chupacabra?"
"A chupac—what now?" Starlight veered her head back as confusion poured over her and then looked toward Red Steel. Unfortunately, he was even more confused by Hermes's words. He knew exactly what to do as he placed his hand on Hermes's shoulder. Hermes looked at Red Steel and began talking about a storm to him instead.
Starlight gave a sigh of relief and silently spoke a thank you as she walked off. “He can handle him fine. Besides, Hermes speaks more than enough for both of them."
She looked at her final tray and leaned her nose upward. Soon she caught the smell of cigar smoke and crude mechanical oil. She followed it to the end of the bar, knowing very well who the smell belonged to.
"There you are, Lighttone." She walked over to a table and placed down the large tray in front of a gray lion with yellow eyes and light purple and dark green mane that was too long under a navy blue cowboy hat with oversized steampunk clothing in the merit of random colors that seemed to blend in quite despite the strangely large amount.
With his metal hand, he took hold of the balloon-looking meal, taking a big whiff. “Medium rare giraffe liver stuffed with goat meat seasoned with bacon and garlic. Smells as good as always.” He smiled with his fearsome jaws before taking a bite.
Starlight tried her best not to pull back in revulsion as she saw every piece shredded in his mighty jaws. Once the meat went down his throat, she let go of the breath she had been holding the entire time. Lighttone gave a thumbs up and she turned away.
She was about to walk away when he spoke up. "Chupacabra? I haven't heard the word since the Chimichanga Inquisition, nearly three thousand and ten years ago, last month. Funny enough, their meat has a much stronger goat taste than this, this wasn't at all a surprise considering what they ate."
"What?" Starlight turned around upon his word as he continued to talk. She looked around and noticed Twilight was handling things fine as the crowds were growing down. She walked back and sat down as she knew a story was coming up. "Tell me more."
“Okay, but first, what is this little thing you are in such a rush for?”
Starlight raised her eyebrow at that comment. “Really? Did you forget what happened two years ago, a few days from now?” Her face fell back at his lost reaction. “Seriously, how do you remember these old stories yet don’t remember the here and now?” She turned away from him, more annoyed.
“Maybe I don’t need to remember when you two are here to remind me.”
Starlight’s eyes widened at those words as she turned back around. “You sneaky ass. You remember?”
“I didn’t lie, you assumed.” Lighttone raised the meat to his mouth and took another bite.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Starlight’s face fell.
Lighttone placed down his meat and watched Starlight's sad face. “Maybe it’s more of you blaming yourself for what happened to Twilight rather than being in a rush.”
“I don’t know, maybe I'm worried about my teacher's attitude toward the event more than anything,” Starlight’s face raised, and her eyes fell upon Twilight, in particular, Twilight's eyepatch.
“Don’t worry, I know she will like what you have planned.” Lighttone placed his metal hand on Starlight’s shoulder.
Starlight smiled at the icy touch. “Thanks, you old cook.” She turned and hugged him. Suddenly, the sound of glass smashing broke the hug.
“Starlight, clean up,” spoke Granny Apple.
“Sorry,” apologized Hermes.
Starlight stood back up and grabbed her face to cover the grin. “I got to go.” She walked away from the table. “Oh, I want to hear more about that story later.”
“Don’t worry, you will. I've got all the time in the world for stories.” He leaned back and popped his neck. He looked around for quiet noise as the crowds thinned to their weakest point. He laughed and turned back to Starlight as she cleaned up the mess on the other side of the tavern. "Hmm, she is a good friend. And she has good friends around her," He noted the embarrassment on Hermes' face.
He looked down at his meal and rubbed at his stomach. “I’ll get another bite in a second.” He picked up his cigar and took another puff and turned toward the window. He watched the snowfall on the other side of it. “You know, I haven’t seen snow like this since...” He turned once he remembered nopony was there to hear his words. He exhaled heavily and continued with his words, “Not since an old friend was still alive.”
******
Miles away, in the far-off land of the ifrits, the same snow fell in quick succession. It gobbled up every flame with no hesitation, moving more like a swarm rather than a storm. Ifrits ran around filled with either fear for the snow around them or rage toward the murder in the castle.
“Is it snowing? How?” Mon questioned. He placed his hand on the window. Pain tore through and he pulled back. “What?” He looked to see ice particles forming on the tips of his hand. “Impossible. It can’t be that cold here.”
His ears lifted at the sounds of footsteps. They increased in sound the closer he got to the door. He tightened his grip on his cutlass. The door flew open, and he loosened at the sight of Rex and Clover.
“We have to be ready when he gets in. What is it you wanted to show me?” Rex questioned.
“This way.” Clover held her hand out to one wall as Mon walked over to it. Rex raised an eyebrow as he walked over. However, as he got close, it quickly became apparent that this wall differed from the other walls, as this one had the faint image of a symbol of a goat's head.
The three stopped at the wall. Rex lifted his hand. The symbol became more visible the closer he brought his hand to it. "It’s one of his symbols." He took a breath and placed his hand on it. He felt something burn on his upper sternum and the wall vanished. It revealed a new room. The room’s walls and floors were covered in gray glass, and there was a purple agate stone in the center of the room, standing on a pedestal.
“Like I thought. A dark magic wall.” Clover pulled Rex’s hand away as the wall reappeared. The burning on Rex’s upper sternum vanished with the new room. “Annity and Carnival must have been hiding out in this castle trying to figure out how to break into this room.”
Rex placed his hand back on the wall as it vanished again. "I'll have to hold open the path then."
Clover placed her hand on Rex's chest, right on the spot of the burning, and felt the metal object hidden under the cloth. “Are you sure he will care enough to hear you this time?”
“Let's hope so,” Rex tried to assure them. “Get inside. We need to confirm the alicorn’s intel.”
Clover slowly retracted her hand and turned toward the opening. “Okay, come on Mon.”
The closer they got, the colder the room seemed to get. It was strange; the cold was not like the cold of the snow, but more like the cold of… darkness. Clover reached out her hand as they got halfway. “Hold here, there might be a trap.”
“Okay.” Mon held up his cutlass.
Clover swallowed her breath and crept closer. At a certain range, there was an inscription on the pedestal. “Here lies the faith of Cassandra. She puts her trust in the fires to protect this stone. May her waves not be forgotten.” She smiled rather forwardly. “Goldy was right, it is one of the Alathar.”
Suddenly the purple agate glowed brightly at the word Alathar. A female voice spoke, “The one without fear, step forward.”
“You two might want to hurry.” Rex felt an uneasiness pour over him. Behind him, something moved.
“Okay.” Clover took a deep breath to calm herself. “No fear, huh? Luckily, I’m always around Rex.” She reached over slowly and pulled the stone free from the pedestal. “Okay, I have it.”
“Good --”
Instantly, Rex was stopped as a black metal pipe hit him right in the sternum. The force of the attack knocked him far from the wall. The wall slowly appeared as the glowing red snowflake barely made its way into the secret room.
Rex crashed into another wall and coughed hard. “Damn it, that hurt.”
“Did it? Did it? Had you been any other creature, I guarantee it would have killed you.” Carnival rode over as he swung the pipe left and right. “I am superb at anatomy.”
“Well, hello again. Want so badly to join your friend? And what do you mean by anatomy--” Rex tried to get up, but he found his arms had no strength. “What?”
“Our Lord Frost, oh our Great Lord Frost. As reasonless as he may seem to some, he chose each of his followers for a purpose.” Carnival stopped right in front of Rex. “Outside of my priestly duties is my knowledge in anatomy, particularly bone structure. I may not have killed you, but I had stunted the connection between your shoulders and your brain.” He raised his pipe above Rex. “They will be out for a few hours.” He dropped the pipe hard on Rex’s back.
"Damn it, the reports--" Rex’s body wracked in pain as his teeth gritted. As another hit went down, Rex peeked over his arms. He smiled at the sight of the twitching fingers. "The former circus runner who spends his free time--"
“Preaching beating and raping, raping, beating and preaching. Yes, yes, I may not be the purest priest out there, but mostly because of the god I follow." Carnival dropped the pipe down harder. “You are stubborn.” He lifted his pipe high. “I guess that makes sense. I’ve beaten nearly every species with my words, my pipe, and even my rod, but you are my first umbrum.”
Seeing his chance, Rex flipped his fingers upward and looped what remained of his strings over the unicycle. “I hope you satisfied yourself enough?” Pulling, he ripped the unicycle out from under Carnival.
“Ouch, Ouch.” Carnival rolled across the ground. As soon as he fell over a shadow, Rex’s eyes glowed. Chains shot out of the shadow and stabbed Carnival's arm into another wall.
“Good, now to Clover and Mon,” Rex glanced at the dark magic wall and pulled out chains around it. The chains swung around and held together like a hand. “You will not like this move at all.” He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth while shooting dark magic through the chains. The dark magic hit the wall, and the opening reappeared. “You two better move. I don't know how long I can make him hold this.”
There was no answer. It was deathly quiet. Not a single sound came out of the room. Rex’s eyes widened through his sweat and his fingers forced themselves into a fist. “Answer me, you two. Can you hear me?”
“Oh, they can hear you fine, well to be more accurate, one of them still can. The other I'm not so sure about.”
Rex’s face went completely pale at that voice. A voice so smooth and calm, almost sincere in a tone that couldn't belong to either of them. "There was nopony else in the room, nothing else… but the... but the snowflake." Rex’s breath dropped as sweat dripped from his cheeks straight to the ground, splashing and quickly evaporating on impact. “Indigo… Frost.”
“That is truly better. I am glad that I haven’t been forgotten in all these wonderful years.”
“You can shape-shift into snowflakes.”
“Oh, not quite, but you are on a certain track. I expect that much cleverness from another like myself. the same couldn’t be said for your allies.”
Rex’s muscles tensed, and he tried to pick himself up again. He was a few feet from the opening. But in his position, the opening might as well have been miles away. “Clover? Mon?”
“Do you doubt me? One is perfectly fine. The mistress has not a single wound on her. Unfortunately, this powerful stallion is not,” Indigo Frost pushed the tips of his claws deeper into Mon’s back. Ice from the tips was digging even deeper into Mon’s flesh.
Clover kept her eyes tightly on the icy blue figure hiding behind Mon. She couldn't see a face or a body, for they were hidden behind a cobalt cloak covered in stitches and a deer skull mask. All that she could discern was his height that dwarfed Mon and herself and the distinct, seemingly endless cold air that flowed out from him. All she could do was hold tightly onto the stone and try to think of a way to pull Mon free from the icy grip.
“Now don’t get any quizzical ideas, little filly?” Indigo Frost reached out of his stitched-covered cobalt cloak with his other hand. This hand's strange pale white color seemed to clash with the icy blue fur of his other arm. “All I want is the Alathar, nothing more. It means... so much to me. Give me the gem, and I will give this sweet and kind colt a merciful death.”
“No…” Mon barely rasped with an icy breath “I... already down.”
“No,” Clover pleaded, “What about Fredricson?”
“Don’t worry, that old horse... can keep going... without me.” Mon attempted to smile, despite tears falling from his face. Each tear turned to ice as they fell to the ground, shattering on impact. His complexion was getting paler by the second.
Clover’s eyes fell. She looked away from them as thoughts of escaping filled her head. The room quickly filled with an icy silence before Clover’s eyes finally went back up. She looked on Mon. His face was now completely pale white, and his movement was very slow, yet it looked like he was looking at something. Following his eyes downward, she saw his shadow.
Her eyes loosened, “Fine, you win.” She lifted her hand and threw the gem toward them.
Indigo Frost reached out, however, chains shot out of the shadow and grabbed it first. Seeing the shine of the purple agate vanish, his eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped, “Do you even know what those precious objects are?”
“So... You are after the… rest as well? Huh?” Mon let loose a chuckle as his arms fell and the rest of his body stiffened.
Clover’s eyes went wide, and she jumped forward without thinking, wanting to grab Mon away from Indigo Frost. Without warning, ice shot out of the ground, blocking her.
“Poor little filly, so far, yet so close. Did you think I would be that distracted?” Indigo Frost snapped his fingers, and the ice became translucent. His eyes narrowed and his mask-covered face leaned over Mon's shoulder. "But it seems you were too slow, anyway."
Both Rex’s and Clover’s eyes widened at those words. A toothy smile tore through Indigo Frost's mask as his sight wandered over to the eyes of Mon. Small ice sheets tore through the irises. The flesh of the eyes fell to the ground and shattered into gooey pieces. Mon's body stopped completely. With a twist of Indigo Frost's hand, a loud cracking filled the air
Clover's jaw slowly dropped as Mon's flesh sagged and waned. Rickles formed over every part until, ultimately, the flesh fell off like a glove. All that remained was the muscle and skeletal structure covered completely in ice and a massive crack that flowed from one side back to Indigo Frost's hand as he pushed deeper and deeper.
"Oh, you didn't realize that I had been filling his insides with an endless cold?" Indigo Frost turned to Rex. "Did you hear that? I gave the most useful hint to how my incredible powers work." He returned his sight to Clover and basked in her fear. He opened his jaw wide and let his fangs hang outward. Dropping, he dug his teeth deep into the collar of Mon. The massive crack boomed loudly once more, followed by small cracks webbing out from it and the area around the spot he was biting down on. Meanwhile, the spot itself was filled with a dark color. Indigo Frost stabbed his tongue through the spot and lapped up every inky and viscous drop of the slush as it rivered into his mouth. Once he had his fill of the blood slushy, he pulled back his tongue and bit down, completely ripping the spot out of place.
The mini cracks spread faster and faster as the whole body eventually fell to pieces. Each chunk fell into the shadow, only leaving the heart behind safely in the very icy blue claw that had been ripping through the back the whole time. The heart stayed completely warm despite the remaining icy chunks that lay around its holder.
Indigo Frost's ears lifted at the sounds of more shattering coming from the shadow where the other pieces of frozen muscles and bones had fallen into, “Oh, it's a two-way path, isn't it?” He lifted his foot and stomped on the shadow loudly, and nothing happened. He turned back to Rex. “That’s not playing fair at all. Please be more considerate to your allies next time.” Indigo Frost returned his sight one last time to Clover and dropped to pick up the flesh of Mon, keeping his sapphire eyes on her the whole time even while rising back up to toss the flesh over his shoulder. "I guess I'll take this lovely fine pelt as compensation. Meanwhile..."
The ice wall dropped as he walked toward Clover. With the wall gone, he could see the fear so much more clearly. It continued to grow greater on her face with each step. He took each step ever so slowly to savor the sight as long as possible. “Don't worry, these things won't go to waste. I'm sure his flesh will make a fine blanket or even a luscious coat, a gift to my faithful followers. As for Mon's heart, that will provide so much more usefulness.” He stopped mere inches from her. Clover was too frozen in fear to even look at him directly. It was as if she hadn't moved at all. Indigo Frost dropped to her height and placed the heart right against her cheek, next to her nose. "Don't disturb. Take a whiff with your nose, you can perfectly smell every ounce of power within the lovely organ."
When still no reaction was given, Indigo Frost frowned and jumped back. "How unfortunate? I thought whore like you were worthy enough to stand by his side. You are just a worthless mistress with no right to stand in her place."
Back in the main room, thousands of white snowflakes tore through the small windows and swarmed around. After a moment, they flew over to the opening and entered the smaller room. The snowflakes swarmed around Indigo Frost as his body glowed a certain prominent red hue that couldn't be identified right away. As they got faster and faster, he slowly faded among them. The swarm quickly left the small room with the heart and flesh in tow.
The white snowflakes stopped in front of Rex as he looked up at them with anger. "Where are you?" Rex questioned until he spotted red snowflakes among the swarm. "I... see. You don't shape-shift at all." Rex's voice dropped drastically as the pain got worse.
"Please be as careful as possible. You don’t want to use all of his dark magic up," Indigo Frost's voice vibrated from the red snowflakes alone. "Since you removed the Wave of Nightmare, I have no reason to be here. I will take these and go look for the next Alathar. Despite our failure, let us leave with dignity, my faithful priest."
On that, Carnival pulled at some strings on his arm. His arm fell apart, allowing him to escape Rex's chains. He walked over to the red snowflakes and he restitched his arm back together. Carnival stopped before entering as his eyes widened.
“How?” Carnival questioned as he pointed to Rex's moving body as it trembled up into a standing position. "You shouldn't be able to move for several hours?"
“Don’t be too alarmed. There is something you missed while attacking him.” Some red snowflakes flew toward Rex, hitting around his sternum, which was now glowing maroon red. A chuckle spouted from the red snowflakes. “I see your amulet is as powerful as before.”
Knocking the scarf away revealed an amulet with a metal alicorn head with a knife-like horn and huge wings that spread around the shoulders. A single gem in the center that shined maroon light outward. The entire amulet itself seemed embedded in the flash.
The red snowflakes concentrated in certain areas of the swarm to form eyes and a smile, “Look, my most loyal priest, say hello to one of the three sister alicorn amulets, otherwise known as the Dark Alicorn Amulet.” The makeshift face tilted sideways.
"But how is he standing?"
"Because each of the three sisters is referring to the three forms. Mind, Body, and Soul."
"I... see you know your knowledge." Rex held up his hand. The flesh almost seemed split, yet not. "Priest, this amulet refers to the body and gives me the flesh of a hydra. You could call it a blessing from a true god."
Indigo Frost laughed uncontrollably, "You also have the weaknesses of a hydra, too. Oh Rex, how deceitful of you. Here I am giving you a hint of my power and you throw in red herring to yours. Calling it a refined blessing when you above all world would rather call it the worst possible curse. Besides, providing hydra skin isn't the only thing it does." On that, the red snowflakes grabbed Carnival and flew out the window.
Once they left, the room went incredibly quiet. The fires returned to their full strength, bringing back the much-needed warmth. Rex smiled before his body fell to the ground. He frowned at his body, fighting him back so quickly. "Damn it! I force the regeneration too fast." He found better mobility in his hands and the lower parts of his arms. “Darn you, cursed amulet, when will you ever give me a warning next time you give out?” Slamming his hand on the ground to the best of his abilities to show anger. "It didn't matter in the end, he perfectly saw through my actions and my words. You are far from ever useful. Especially since you are the only one keeping me alive."
The glow dimmed rhythmically. Rex kept his eyes on the light and nodded his head at it. "I know, but the bluff was needed to get the answers. "
He glanced at the opening of the other wall as his chains shook and slowly faltered in place. "Now about saving Clover.” His breathing decreased as the magic waited.
The glow dimmed rhythmically, this time more erratically.
"What are you saying? Of course, she is useful to us, at least far more than you are, anyway." Rex stopped, and the erratic glowing as it slowly faded away. “Hey, Clover, I can't hold it any longer. Get moving..." She didn’t answer. She was still in shock at what happened. Rex turned his sight to the hallway as the sounds of footsteps echoed through them in quick succession. "Damn it, those ifrits are still mad. So much for the forgiving types."
Suddenly, his chains fell, and the wall reappeared. "Fine, hard way it is." Pushing at his hands, he rolled himself to the nearest shadow and vanished. Soon he appeared in the sealed room. His rolling stopped upon Clover’s legs. “Damn, I didn’t think combining your dark magic with my shadowmancy would get us in here.”
Noticing that she didn’t react to his words, he stared deeply into her face. Soon he saw the fear stuck in her eyes. "How is she still frozen in... " Instantly he stopped and looked toward the pedestal. "In fear? Of course, the damn test." Closing his eyes, he pulled on what magic he had left. The chains shot out slowly but made their mark in smashing the pedestal.
Clover's eyelids fell, and she dropped into his arms once the test broke. Rex held onto her tightly and glared back at the wall. He could hear voices on the other side. "Damn it, wake back up. I... could use your help." His eyes fell upon his sternum and the dark alicorn amulet.
The maroon glow returned, and the surrounding shadows grew to a substantial size. Soon they slipped right through and vanished.
******
Outside, the red snowflakes flew around as they lowered to the ground. They stopped flying and swarmed in a circle once they found Annity's body. "Don't be concerned. You are still very useful to me."
On that Carnival dropped down and picked up the body. "Upsy daisy, upsy daisy. I'm certain your sister might be very mad that this happened.” His eyes widened to the swarm. “But Lord, what about the Alathar? Vanity would be even more ashamed that her brother's death happened during this failure.”
"It’s useless to them without the instructions. And even then they would need all the Alathar to stop us.” The eyes stared at the castle, seeing all the ifrits rip through it. "Besides, this was far from a failure. I am now certain of his resolve."
"Whose resolves?"
The eyes narrowed at the rage of the ifrits. “Rex's. When will he ever listen? He wants to protect them at every turn, as the radiant mare wanted him to. Yet one day, he will have to realize that these monsters don't need to be protected. They need to be saved." On that, the red snowflakes flew off with Carnival and Annity in tow.
******
The evening light finally faded in the ifrit city. Voices and whispers spread like wildfire at the vanishing of Annity’s body. Many of them wanted answers that could not be given, while some simply wanted to not care anymore.
In a building on the outskirts of the city, a lone white ifrit in a blue suit and black tie was finishing paperwork. “I can’t believe they want to have a meeting tomorrow. I’m far from ready.” He struggled to hide his grumps. Despite his distance from today’s events, the noise outside was getting louder by the second. “Darn it, why is everything in such a ruckus today?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but maybe they need to let off some steam.”
“Yeah, right--” His voice stopped upon realizing the other voice was there. This was too strange since aside from him and some papers, the room was empty. “Who's there? Answer me?”
“I was wondering when you were going to notice me.”
The ifrit’s eyes raced across the room, this time more clearly. He was certainly missing something. “Where are you?”
“Here.”
The white ifrit fell out of his chair as the owner of the voice moved out from behind him. It looked like a rather old and wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh almost bare of fur. His clothing, if it could be called that, was so loose and old that it barely hung from his body.
“Who are you? How did you get in here--" he stopped and grabbed his nose as the stink finally hit. The creature stank so badly that it nearly brought the ifrit to tears.
“Who I am doesn’t matter.” The creature walked over to the center of the room. “What matters is that I’m here to bring you a message from Frost. A message that will be the last light on this evening's... darkness.”
The sunlight shone through a window, tracing over some partially opened drawers, some leftover clothing, and books laying on the floor, quickly to a purple bed with dark lavender covers, and over a lavender face. Twilight raised her face ever so slowly at the light. Her horn lit up, and the blinds closed... with no magic covering them. After which she laid back down and tried to return to sleep.
“Wake up, Twilight.”
Twilight turned away from the voice, not even realizing its unfamiliarity of it. Her hand fell off the bed and onto the fine flat and almost slick floor. Twilight’s eye shot open upon the icy touch of the surface that was void of any tears and even small indents that were very common on a wooden floor. She slowly emerged from her dark lavender blanket and looked around. To her shock, there were hues of purple crystals on every surface and wall, even on the floor. She raised her hand to her head and scratched it. Instantly, she pulled her hand away at the feeling of her long hair.
“Are you going to hide in there all day?” the voice returned.
Twilight spun around again, looking for the owner of the voice. The source couldn't even be identified, nor could she tell if the voice was from out of the room or right next to her. She jumped out of her bed and tried to get a hold of her bearings. She looked under her bed once she stopped wobbling. There was nothing about but books; such things that were all too common to her. However, what caught her eye was something else. She reached over to one book and pulled it out. She rubbed her fingers over every part. There were no wrinkles or smudges of dirt. This book looked too far new and even... modern.
She narrowed her sight and threw down the book. "I might be a little too tired." Stretching her arms outward, waiting for the satisfying pop. Swinging her arms about as she noticed something strange as her sight hovered over her shoulders. “What? Not possible!” The eventual pop never came. She clutched at her shoulder and scanned it intensely.
"My scars... they're gone." Her fingers quickly raced over certain spots all over her body, her movement growing more and more frantic after checking each spot. "All of them... are gone."
Her movement stopped, and her breathing became heavy. After a moment or two, she wrapped her arms around herself and fell back onto the bed. Small tears were forming in her sight, and she could feel a grin grow on her cheeks. She twirled back and forth on the bed several times in joy as laughter consumed her.
"Hold on?" She questioned aloud as she jumped up. She reached her hand over her left eye. Feeling every single part as her smile slowly turned into a frown. Her cheerful tears faded and her other hand trembled uncontrollably. Slamming the hand down, she screamed, "Damn it! Damn it!! Why is that one still there?!" Her teeth gritted and her fingers clenched down on the icy cold cobalt blue wound.
“Are you done yet?” The voice returned louder, yet not a single word was spoken in anger.
“Who are you?” Twilight dropped her hand and scanned the room. She gritted her teeth at the sight of nothing. "Where are you?!"
“Really? A better question is where are you?!”
Twilight’s eye widened, and she jumped out of the bed and finally ran to the door. Opening, she found multiple seemingly endless hallways beyond it. Concern grew on her face as she hesitantly took each step.
“I was right. I’m not in the tavern. Wait, am I in...” She turned into one hallway and went down it. Her movement gave a sense of familiarity as if she had been here before.
“Oh, finally. But you are only half right,” the voice seemed to be annoyed. “He warned me your reaction would be like this. Keep running and you will figure it out.”
“What are you talking about--” Without warning, Twilight crashed into a new door. She grabbed her head and rubbed it. “Ouch, what was that--” she stopped as she caught sight of the door. Her mouth fell ajar. “Wait, I’ve seen this door before.”
“Wow, this Flash Sentry must be a pretty fine stallion to get a blush out of you.” A fresh voice spoke from behind the door.
“Wait, that Starlight’s voice?” Twilight’s eyebrow raised as she stood up and reached for the door.
“Starlight, so I did see you. What are you doing here?”
Twilight was stopped again, this time for another reason altogether. “Wait, that’s my voice…" Her hand trembled and her breathing became frantic. "No, no, not this.” She covered her ears from hearing the rest. Yet the sounds of a portal opening on the other side filled her with great fear. Soon, though, everything went silent. Her breathing softened, and she dropped to her knees, placing her head on the door as tears fell her face. "Why show me this? And not give me a way to stop it!"
Seemingly unbeknownst to Twilight, smoke moved through the hallway and slowly approached her. The closer it got, the more the color of the smoke turned to a maroon red.
Twilight slowly released her ears, and her fear withdrew as she stood up, "Of course, you can't change time, that's not your area." She turned to the distinct chill behind her. "Isn't that right, damn goat?"
The smoke stopped at those words and wavered back and forth. "Sorry, but I'm only his messenger." On that, a hand shot out of the smoke and pushed her into the door. The smoke hardened into an almost solid-liquid figure of a maroon color.
She fought and twisted in the figure’s grip. The figure was too blurry to see its face accurately. But one thing was obvious... it stank of blood.
“Enough of this.” Twilight punched at it. Yet its grip only tightened. “Who.. are you?” Her voice weakened as her throat squeezed.
“You have forgotten me, but I will never forget.” The figure pushed harder as the door behind Twilight slowly covered with cracks. With enough force, the door shattered, yet the pieces didn’t fall. Instead, they floated around Twilight and the figure as it walked her through the room.
She looked to her surroundings, seeing her past self follow the past Starlight frozen still falling through a swirling vortex of magic. It was as she thought. This was a memory of how her journey started so many years ago.
“Who are you?” Feeling the grip loosen slightly, she questioned the figure once more.
“That does not matter. What does?” The figure stopped at the crystal table and punched her into it. She coughed hard as it crawled over the table, pulling her along until they reached the center. It stood above her and leaned downward. She twitched and squirmed around as it got closer. It put its mouth by her ear and stopped moving. “The first of the Alathar has been found. You must find the one who has it and take it before he discovers its true purpose.”
Suddenly the figure’s hand twitched, and pulse as flesh folded over itself. All of its flesh was folding downward over Twilight, almost like it was melting. It moved like ooze over her and descended to the table below her. The ooze spread over the table and the chairs. Leaving a thick, bony alicorn skeleton in its wake, echoing venomous laughter.
The room swayed left and right as everything around her followed the flesh. The table was melting; the chairs were melting and even the walls were melting into a maroon-red liquid. The room was quickly filled with it. Twilight twisted back and forth as the ooze built up around her.
She was now sinking into the liquid. She closed her eye and took a deep breath. The room seemed to vanish around her. She sank in lower and lower until a small voice broke through it all.
“Twilight… time… to… get… up.”
******
Twilight jumped up and knocked the brown covers off. As her breathing calmed, her sight scanned over the room. Old-style books and clothes litter the wooden floor. She sighed relief and leaned back down. She rubbed her head as Silver Pear opened the door.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
“Ahh!" Twilight screamed and grabbed her cover to hide once she remembered she was only wearing a nightgown. “Why didn't you knock?”
“I did, buzzkill. Come on, I know the rules." Silver Pear winked at her and handed over an apple. "Here my Lovely said to bring you some breakfast.”
“Where is Starlight then?” Twilight took the apple from her magic and placed it beside the bed.
“She is waiting for you outside in the back.” Silver Pear turned away and walked to the door. He stopped, "Oh yeah, I can still see your rear."
Twilight's face went bright red, and she pulled the cover over every part of her. Laughing at her reaction, Silver Pear quickly took his leave.
The door shut softly. Twilight stared at the door for several seconds. Her heated face quickly vanished, being replaced by a cold sweat as her sight retraced the room once more. She looked at the books again and the clothes and especially the wooden floor. Taking a deep breath, she moved the covers and dropped her bare feet onto the floor. She felt over every prick and even splinter of the wood until she was sure, “Hmm, maybe it was a dream.” Finally, she turned to the apple. “Thanks, Starlight.” A brief smile crept onto her face as she grabbed it. She brought it to her face but stopped.
The light from outside shone the reflection of the apple into her sight. Her vision narrowed on the display of the cobalt blue scar over her left eyelid. Her smile dropped and her teeth gritted. She attempted to open her left eyelid but stopped as the attempt brought nothing but extreme pain.
She placed the apple down and looked at her closet. Getting up, she stretched her limbs out and smiled at the popping sounds that followed. Meanwhile, a voice flew through her head. This voice differed from the one in the dream. It was far nicer.
"Yeah, I know the five creeds first." She straightened her body and grabbed a cloth with her magic. She wrapped the cloth tightly around her chest to ensure restrictive movement. Next, she grabbed a few books with her magic and brought them over, opening them and flipping to marked areas. "First, Pinkie Pie, 50 jumping-jacks." She did that while reading.
Once finished, another voice flew by her head, this one far more loyal, "Second, Rainbow Dash, 50 push-ups." She dropped to the ground for push-ups while continuing to read.
Finishing that exercise, a distinct small voice flew by, this one far more kind. "Third, Fluttershy, 50 pilates." Rolling on her back to do those, she hardly lost any grip on her books.
Once finished with that, another voice followed. This one was far more honest. "Fourth, Applejack, 50 squats." She jumped up to her feet.
A smile grew on her face as she got into one book she was reading. "Wow, Dr. H. P. Bloodcraft has made some compelling scientific research on telepath--"
A fresh voice passed through her mind, stopping her words. She realized she had already finished the correct amount of squats a while ago and was now wasting time. The same voice bugged her once again, the voice repeated itself: it was still filled with so much generosity "Fine..." Putting down the books for a single moment she took a grumbled-filled breath. "Fifth, Rarity, shower, followed by... above average... I mean... beautification," she mumbled the last word as her magic grabbed some clothes and her dark blue eyepatch. "And, no Spike, I am not doing seven hours of it!"
She removed her gown and unveiled many scars over her body. Each one was of varying age and size. In particular, the oldest was the scar over her throat, which looked a lot like an old rope burning, only far sharper. The biggest were two massive gashes along her stomach and reappearing on her back, and the newest one was the scar over her eye.
The sounds of running water were followed by the door to the bathroom opening and then closing seconds later. The blanket rumbled around for a moment before a certain brown spider crawled out and over to the stand where the apple was. It stopped at the sight of the apple and stared... at the claw marks that tore all over the surface.
The brown spider crawled closer and touched the apple before pulling back in pain. It looked at its leg and glared at the ice particles on it. "She's getting stronger," the spider whispered. "Best to not tempt that ice queen's venomous laughter again."
******
Outside the tavern, the Sun continued to move its light over the village. Ponies were strolling through the roads, cleaning up the snow as they went about their daily lives. The Wolf’s Apple was silent and had nopony in to drink today. In the back, Starlight was walking back and forth, almost creating a rut in the ground.
“What is wrong, deary?” Granny Apple rocked in her chair as she moved the cloth over a double-barrel rifle mirroring of Starlight's movements.
“Oh, nothing much Granny. I’m hoping to get all the work done today and tomorrow before the big day arrives.” Starlight stopped and looked at the old mare.
“I’m sure she’ll like it.”
“But what if she doesn’t? What if that teacher of mine is still mad about it all? What if?” Starlight stuttered her words as she waved her hands about. “What if… she still hates me for all of this?”
Granny Apple stopped cleaning and got up from her chair. She walked over and placed her hand on Starlight’s shoulder. “You are far too young to worry about so many things." She moved her hand to Starlight's mane. "You'll get gray hairs at this rate."
"Oh, come on, you know the time-traveling has stopped mine and her ability to age properly."
"Yes, I do, as much as I’m sure she forgave you long ago.”
Starlight’s face tilted down. “I hope you're right?”
“Right about what?”
Starlight’s face jumped up upon hearing Twilight's voice. She turned to Twilight with a fake smile. “Nothing teacher, I wanted your help with some grocery shopping today?”
“Why can’t Granny Apple or Silver Pear go with you?” Twilight moved her book out of the way so she could see Starlight.
“Because we are going hunting today.” Granny Apple turned to Twilight and held her gun over her shoulder.
“Oh, did Lighttone ask for a specialty order again?”
“Nope,” Silver Pear walked over past Twilight and Starlight, “But a certain pony did and we can’t let them down.”
“Okay?” Twilight raised her eyebrow. “I’m guessing that I’m helping my student today--”
“Great.” Starlight grabbed Twilight’s arm, dragging her off.
As the four went their separate ways, the brown spider crawled out from Twilight’s window and watched them all leave. It crawled up to the roof of the tavern and looked out to the front. It breathed slowly and looked over the ponies on the roads.
"What is Starlight up to on this lovely Sunday?” A voice came from the spider as it stared at the two mares. “She should calm down. Twilight needs to worry about the warnings from Elisus.”
******
In the far north, commotion tore through the silence of a crystal plaza surrounded by glorious alicorn statues. Ponies scrambled around at the sounds of footsteps.
The sources of the echoes were aimed at Clover and Rex. Many of the ponies whispered back and forth at the sight of Rex's bloody hands. He closed his eyes and kept walking.
Meanwhile, Clover looked at them all with a glaring force that made even the stallions tremble. The ponies quieted down as Rex and Clover slowly exited the plaza. They headed to the brilliant emerald-covered cathedral.
Rex stopped at the entrance and observed his bloody hands. The hands trembled as he stared between them and a fountain of flowing water by the door.
Clover answered his distress. "You didn’t have to clean up the remains. I’m the one who failed him..."
Air pushed out of his nostrils, "No... I had to. I am as much responsible for Mon’s death." He walked over to the fountain. He placed his hand into the cold water and pulled some out, wiping it over his other hand. He scrubbed as hard as he could, but the images of the icy chunks still dripped through his mind. “Damn it..." He stopped and looked away from Clover as she stepped inside. Eventually, he stopped scrubbing and pulled his hands away from the water. He shifted to the door and opened it.
Inside were beautiful turquoise walls taped with the merit of the white tapestry. The ceiling had many white and gold chandeliers with an almost eerie seafoam green glow to the flames of lighted candles upon them. The ground was covered in a green carpet with many rows of long brigandine chairs.
The merit of the species was sitting or kneeling near the chairs and praying in silence. Rex walked past many, including Clover, who was now praying. Soon he came by a lineup of the confessionals that surrounded a statue of a giant centipede.
He scanned over all of them until he came upon a gold-lined one in the center of the lineup. He peered around it and then frowned at the sight of a crystal white mane floating out of one side.
He hesitated for a second before walking into the opening on the other side. He sat down in the chair and exhale heavily again before finally spoke, "Forgive me, Holy Mare, for I have sinned--"
"Yes, I know. You are very good at that," the priestess spoke in an eloquent tone from the other side. The panel was covered with silver magic and opened, revealing the priestess to be a yellow alicorn mare in a platinum robe. "Plus, you have terrible cleaning habits."
Rex looked at his palms, and he winced. He wiped his hands on his scarves, "I’m sorry, but these aren’t from the damn enemy!"
The alicorn grabbed Rex's mouth shut in her magic. "First you destroy Cassandra's window and now you curse. Blasphemy against our great God."
Rex glared at her, but then let go of the glare and turned his head sideways, pulling free from the magical grip. "That damn centipede..." He stopped his voice before finishing. "I'm sorry... besides it was Annity that did the shattering."
The alicorn put her hand up to her head. "Sometimes I wonder if you should be sent on for more time in Tartarus."
Rex smirked as he brought his head back to normal levels, "Maybe that would rather be nice."
The alicorn let loose a small giggle and glared at him. "Do not be mistaken. Your results are unquestionable, but your methods leave a lot of anger in your wake."
Rex huffed and threw his hands around. "Well, I’m sorry that I’m not as perfect as the great Holy Mare Topaz Silk Shining Tower Chandra. A mare who is so god-like that she has to send a lowly devil like me to go do her dirty work.”
The alicorn's grin twitched, and she kept her eye forward as a small frown broke through her flawless face. “I’m sorry about Mon. I thought for sure Golden Williams' intel was good.”
Rex raised his hand upward. One of his chains followed and slowly flowed around his hand with the help of his dark blue magic as he remained silent upon the memories of yesterday's events. The scenes of him being forced to gather up the remains and transport them flowed through his mind.
Once the scene ended, he grabbed the chain in his hand. “Do you think I enjoy being the most hated creature in the entire Crystal Empire? Topaz Silk... why can't you and the rest of the Alicorn Order do something about this?"
Topaz Silk turned and finally faced him and dropped her frown to keep her original smile. "We can't Rex. Most of the alicorn race are very hesitant about you and your kindness."
"Maybe if your brother hadn’t left…” Rex’s raised voice dropped as he realized he was squeezing the chain too tight. Releasing his grip, he calmed his breathing until the chain slipped out of his hand before finishing. “I mean..." He turned away. “Speaking of the order, where are those nieces and nephews of yours?” he questioned, to change the subject.
Topaz Silk raised her hand to her chin, “Celestia is meeting with the hippogriffs, apparently the youngest princess there has gotten a shine to her, I think the filly’s name is Novo.”
“She always enjoys helping children.”
“Often does. I sometimes think her calling would be a teacher if she had never had the life of a princess. Luna, meanwhile, is meeting with the Yaks again. She wants another attempt at a peace treaty with them. She also asked about you again.”
Rex’s eyes strained. “Of course she did. Princess Luna always seems like she wants to tell me something, but she never does.”
“Golden Williams in the southwest, his search for the buffalos’ homeland continues to bring up no leads. And finally Blood Diamond is currently heading to Zebrica, something about beating his father’s record.”
"Okay, I’m assuming my old rival is with Blood Diamond.”
“No, it’s the time of Cold Blue's month-long annual break.”
“Hmm, right?” You would think knowing a siren for over two thousand years would make it easier to predict when he takes these breaks.” Rex crossed his legs and scratched the fuzz on his chin lightly. “I guess we have to keep this mission going without their help.”
“Speaking of the mission, what did you find out about Indigo Frost?"
"I don't think he is who he claims to be." Rex leaned back and waited. He felt a burn on his neck as a dim glow shined. He grabbed the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "He couldn’t seem to recall that the real Indigo Frost was the last owner of this magical trinket."
"But..." Topaz Silk posed as her hand dropped while a notepad and an inked feather floated up with her magic.
"But when I tried playing a few bluffs, he saw right through them."
"So, he's not its original owner. Yet, he knows of its powers." Topaz Silk waved the inked feather around before writing some notes.
"Not all the powers..." Rex dropped the Dark Alicorn Amulet back down to his chest. "Let me rephrase, I don't think he knows all of its abilities." His eyebrow raised. "Hmm, he mentioned somepony had told him some things."
"This creature is a curious thing. Are we sure he is even a wendigo? If we assume he is lying about being the former king, then what if he is also lying about being a wendigo as well?”
Rex’s eyes flared up. “Whoever he claims to be, one thing is for sure, he is a wendigo. No other beast could manipulate ice like them.” Rex’s eyes widened, and he stood up.
“What is it?” Topaz Silk straightened herself and stopped writing.
Rex whispered some words before walking out, “We need to talk somewhere more private.” He looked at the backdoor. Clover stopped her praying as the two made their way to the door. She got up and walked over to them.
A short, tan earth pony colt with a brown mane ran past Clover and to the alicorn. “Holy Mare, Holy Mare. Bless the Lord and his goodness.”
Topaz Silk stopped and padded the child on the head, “No, child, bless your joyous kindness for he is always with you.”
Clover walked over to Rex as Topaz Silk talked to the child more. She stood by Rex’s shoulder and looked at the child as he ran through his words with little thought. She turned her face to Rex and moved to grab his hand.
Rex pulled his hand away from her inadvertently. He reached over and pulled the alicorn away from her work. Feeling the hand slip away from her, Clover’s eyes fell timidly and blinked twice. She stood straight and tapped her feet while waiting for Rex to get done.
“Enough, we have work to do. You can talk to the child later.” Rex pulled at Topaz Silk's shoulder harder.
Topaz Silk ignored him and kept to her holy duties, telling the child all that was needed until the child calmly walked away. She watched the child quickly get back to his parents. She waved at them as they went to a spot and sat down. “Such a delicate child. He will make a fine follower.”
“Right, lead him straight into that beast’s--” Rex stopped his words and dropped his arm. He looked back to see Clover tugging on one of his scarves. “I mean, we need to get back… back to work.” His fist tightened.
A twitch twisted in Topaz Silk’s pure form, but with a deep breath she calmed herself into a smile and turned around, “I told you before manners are everything.” She looked at the giant centipede statue before walking to the backdoor. “We must always keep the appearance of a peaceful belief.”
“Fine...” Rex tried his best to keep his eyes from ever looking at the giant centipede statue as he walked. Clover spoke words under her breath while keeping one eye on the statue.
The three went through the back door and entered a small hallway with two paths. One led to the back exit, the other led to a dead end with a picture on it. Topaz Silk walked down the other hallway to the dead end and the others followed slowly behind her.
“I see you fix the passage, Holy Mare.” Clover scanned over the wall.
“Why thank you, dear.” Topaz Silk tipped her head as she stopped at a picture of a giant gem. “I had to make sure no random pony found the place. And even if they did, without my magic, they could never enter.”
She placed her hand over the picture and the gem in the picture glowed brightly, a symbol on her hand followed. The glow revealed a centipede symbol on both the picture and her hand. The hallway shook and twisted around, revealing a new opening.
******
Back in the village, ponies walked around and explored through the thinning remaining snow under the glorious afternoon Sun. Starlight practically was pulling Twilight around to many shops as they gathered up supplies. The teacher didn’t mind all of this walking and she could still get plenty of reading done.
The problem lay in the boxes. “Starlight, don’t we have enough already?” Twilight twisted the massive amount the laughter of a few fillies.
Starlight turned to her with more boxes. She stopped and moved her head upward, tracing over the height of the current amount in Twilight’s magical grasp. “Sorry, is it too much for you?”
“Not really... it's getting a little hard to keep up with my book.”
“Really? How many times are you going to read that book?”
“Oh, come on, Dr. H. P. Bloodcraft is the only talented writer of this time. Besides, the only other thing I brought to read is history books from our time.”
“You mean future books. But wouldn’t that be dangerous?” Starlight winked at her.
“Yeah, I know, but I enjoy comparing facts too.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow at those words. “Fine, give me some of them. I could make it my training for today.”
Twilight pulsed some magic around and moved a few of the boxes over to her student. “You are not getting off that easily.” Starlight didn’t catch them in time and they slipped from her magic.
“Wow, look out.” A red magic aura grasped the boxes before they fell onto Twilight's left side. The magic belonged to a dark lavender unicorn stallion of thin build with winter blue eyes and a crimson red mane sliding on one side wearing an unkempt white dress shirt, pants, and a loose green bowtie. He had rushed over at the sight of the fall.
Starlight stepped to one side, watching as he slipped into the snow. Both of them stopped to stare at the thin stallion for a second. Starlight let loose a little laugh, “Sorry Twilight. I guess I shouldn’t have been standing in your blind spot.”
“No, it’s okay Starlight, I should have been paying more attention.” Twilight put one hand on her left eye and rubbed it while dropping her other hand down to help the thin stallion. “You okay, Crimson?”
“Yes… Yes.” The stallion stood up and smiled while giving the boxes to Starlight. “Here.”
“Oh Crimson C. Magic, what are you doing here?” Starlight raised her hands to her face as if she had a delayed reaction.
“Well, it wasn’t like I was stalking… I mean, I was walking behind you… I mean, walking in the same direction… I mean,” he corrected himself multiple times in quick succession.
“It’s okay, hey you mind staying here with my teacher while I go drop these off.”
“Sure” He straightened himself.
“What?…” Twilight turned to Starlight with confusion, only to find that she had vanished with all the boxes.
******
The sounds of Starlight reappearance filled the tavern as she placed the boxes down. She lifted her nose to the air and took in the smells of lemons and pine. There was also a minor smell of purple grapes in the air as well, but this was distinctly different from the smell of everything else.
Granny Apple walked back from the kitchen as the wave of wind from the teleport exited the building, knocking her mane around. “Well. I have Twilight’s favorite snack cleaned up and sitting in the back. I assume the plan went perfectly?” She pulled the net out of her mane and over to the sink.
Starlight was quick to walk over to a chair and sit down. “It went perfectly. he could have shown up a little faster.”
“Crimson is a nice stallion, but he is often too shy to do such reckless things.” Granny Apple emptied the sink and turned to the cabinets behind it.
“Well, hopefully, he can keep calm enough to distract her. That teacher of mine has made it very clear to me she did not have a relationship with anypony while we are here, it would be rather nice for her to have somepony to talk to that isn’t me.” Starlight nodded her head in a steady motion as she used her magic to move a box full of new cups over to the bar.
“Of course, besides you need to have more time with my son.”
Starlight’s face broke at that comment as red flooded her face. “Granny Apple, that is not what I said at all. You know very well Silver Pear hits on every mare… and stallion… and even trees.”
“Yes, but you are the only one that he calls Lovely.” Granny Apple quickly caught the box in her hand. She gave little care to its enormous weight and sat it on the countertop.
“Enough with that nickname.” Starlight gave a small giggle as her face fell forward and her mane dragged over her eyes as magic gripped more boxes. “He’s nice, but frankly not my type… Now let's get the stuff ready.”
Granny Apple walked over to the window and smiled. “Don’t rush too much. It’s only the afternoon.”
“Yeah, I guess you are right.” Starlight stared at the Sun shining over the village. “And it is a beautiful afternoon.”
Suddenly, a streak of light went over her eyes for only a moment. “Wait, what is that?” She put the boxes down and walked closer. She opened the window and pointed to a shiny object moving through the sky.
“What do you mean? Do you see something?” The object moved out of sight before Granny Apple could see it.
“I’m not sure. It’s too far to see now, but it looked like a gem… in the middle of the sky.”
"First moving statues, now flying gems. Things certainly sound strange nowadays.” Granny Apple went back to what she was doing.
“Yeah, I guess you're right.” Starlight leaned her arms onto the rim of the window and gazed at the Sun and sky. “Things are changing in this world in a way.” Her voice lowered to a whisper, “Maybe this world will one day be like the Equestria we… used to live in.” Her eyes lowered, and she gripped her elbows tightly.
*****
The Sunlight flew over the village and into the Cerberus Plains. Tracing beyond the plains, the light cracked through the Pegasus Isles above the Batpony Canyons and finally crashed into the mighty Celestial Ocean.
On the other side of the ocean lay two powerful civilizations. On the outskirts of them laid a large gray prison covered in writing, very unfamiliar to any equine of this time. Its windows were covered in thick black bars and the walls were even thicker.
The Sun’s light wanted to shine on this building, yet whatever light got through seemed almost tented in color.
This did little to deter a group of storm clouds as they swarmed over. Despite the dark color of the clouds, no rain was falling out. The storm clouds seemed strangely calm… that is, until they were completely over the prison. The clouds rumbled and churned until finally a single snowflake broke and fell to the building. The snowflake's familiar red hue shined bright against the dark backdrop.
The red snowflake descended to the building quickly but was stopped in midair. Nothing was holding it up, yet there it lay as if it was on some sort of surface. It stayed there for a few moments, looking down upon the building.
Down below, two griffins in armor walked out of the building’s bolted door entrance. “Damn it, something is standing on the invisible wall again.” The younger griffin pulled out his wings and flew upward.
“It’s probably a bird.” The older griffin pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth before taking it to the sky as well. Annoyance grew over the two as they reached the top, yet their faces turned to confusion as they saw the red snowflake lying on the wall.
“How did a snowflake get this far into warm weather?” The older one questioned as he lit his cigarette.
“I don’t know. But it’s red. I’ve never seen a red snowflake before.” The younger one looked up and saw the clouds quickly dispersed.
“Hmm, looks more like apple red rather than plain red.” The older one pulled out his cigarette to puff.
“Nah, closer to a scarlet red, or maybe cranberry red--” the younger one stopped himself and facepalmed. “Wait, why are we arguing over the hue? You know the rules of the prison. Nothing, but the light of the heavens gets in here.” On that, he grabbed a strange glove and pulled it over his claw. He then reached outward as his gloved claw went through the invisible wall.
He grabbed the red snowflake and tried to crush it. “What the beak?”
“What is it?” The older one pulled his cigarette away and puffed once more, then he flew closer. “Why isn’t it crushing?”
“I don’t know. It feels like I’m trying to break iron.” The younger one struggled.
“Try harder.”
“I am!”
The loudness of the younger one’s voice echoed down to the prison’s nearest window. Inside, the sounds woke a prisoner. It was a dark blue hippogriff with green eyes and purple wings in a black and white shirt and pants. He stretched outward as he stood. However, as soon as he saw the red snowflake, his eyes went wide.
“Hmp, about time. I was thinking this punk had declined our offer.” He reached his arm out of the window and smiled. “Yo griffs, you can stop,” he spoke in a terrible attempt at a gangster-like style that gave little sign of respect or care to anypony. “That thing won’t be crushed. You best stop before my new boss stallion gets annoyed.”
The older one looked over to the window. “Quiet you!” He yelled to the hippogriff.
“Puh, I warned you.”
“I said shut it--” The older one stopped at the sounds of wails of the younger griffin filling the area. He looked at his friend. “What’s wrong…?” His words stopped again at what he saw.
The younger griffin’s hand was freezing at a fast rate, right to the bone. In pure reaction, he pulled his claw through the wall, pulling the red snowflake with it. He held his claw close as it twisted in agony. “Ah!! Make it stop!”
“Yo Frosty, go ahead, make it stop,” the hippogriff fell onto the floor laughing his head off. At those words, the red snowflake pulled free from the griffin’s hand.
Once back in the sky, the red snowflake spun around faster than the eye could keep up with. The ice over the griffin’s arm quickly filled with cracks. “No, please don’t!!” The last scream was quickly halted as the griffin’s arm shattered.
Filled with shock, the young one fell to the ground. The older one dropped his cigarette and flew down after him, not even watching where the red snowflake was at.
The red snowflake flew into the room with the hippogriff and across the room. “Yo, out of all the creatures you have brought under your icy breath, it is an honor that you would choose me.”
“If you knew what honor even was, I would consider letting you have a quicker death. Now silence yourself, Night Sting.” The red snowflake flew right up to the hippogriff's throat. “And what makes you think I’m here for you?” Indigo Frost’s annoyance reverberated from the red snowflake.
“Because I’m one of the most dastardly killers in here.” Night Sting jumped back.
“How droll, but very true. I’m here for your brother, Night Fiend. But you two are a packaged deal from what words tell.”
“That’s true. My big bro and I don’t go anywhere alone.”
“Fine, but where is your brother?”
“Five miles down below. They didn’t want a creature like him near any bodies.”
“Damn, here.” On that, the red snowflake transformed into a strange round sphere and flew right into the wall behind Night Sting.
Night Sting looked at the object in confusion until a big grin formed. “Oh I see, you’re not even here.”
“Indeed. This is simply one of my many snowflakes. Think of it as literally a piece of me. I can use them to see nearly everything within the right range.”
“Why would you need to use such a thing?”
“Because I’m currently on the other side of the map talking with an old ally. Now use this to go get your brother free.” On that, the sphere went silent and transformed into a dagger.
The sounds of loud banging filled the room as the guard knocked on the door. “Stand back, prisoner, we are coming in.”
Night Sting stood up and pulled the dagger out of the wall. “Hmm, I guess that means it is finally time... for the Night Brothers to be free.”
Footsteps echoed through the long stairway as three ponies went down to the sub-basement. The stairway was dark, yet the way wasn’t entirely pitch black. The walls were covered in the faint glow of stones that gave off enough light to see where they were stepping, but not enough to see the end.
They came upon a wall blocking their path. Like the first wall, this one had a gem on it, it was a unique design. Topaz Silk placed her hand over the picture and the gem in the picture glowed brightly. The centipede symbol on her hand followed. The wall opened to reveal a room full of machinery that seemed far too advanced for this time.
The three walked over to a table, and only Topaz Silk took a seat. “Well, was Golden Williams' intel correct?”
Rex made sure no snowflakes had followed them. He reached into his pocket. “Indeed. But I still don’t know why he wants them so badly.” He placed the purple agate on the table.
Topaz Silk's reaction was instant as her chair veered back by a few feet and her eyes shrank. “I had hoped he was wrong... Where exactly did you find it?”
“Behind a dark magic wall hidden inside Cassandra's Castle.” Clover walked closer to the table and placed her hand on it and pushed it to the alicorn. “It seems to grow in power from fear.” She indicated the small glow the closer it came to the alicorn.
Topaz Silk grabbed her gut and exhaled deeply. The more she calmed her fear away, the more the gem’s glow faded. “The Wave of Nightmares is one of the legendary Alathar. It can tap into one's greatest fears.”
Rex’s eyes narrowed. “What does he want with it? You told us he was gathering the Alathar, but not why, nor where they were being held. And because of that, we spent five months on a wild goose chase.”
“It is far too early to know what the wendigo's true plan is. The Alathar are all-powerful relics that can amplify any form of magic, but most of all, they each have their magic within them that can’t be matched… especially when brought together.”
“Okay, then can we at least guess what he has planned?” Clover pulled the gem away from Topaz Silk and moved it to Rex. "We need some sort of path to move. We can't stand still."
“No, no, no more wild theories. Where are the other Alathar?” Rex slammed his hand down.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know.” Topaz Silk got up and walked around the table to some machines. “However, I have a vague idea.” She stopped and reached into a machine in front of her. She twisted a lever and a wall nearby opened up. Beyond the opening was another wall filled with holes. In each a long scroll with color handles. “Grab the maroon one.”
Clover walked over and pulled out the scroll with the maroon handles while Rex grabbed the gem and put it back up. She brought it over and unrolled it over the table. It was a turquoise-colored map with eight maroon marks on it. One mark was darker than the rest. “Is this a map for each of the Alathar?”
“Yes and no,” Topaz Silk walked back to the table. “Long ago, an alliance of eight mortal families was made that would hide the Alathar. And that only the families’ strongest lines would know where they were. These families were called the Limbs of the Broken One.” She reached out her hand and pointed to the darkest mark. “It is powered by dark magic. The brighter the maroon, the greater the chance the family and that guard still live.”
“Hmm, so if we find these families or monuments connected to them in these areas, we could get closer to finding the alathar before the wendigo.” Rex grabbed the maroon handles of the scroll and rolled it back up. “Thank you. We have all we need now.” He held up the maroon scroll to an opening in one scarf on his arm and it disappeared into the shadow.
Topaz Silk blocked them. “You are not going alone this time. I don't have any immortals on hand, I have some mortal allies you can take with you.”
Rex’s eyes narrowed and his arms moved around into a stance. “What allies? We've seen enough death.”
Topaz Silk smiled at him. “Strange, you seemed like you wanted allies earlier." She stepped forward and reached out to Rex, placing her hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. “Or maybe what you said earlier was advice about something else and you've changed your mind."
Rex stopped at those words and pulled away from her grip. His face was covered with sweat, and he placed his hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "No, I changed my mind of my accord. He had nothing to do with it."
Topaz Silk let out a small giggle at his words. "You change your mind, fine. Then tell me why you wish for no more allies?"
Rex backtracked, only to find Clover now standing behind him with as much, if not more, curiosity. He gritted his teeth. "I have my reasons."
Clover raced around until she was in front of him. "Stop lying. You wanted allies before because the choices before were immortal ones, weren't they?"
Rex refused to answer her, so Clover walked closer to him. She stopped once she saw his look had not changed. Her eyes narrowed, and she slapped him across the face.
“I’ll give you two a moment.” Topaz Silk walked out of the room and up the stairway.
The room went quiet. The only noise that could be heard was the echoes of the alicorn’s footsteps. The narrow look in Clover’s eyes faded and a bit of her mane fell in front of them. She stepped a little closer, and he took a step back. “Rex? Are you afraid?”
Rex’s face fell, and he took another, much slower step back. “No, why would I ever be afraid?” He grabbed tightly onto the Dark Alicorn Amulet under the scarf. “There is no point in talking about this.”
“Yes, there is a point!” Her voice raised as she stepped closer. “You... You haven't shed a single tear for him. " She stopped her words as tears formed in her eyes.
He turned away from her. "I can change no one creature's fate, no matter how many I face."
She grabbed him by one of his scarves to stop his retreating. “I know you can see their futures, but that doesn't mean you can't change them. It doesn't mean you can't save--”
"I can only protect them." He attempted to swat her hand away. "With this power around my chest."
She gripped tighter and reached around his body with her other hand, placing it on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Yes, he gives you power, but you can't rely on immortal power alone."
He exhaled slowly before answering her with a lower tone. “As an immortal... I must rely on immortals.” He pulled away completely.
“I… I see.” Clover's arms dropped as a single tear fell to the ground.
******
Tumbles of pony movement waved through the village. Joyousness filled their minds this Sunday afternoon. Many of them wanted to enjoy this day as much as they could before it could end. Over at a small outside diner, some ponies were even on dates. Some looked thrilled. Unfortunately, one was not.
“Curse that student of mine!” a loud yell filled the area as Twilight slammed her book.
“I assume you done reading. I’m sure… she will be back.” Crimson twisted in his chair, unable to stand still.
“It’s been two full hours. Plus, I've read this book one-hundred-twenty-six times now.” Twilight leaned over the table and gestured her hand into a number. “She is up to something.” She threw her arms up in distress.
However, she retracted them as the faces of ponies around filled with glares. She took a deep breath and spoke silently, “Sorry,” and straightened herself in the chair. She looked at Crimson, who was now playing with his food.
Crimson had not even noticed the glares. Instead, he listened to each of her words carefully, as always. She put on a brave smile and straightened herself. “Okay, sorry I got sidetracked. You were asking about Ponyville this time, right?”
"Yes," his ears went up. "I mean... unless you are more curious about Starlight."
Twilight smiled and reached over with her hand. “Look, I don’t mind talking about my homeland while reading. We needed somewhere to sit while waiting.”
He smiled at that answer and his shyness weakened as well as he turned to face her. “Okay, you were talking about how your castle formed?” He faced her properly, and she pulled her hand away.
“Oh, yeah. It happened through a ridiculous fight with a centaur and the crazy use of a box that popped out of the Tree of Harmony.” Twilight seemed to skim through details rather fast today. "Really... What proved to be the biggest moment of this was that I came to understand the ideals of friendship better than I ever thought."
“Really?” His eyes wandered to his bowtie for a rather long moment. He exhaled deeply and looked back up at Twilight and slowly reached over with his hand. “Yeah, such an idea has its power--”
Twilight jumped back inadvertently and interrupted him. “Yet not strong enough to stop Starlight from…” She stopped and huffed before crossing her arms and sitting back. “Hmp, I may push her training harder tomorrow.”
“Hmm... why do you train her, anyway?" His voice dropped the moment Twilight's hand went out of reach. "It’s… not like you two… are soldiers. Besides, this village is so peaceful… to get involved in the battles Princess Platinum is currently having.”
“True, and the only ones that even know we do our training are you, Granny Apple, Silver Pear, and a few of the regulars.”
“You mean like… Lighttone.” A smile grew on Crimson's face.
“Yeah, him.”
“You know I would like to meet him one day. I mean, if that isn’t a problem.” His voice seemed slightly off at that, almost joyful and with very little shyness at all.
“Hmm, how about you come over tonight? He usually shows up to look at the weekly orders to see what he might want.” Twilight finally scooped up some of the food in front of her and put it into her mouth.
“Really?” Joyfulness intensified in his voice. “Wait… tonight at the… the bar… the tavern you work at.” Instantly his shyness returned tenfold.
Twilight raised a slightly annoyed eyebrow at this and swallowed her meal, clearing her throat. She reached out and grabbed his hand again. “Okay, is something wrong?” She questioned with a weakened smile at the blush that was now very clear on his face.
Crimson took his hand back. “No, nothing is wrong...” He stopped and turned to the side of his chair and looked up to the sky, “The truth is… I used to know him. We… were friends.”
Twilight’s eye went wide at that word ‘friend’.
“Friendship.” A random word she had used all the time, but hearing it from somepony else threw something inside her completely off. She froze in place.
Crimson raised an eyebrow and slowly reached over. He shook her shoulder and then jolted away, hoping for some sort of reaction. Nothing happened for several moments.
Truthfully, Twilight didn't even notice as rambles of voices swirled through her head. Six distinct voices. Slowly the voices stopped, and she swung her head back and forth fast once like she was knocking something away from her head. She stopped afterward and didn’t give a single reaction for several moments.
It brought a lot of concern to Crimson. “Twilight…”
Hearing her name finally made her answer, “Yeah… friendsh--”
“Hey, look at the sky.” A random voice behind Twilight broke her words.
“What is that?” Another voice spoke even louder.
Twilight raised both her eyebrows at them but tried to ignore them. However, Crimson looked up as well and a great shadow quickly covered the ground, tables, and soon even the building as everything shook. Twilight dropped her food and stood right up. “Crimson, what is it?”
“It’s… a giant gem.”
Twilight turned around at those words and looked at what all were seeing. The second she laid her eye upon it, they went wide. It was indeed a giant ruby gem, larger than the buildings around them.
Suddenly, the gem sent off a strange, loud buzzing sound. It was so loud that every pony within even a small distance away had to cover their ears in strain, yet any pony nearest fell to the ground in absolute pain.
Twilight did whatever she could to stand her ground, yet it was quickly becoming hard as blood was now pouring from her ears. Her leg dropped once and her eye winced. Things got worse as the wound under her eyepatch burned and... glowed. At that exact moment, though, the sound stopped. “Why is my wound reacting to it?”
A bright light shot out of the gem and an image formed within it. The image was of a lone pony chained up in what appeared to be the center of a giant stadium. “Ponies of the Unicorn Providence.” A voice filled with royalty and vast age spoke from somewhere outside of the sight of the image.
“Your princess has seen fit to resist my armies for long enough. This is King Emerald Teal of the Crystal Empire and I declare a full-scale war with you all.” On that, a crystal blade shot outside of the image's scope and cleaved the prisoner's head clean off.
Many of the ponies watching gasped at these actions. Some even turned away as the pony’s blood poured across the ground. Meanwhile, species like griffin and hippogriff backed away in disdain. All while, Twilight couldn’t help but ignore the sight of it, as the pain in her eye was getting worse.
Finally, the image vanished, and the gem’s light dissipated. Strangely enough, so did the pain in Twilight’s wound. She stood up and rubbed her eye a little and turned to Crimson, only to find him gone. She looked at the table and saw a note saying that he would show up tonight… maybe.
Of course, there was nothing to be concerned about. Twilight turned back around to face the gem as it drifted away from the village. “This wasn't part of the history books?”
******
In a far-off land, miles deep underground, there stood a pale white fortress covered in endless light. There was not a single shadow that could touch it. Within this fortress were many empty rooms with lights of varying levels of brightness.
However, in the brightest room at the center sat six creatures around a rectangular table. One black batpony at the far end, one gray griffin and one gold siren on the left side, one white changeling and one white ifrit on the right side, and one pale crystal pony at the front end. Each had its group of guards standing around them.
They were all staring at the white ifrit with great annoyance. “So you want to tell us how he found one of the Alathar?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” the white ifrit tried to push away the idea.
“Why do you think we called this meeting?” the gray griffin spoke up.
“I thought it was because of the attacks that Indigo Frost orchestrated,” the white ifrit waved his arms over them.
“Not that. It seems he almost claimed one of the Alathar!” rage-filled the pale crystal pony’s mouth.
“Who is this wendigo, anyway?” the white changeling mare twisted her fingers through her mane.
“Some crazy fool claiming to be the original king.” the gold siren leaned back unfazed by their words. “He is nothing to us but a faker. What matters now is that the Wave of Nightmares is in the hands of Rex Moba.”
An air of uneasiness filled the steel cold room as some of them twisted around in their chairs at that name.
“Damn it, we can’t keep being afraid of some umbrum who for all we know doesn’t know we exist.” The black batpony stood up. “We should be more worried about these attacks.”
“Yes, but if he finds more--”
“He won’t.” On that, the black batpony pulled out a green lapis lazuri rod. “As you can see, I have already taken precautions.”
“You dare bring an Alathar here.” The pale crystal pony stood up. “Remove it at once. We are their sacred guardians. You know how dangerous it is to remove one of the Alathar from their holding.”
“Yeah, this is madness,” the white changeling scooted back. However, she stopped upon crashing into somepony behind her.
“And here I thought Frost was supposed to be madder than you all.” They stopped at that voice. The room went so quiet that the only noise that could be heard was their breaths. All of them moved their eyes around until they finally stopped at the intruder in the room.
Standing behind the changeling was a strange-looking wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh in a blackened gray cloak.
“No, you…?” the white ifrit trembled in confusion as his flames dimmed.
“You… who are you?” the gray griffin questioned. He looked at the white ifrit. “Sage, do you know him?”
The white ifrit refused to answer as he scooted back; a blanket of fear covering his form from head to toe. The intruder strolled around the room.
Each creature kept its guard around him, not showing any sign of weakness. Yet they couldn't hide the reaction to the stink that filled the room with each step he took. His breath stank of... corpses. Soon he arrived back near the spot, he appeared and smiled as he looked over all.
“I don’t care who he is.” The black batpony gestured to his guards to surround him.
“Really?” The intruder pulled at his collar. “You are the Limbs of the Broken One. Hiders of his greatest power and servants of his might.” His hands raised to them all before letting them fall into his tattered cloak.
The black batpony huffed at his words. “Give me a reason, why my friends shouldn’t kill you right now.”
“Because I’m here on a promise.” He held his hands together in a grasp and leaned his head over them in a pleading motion. The intruder’s words and actions fell on deaf ears as the guard walked over.
However, the intruder couldn't help but smile at this. “Look, all he wants is the Alathar for--” He was interrupted as the guard tried to punch him.
Much to everypony shock though, the fist tore through the flesh like paper. The guard himself wasn't filled with shock, but disgust as he could feel the bones of the jawline and even the crack-covered teeth rub against his knuckles. "What is thi--" The guard tried to question the feeling before pain raced through his hand as something grabbed hold.
The guard pulled back with all his might only to reveal his hand being held in place by tentacles. These less dark mold green color flesh ligaments were crawling over the guard’s hand, leaving a circular bite mark with each movement.
Once they found a suitable spot, the tentacles pressed down with a force and twirled the guard's arms until the bones tore out. The guard's eyes filled with tears and he almost pleaded with him to stop twisting. The intruder raised his hands to the guard's head. "Oh, fine.” His smile turned to a frown as he released his grip.
All of them gasped at this. However, he quickly followed this by digging his fingers into the guard’s throat, and with very little effort, he ripped the guard’s head clean off his shoulders. "Hmm, fool."
“Enough of this!” The pale crystal pony sent all of his guards over to the intruder. “You will have none of the Alathar at all. Now leave.”
More guards charged at the intruder. He ducked and grabbed the first one by the leg, yanking him to the ground. Meanwhile, he flipped his body into the air and threw his foot toward another; the flesh of his bare foot ripped open and more tentacles tore through the second one’s chest. Blood spewed into the eyes of the others, blinding them. The intruder pulled the first one over and tentacles from his mouth forced it open so wide that flesh ripped from cheek to ear. Soon a giant beak shot out of his mouth and bit down into the first one’s stomach, slurping up his wormy intrels before the stallion could barely struggle. The third and fourth ones charged in, only to be fought off as more tentacles ripped out of his lower extremities while he continued to feast.
The second one fell to the ground as his chest kept gushing out blood. The intruder finished feasting on the first one and jumped upward with one hand and landed on the table, licking his beak of all the blood before pulling it back into his mouth. The two remaining guards moved back in shock.
A weak movement filled their eyes, yet they couldn't give up. They charged right at him. He smiled at this as tentacles from his mouth wiped over his lips and sealed the wound around his mouth.
“Enough Star Stone,” the white changeling spoke up, stopping the guards in advance. “I want to hear what he is offering.” She gestured for her guard to push over a chair for the intruder.
The intruder smiled at her action, got off the table, and sat down. He watched the guards walk back to their leader as he grabbed out a napkin while his tentacles reseeded and the flesh resealed, leaving a strange burnt smell in their wake. He wiped his face and hand clean of the blood before placing it back up.
“Let’s look back around five thousand years, back when Indigo Frost's family tree was a member of this group.” His claims angered Star Stone, but the intruder gave little care to the crystal pony’s reactions. “Your leader, Dracos, was on the run for deeds he claimed he didn't commit, and the nine founding families of this group were still here. Soon though, two families left to join him in hiding and the wendigo's family was already pushing themselves more and more away from this group to watch over his kingdom… And try to make new allies.” His voice slowed at that last part before resuming its natural flow. “Things seemed fine, heck even after the wendigo kingdom fell apart, the group stayed strong.” On that last word, he held out his hand as the flesh opened up. Tentacles spewed out, holding a red horn.
All of them gave the same reaction of disgust and shock upon seeing the red horn. “That is until twenty-four hundred years back when Carmilla Darkest was killed and this group slowly devolved into a hiding spot for cowards.” The intruder couldn’t help but let a small snicker loose at the sweat growing on their faces. “I mean, I know at least three reasons to worry. She was the last founder to die, was the Broken One’s most trusted ally, and the queen of the umbrums.” He removed the piece, and an air of relief filled the room. “But what I find most sickening is you all would rather turn tail and run rather than take revenge on the very stallion behind the deed!”
The black batpony twisted the Alathar in his hand. “So, he is offering us the head of her grandson, Rex Moba.”
“Yes, the lapdog of the alicorns on a silver platter.”
“Well, no thanks.” The black batpony put the Alathar in his coat and stood up. “We are not afraid of anypony at all. And certainly not some psycho fake king--”
Instantly he was stopped as a thin, bony-like wing rose from under the table with no warning and tore through his skull. The Alathar dropped out of his coat and rolled over to the intruder’s hand.
He smiled and retracted the wing from under the table and back to his shoulder blade. There it went back into the flesh as if it was never there. “Thank you, but I said from the beginning that he will have the Alathar.” Looking over them all as his hand opened up, and the tentacle took the Alathar into his flesh. “And since you won’t accept his deal, you all will be forced to tell him where the others are.”
“We will not give in to your demand--” Star Stone was stopped as figures appeared behind them all. All the figures looked like wendigoes, yet they seemed different; almost fake in form. “How? This room is full of light magic.” He was stopped again as the figures grabbed them all.
"Exactly, but he didn't form these... lovely sculptures." The intruder rose from his chair and walked over to Star Stone. "I did." He reached out to Star Stone and slid his fingers through the side of his mane. “With this much light here you are out of the reach of Rex, Indigo Frost, and even your long-dead god; but not from me.”
“Your master will fail. We won’t give in to his demands, even if you torture us.” Star Stone knocked the hand away, stood true and strong despite the grip of the figures getting stronger.
“Oh, poor little colt. You know nothing of what you are saying, not understanding what he is planning.” He grabbed him by the face, pressing his thumb tightly on the cheek. “He is doing this as a kindness.” He leaned his face in close enough that his terrible breath smelled like poison. “Maybe once we are done, you will believe in the ways of the monster.” On that, he dropped his hands and punched him in the gut.
Star Stone felt bile rising from his stomach. However, it stopped as his eyes became too heavy to hold. As his eyes waned, he looked to the intruder once more, then his mouth fell and drool gave way. “What are you?”
"I am the one who gives knowledge to the ignorant. The light in his darkness. I am Thule."
******
The Sun lowered from the afternoon to evening causing the light to dim in the village as Twilight was walking down the road to the tavern. Steams of anger covered her face as the icy winds and clear skies cleanly showed off her breath like fumes of fire.
Eventually, she found the tavern. She knew she couldn’t walk in angrily. Starlight maybe had been distracted by the message. Twilight wasn't sure which possibility it was.
“Come on, Twilight. You can’t stay angry.” She exhaled and walked forward and reached for the door. But she stopped as something crawled over the doorknob. It was a spider.
Unknown to her, this was the same brown spider that had been watching them yesterday. “Wait a minute,” Twilight held out her hand. “You're Starlight’s pet spider… Gáidaros.”
The spider slowly crawled into her hand. “What are you doing out here? This weather is too cold for you.” Twilight opened the door.
Inside, the place was filled with the smell of cleaning tools. Starlight was moving them around in her magic. She jumped at the sound of the doorbell, smiled at Twilight, and put down the stuff. “Teacher, you’re back. I thought you would spend more time with Crimson.” She walked over and greeted her, only to be stopped by Twilight holding out her hand.
“I did until he vanished on me!” Twilight’s voice raised while holding out the spider. “By the way, your spider was outside.”
“Gáidaros?” Starlight picked up the spider in her magic. “Hmm, strange that you could even pick him up. He usually doesn't trust angry ponies.”
However, upon Gáidaros being removed, Twilight's anger shined in full force. “Well, maybe I wouldn't be angry if you hadn't disappeared on me, especially with what happened today.”
“What do you mean?” Starlight placed Gáidaros on the table. “The day hasn’t even arrived.” Starlight’s words slipped before she could stop them.
"What are you even talking about? Today, the alicorns declared a full-scale war on this country!” Twilight threw up her hands in annoyance, as Silver Pear walked in from behind her.
“What?” Starlight’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“I don’t know. But it looks like we will have to be ready for anything now. Tomorrow's training will be doubled.” Twilight walked around the tables and grabbed a cup, using her magic to fill it with some cider.
“No, we can’t rush into this." Starlight waved her hands in dismissal. "Besides, this village lies on the outskirts of the country. Maybe it will miss us--”
“It won’t.” Silver Pear interrupted her. “I came back from the mayor’s office. He wants all able bodies to be ready for when our princess calls on us.”
Starlight was completely gasping at this. "What... No... Why?!" She tried to speak, but her words kept escaping her.
“What's going on?” Granny Apple asked as she entered from the back.
“War is happening.” Twilight gulped down the entire cup of cider in one go. “And what worse…” Twilight stopped for a moment and placed the cup down before finally finishing. “I received another warning that a great evil will soon appear as well.”
“Where from?” Silver Pear questioned.
“A dream, or should I say, a nightmare. It happened this morning. I wanted to ignore it, but after what happened today...”
Starlight was in complete shock at hearing their words. She didn’t know how to even react to Twilight, let alone Silver Pear. He knew what day Starlight had been talking about, and Twilight had completely forgotten. Finally, Starlight’s mouth stopped stuttering, and she articulated. “We can get through this. Nothing will stop the big day's events from happening.”
Twilight glared at Starlight. “Events, what by Celestia's good graces could you possibly be planning? That's not as important as what I and Silver pear told you!”
“Look, Twilight, that's taking it a little too far.” Silver Pear intruded on her words. “I’m sure we will find some way.”
“Of course, you take your ‘Lovely’s side’.” Twilight swung her cup around in anger. Not looking where she was swinging it, it sent shattering sounds into the air. Twilight winced in pain and grabbed her hand as blood spilled.
“Oh, poor dear.” Granny Apple walked over and pulled out a cloth.
Twilight opened her eyes and took the cloth in her magic. She wrapped it over her hand and walked back over to the door. Pushing Silver Pear out of the way, she stomped outside.
“Twilight, stop…” Starlight tried to speak.
Twilight took a shallow breath to hide the tear that was now falling. “Look, I already knew what day my student has been going on about.”
“You did.”
“I will never forget that horrible day.” That was the last word she spoke before slamming the door shut.
The door’s vibrations did little to break the shock Starlight had for Twilight’s last words. It wasn’t until a small tear fell from her own eyes did she finally break from the shock and fell into a nearby chair.
“Should I go after her?” Silver Pear faced the door.
“No, leave her be.” Granny Apple turned to Starlight with a sad look. “It seems they both need more time.”
Granny Apple kneeled and picked up the pieces of the broken cup. She stopped before reaching for the trash. “Hmm, cider shouldn’t be this color.” In the end, she gave little care to the bold maroon red and threw the pieces into the trash with a crash.
******
The sounds of the doors from the cathedral opening echoed down through the plaza as evening services ended for the day. Ponies shuffled down the road, leaving for their homes. The movement kept until there were none left. A swift emptiness tore through the door. Soon, though, Rex and Clover walked out. The two were silent.
Clover let her eyes wander away from Rex as much as she could. Suddenly, her eyes caught the glimpse of the tan colt she saw before. She smiled at the sight of the child running around its parents.
Rex noticed her halt and stopped as well. He looked at what she saw. A heavy breath expelled from his lungs. “Look, Clover, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I… I understand.” She turned away and walked ahead of him.
“No.” His breath hid his ultimate words from her. His eyes winced as he turned and followed her.
“Well, isn’t this a sight?” an old voice caught their attention. They turned to the voice, and Clover’s eyes lit up at the sight of two stallions.
The older one that spoke up was a gray unicorn wizard with yellow eyes and a long white mane with an overly curly long white beard in a golden star-covered dark blue pointy hat and a golden star-covered dark blue cloak over a light blue and light gray tunic and light gray slacks with a pair of light blue pointy overshoes.
“Master Starswirl!” She ran over and hugged the old wizard.
“It’s good to see you too, Clover.” He patted her on the head and returned the gesture.
Rex walked over as the two separated and turned to the other stallion. This one was middle-aged and was a yellow earth pony with a brown short ponytail mane under a black pirate’s hat. He wore a green frock coat over a gray vest with a white shirt and a pair of gray pants with one black boot that always seemed to be covered in sand.
“Fredricson,” Rex lowered his head.
“So, my son died protecting Little Miss Clever here.” Fredricson tilted his head toward Clover, with the little nickname he had for her.
“We tried to contact you after we sent his body to his mother, but...”
“The scourge of a storm we were in prevented all messages.” Fredricson interrupted him as he tilted his hat. “It was a fine thing you did, though. Still, his mother isn’t exactly going to let me go see him. A little hissy over a brief fling I had with her sister last month.” He let a smile slip upon mocking his ex, yet Rex could see rage hidden deep within those old gray eyes.
Clover looked at Fredricson, “Well, Rex is sorry, if we had been more prepared this wouldn’t have happened.”
Fredricson looked at her. “Don’t be concerned. Like Rex here, we know the selfishness of the alicorns all too well.” He tapped on his wooden leg and turned away.
“Still, it is my fault, no matter what.” Rex walked a few steps ahead of them before stopping. “I’m assuming Topaz Silk called for you two.”
“Not quite, but it seems we are after the same target now.” Starswirl turned to Rex.
“Fine, where is your ship?”
Fredricson huffed. “Can’t we at least get some rum before we go?”
“No, we will lose too much time.”
“Topaz Silk already told us where the Alathar are, shouldn’t we take a moment before rushing off?” Clover stopped right in front of Rex. “We need to figure out why he is even after them.”
Rex’s eyes rolled his eyes. “I know what Indigo Frost is after. At least I think I do.” Starswirl and Fredricson stopped at his words. “He wants to resurrect the Broken One.” Rex’s hand raised to the Dark Alicorn Amulet and under his breath, he whispered, “I hope I’m wrong.”
Fredricson facepalmed in annoyance. “Don’t rush me.” He chased after Rex before he got too far. “You need to know something before getting to the ship.”
Clover didn't follow. She tried to calm herself, but her mentor could see the fear growing on her face. “What is it, Clover?”
“Master, am I not strong enough?” Her eyes never left Rex.
Starswirl raised his hand and pushed some of her mane away from her face. “I know your feelings for him are. You have felt the same way since you met him as a child. But it will take some time before you can replace her spot in his heart.”
******
As the evening light fully faded away, it gave one final shine over the plains, over the mountains, and finally across the ocean.
Reaching a source of great pain sweeping outward from the prison that the griffins ran. The building shook and cracked as griffins flew out of it as quickly as their wings could take them. Their screams filled the air as two hippogriffs slowly walked out behind them.
“Wow, Night Fiend. You didn’t have to torture so many.” Sting practically jumped in joy upon his freedom as he dropped some dubstep noises.
“Your explosives did most of the work. But, of course, I had to, my brother. They dare hold us captive.” Night Fiend was not only taller than his brother, but he was also much thinner and less healthy. His face was incredibly pale and his voice was very hoarse under the gas mask he was wearing over his mouth. “And will you please stop with the ‘sick’ beats? We are royalty, not gangsters.”
“Yo, you know very well we aren’t anymore. Not since Momma Dear got pissed at us.” Sting nearly laughed aloud from the thoughts.
“Truth be told, what we did to our sister was quite cruel.” Fiend grasped his hands together and popped the bones. "Oh, that reminds me, did you find my gloves?”
“Yo, of course, I did.” Sting pulled out the gloves and gave them to his brother before getting completely out of the way. Searching his pockets, he pulled out the white orb that Indigo Frost had given them to escape.
Fiend pulled the gloves tightly over his hands and stretched them into a perfect fit as the symbols on them glowed. “If the king of snow and ice wants my help, I better make sure my powers haven’t faltered in all these years.” He gestured with his left hand, and Sting tossed the white orb over. Fiend raised his right hand over the prison’s remains and the fallen griffins inside. “Oh, griffins, would you mind helping me out?”
Many of the griffins on the ground twisted and squirmed away at the sight of those gloves. Fear covered their faces like a swarm of diseases. Most of them pushed away from him with enough force to make their limbs bleed.
Fiend frowned at their reaction. “That’s not good enough.”
On that last word, he closed his right hand, and the glowing increased in brightness. The white orb in his left hand shook and bounced as it melted. Once it was gone, all the griffins screamed in agony as their bodies glowed and strange orbs ripped from them. All the light surged toward his glove, making it glow brighter. The screams became louder and more twisted as the lights slowly faded away. Once the light vanished, the screaming stopped. A deathly quiet filled the air as the bodies laid frozen in place. Each of them with the same face of fear, only with all eyes turned black.
Fiend brought the glove to his ear and listened. His cheek perked up at the sounds of the screams hidden deep within the glove. “Aw, these souls shall prove most useful. And to think that ice piece had that much magic within it.”
“Indeed. This cuz trust us.”
“Enough of that language, brother. He is our ally and not some gangster you met... in the hood.” Fiend brought the glowing glove to his gas mask. In the center of the glove was a small gem that perfectly fit into the hole in his gas mask. The glowing slowly vanished as his body’s muscles twisted and pulsed. His face grew less pale and his breathing eased. He moved the glove away once the light had completely faded. “Ah, sheer power. He better offers me plenty of souls for this deal.”
“Well, duh. Why wouldn’t he want the greatest necromancer in the land on his side.” Sting turned toward the sky and pulled out his large wings widely.
“Oh, I’m a meager small fry compared to the evil he wants to release.” Fiend turned to the sky as well and pulled out his very thin wings. “Unless he has a different plan."
Both of them took to the sky and flew west as the Moon rose in front of them in the far distance.
******
The Moon’s light shone over the crystal towers as Rex and Fredricson arrived at a large platform. "Okay, whose bright idea was it to park the Titan so far from the cathedral?" Rex questioned as he caught his breath.
"Eye, don't blame me that the falter of followers was so widespread today." Fredricson wiped the sweat off his face. "It is lucky that we found a spot to land at all. We don't have access to instant travel through those dastardly shadows of yours."
"Still, you could have told me where you parked, and I would have teleported over." Rex walked over to the ship on the platform.
The Titan was a small navy blue airship with yellow sails and a single tall gray smoke tower. It was one of the smallest designs, yet no slouch in such ideas. The inside was massive. It had been a long time since Rex had stepped foot in this old airship, yet even now he could still remember his first time getting lost inside.
"I'm almost surprised it still stands." Rex was joking, of course.
"Hey, this beauty of mine can't quit as long as I'm alive--"
"But it would help if you took better care of it." A loud shrewd voice interrupted the earth pony. The distinct voice sent a pale color through his face.
The door to the ship opened and a rather not-so-young batpony mare and a young light orange siren filly walked out of this ship.
The batpony was white with blue eyes and a long curly black mane. Shorter than Fredricson in height, but wide around the chest and hips, thinned around the waist by her black dress, corset combo that barely covered her chest, and went down to her red high heels.
"Wait a minute." Rex raised an eyebrow at the sight of them, particularly the batpony. "Aren't you--" He stopped rather quickly as she threw her cane at him. He jumped over it and the cane fell into his shadows and back out right in front of the old mare.
"Yes, I am, Lady Cat."
Rex facepalmed at that name as he looked at Fredricson. "You brought Mon's aunt with you." He rubbed his eyebrows as the other part of the problem flew through his head. "Wait a minute, this is the one you had an affair with?"
"Eye," Fredricson tried to hide his toothy grin under his fear, it wasn't working very well. "She is quite the mare."
"I think I've heard enough." Rex hid his revulsions and walked past all of them and onto the ship. All without even asking who the siren filly was.
"Wait..." Fredricson stopped and let Rex walk off.
Clover and Starswirl walked up. "Hmm, I see Rex has found out about our current guess." Starswirl stroked his beard as he walked over to the siren filly. "Did the big umbrum scare you?"
The filly slowly nodded and clung tightly to Lady Cat’s leg. The filly was barely tall enough to reach Lady Cat's kneecap. She had a curly orange mane bigger than her head. Wearing a lavender jacket over a purple dress and purple, tall wall boots made her look even cuter.
Clover smiled at the cute little thing and walked right over. "And what is your name?"
"It..." the filly's words practically mumbled at the end.
"Aww, she is such a cutie." Clover couldn't help herself and she picked up the filly and held her in her arms. "Come on, you can trust Aunty Clover. I’ll keep you safe from that rough around the edges, Uncle Rex."
"My name... is Adagio... Adagio Dazzle."
Starswirl smiled. "This is our current mission. The wendigo took her sisters for some unknown reason."
Deep in an underground cave in the lands to the far south, groups of zebras gathered around a giant flame chanting to a single zebra covered in light blue royal robes with an exposed chest and a silver and blue crown over his brow. He walked up to the flame and pulled out two things; a bar of metal that was covered in a strange powder and a spitting cobra.
He held the metal bar up and the chanting zebras' echoes matched the swings it made. Once the chanting was at its highest, he brought it down and held a part of it in the flame. The chanting stopped and turned into a small hymn. He smiled at the sounds and took the spitting cobra and beat it over the metal bar.
The metal bar changed shape, it became longer and thinner; a sharp tip formed on it that tore through the flesh of the cobra. Much to the surprise of the chanters, it didn't bleed at all. The beating continued until the cobra was nothing but a shredded piece of meat. Once finished, he threw it to the ground and held the newly formed sword up high as he turned to pose proudly. The flames on his back gave him an almost ethereal look.
"Praise our great lord for another victory!" shouted a random zebra.
"Where shall we attack next?" one of the zebra questions.
"Yes, we should make another move against them," another urged.
"That blasphemous Gevind Clan shall suffer your hammer for following such evil beings," one boasted.
"Alicorns could never take the place of our mighty god!"
The head zebra held up his hand and calmed his followers. "Oh, loyal Nie Verlore clan. We serve Sanity, the great god of darkness and space, without faltering. Be patient, my children. We will make another move soon. There is another reason I have called you all here." On that, he pulled out a scroll with the symbol of a red snowflake on it. "This is from somepony who shares our hatred of the alicorn--"
"Ogun!!" a weakened zebra ran in through the entrance, making the chanters disperse.
The head zebra stopped his words and put the scroll away. He walked over to the weakened zebra. "What is it, my child?"
"The alicorn's weapon..." His voice went shallow as he struggled to stand. Despite his will, his legs gave out, blood pouring from them like a fountain.
One chanter moved in and caught the loyal zebra. "What happened? What weapon?" He looked at the wounds and was filled with confusion. They didn't have any cut marks at all, yet the zebra was bleeding.
"Ahh!!!" the zebra screamed aloud and scratched at the spot where the blood was coming from. "Make it stop, make it stop. Please..." He scratched hard until actual cuts finally appeared. Despite this, the pain never stopped.
"Make what stop--" The chanter stopped and dropped the wounded zebra and moved back, screaming filling his voice as well. He grabbed his fingers and scratched at them. "It hurts! Something is hurting me!"
Seeing how two of his followers were in great pain made the head zebra go pale. His feet shook, and he crawled back. "No... What is happening?"
"Father, father. He is here!" another zebra ran in and fell to the ground covered in scratches and blood. The head zebra was brought out of his fear by the voice.
"Who?" He rushed over and grabbed the hand of the weakening zebra. "Who, my child? Who did this?"
"Ogun listen... He is... Blood..." His voice weakened as red-filled puss poured from his mouth. "Blood... Blood..." His voice faded as his eyes dulled.
Ogun's eyes shook uncontrollably. He squeezed the zebra's hand tightly, yet there was no returning grip. Without warning, painful stings filled his hand as well. He lost his grip and pulled his hand away as the pain became too much.
Ogun jumped back and looked at his hand. Again, nothing could be seen, yet the pain felt as if something was digging deep into his flesh. He swung his hand about as he fought the urge to scratch.
However, he swung slower and found that a shine on his hand could be seen in the flame's light. He walked closer to the flames. His followers were filled with perplexity at his movement and didn't remove their eyes from him, despite more zebras stumbling in with the same pains.
Ogun got as close to the flame as he could, stopping as the shine got brighter. Now seeing what was causing the shine made everything clear. "Blood... Blood... Blood diamonds..."
In those last words, swarms of giant crystal shards shot out from the grounds of the cave. Ogun looked at his newly formed sword with rage and turned to the shards. He charged forward, swinging, ready for a battle.
Red poured over the ground and quickly flooded the cave floor. Echoes of metal followed suit as the red got thicker and thicker. The echoes slowly turned to screams.
The screams... The screams...
******
Soft screams tore through the empty roads back in the village. A swing-set tattered in the wind in front of the first lights of the Moon. The beating against some metal mimicking screams all too well.
Nothing was on it or even near it. However, someone was watching it. Soft winter blue eyes watched each swing it made. Sitting on a roof of a nearby building, he took in cold air with great solace. A soft frown was on his face. It wasn't sad or filled with anger, but more of a complacent mindset. Like he was in another world yet was still enjoying the soft touch of the snowflakes.
His ears pitched up at a disturbance. He looked down from his perch and saw Twilight kicking at the snow in front of her. A frown of anger covered her face. His complacency faded at the sight of her. "What is she doing up this late?" He pulled his legs off the edge and stood up. His snow-white cape flowed by his feet.
His ear tattered back and forth, and his gaze deepened. “So... it has begun.”
Down below Twilight shivered and huffed as her eye watched the same swing-set fallback and forth. She sat there at the same table as before, lightly kicking at the snow in front of her. Her head was lying on its side with her arms haphazardly held around it. She wasn't crying, more like she was annoyed at herself.
"Why did I let my temper get the better of me? Starlight didn't deserve that rage." Her thoughts rumbled on these words for far too long than needed.
“Puh, rage. It wasn't much of a rage,” she lied to herself again for the second time tonight. She rolled her eye around. She needed some time to herself, she guessed.
Her eye stopped moving as the sounds of the swing set vanished. Her chill wasn't gone, but the winds had calmed. Her eye wandered to anything to find more sounds to watch and listen to. Her sight stopped at a shadow behind her. Her breath went shallow at the shape.
"Is my eye playing tricks on me?" Her light whispers were the only thing that stopped the shadow's movement.
Soon enough, though, the movement continued. She gripped her shoulders and hugged her head inward at the sight of what looked like horns on the head of the shadow. "Back off!"
“Who are you talking to?”
Her head jumped at that tattered voice that couldn't dare belong to anypony she was suspecting at all. She turned to see Crimson standing a few feet away. “Oh, it's you.” Her shallow breath vanished. A sigh of relief blanketed her. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to be somewhere?”
“Well, it turns out I didn't.” He walked over and pulled out a chair. “I’m right where I need to be.”
She turned away from him and put her head down. “Leave me alone.”
“It’s not best to sulk alone.”
“Shut up. I’m not sulking.” Twilight’s yell pushed him back, and she retracted her words. “Sorry, Crimson.” She bit her lip and scooted up in her chair, but still kept her face away from him.
He stopped his retreat and sat down in the chair. He took a deep breath and looked around before leaning his head down as well. His eyes lowered to Twilight's eye, reaching out for a response. She gave him none, so he decided not to wait. “Why did you yell at her?”
The air was like acid now. Twilight’s eye went wide at his words. "You saw me yell at Starlight.”
“Yeah…” He looked away. “I showed up at the tavern but didn't walk in because you were yelling.”
“I didn't mean to.” Twilight’s hand raised to her eyepatch. “It’s ..."
"You could try to forgive h--"
"What?!" Twilight's eye went wide, and Crimson's voice went silent. Everything seemed to stop at her interruption. Even the snowflakes seemed to have stopped falling. The acidity was more like poison now, nowhere near as toxic as her voice. "Should I forgive my student for putting me through this hell?!?!"
Crimson's face went pale as he scooted away. "This world is like hell to you?--"
"Of course, it is. This is not the world I grew up in! This is not the world I lived in!"
"But--"
"My world was peaceful. Not on the brink of war, not filled with vicious wendigoes that feast on us or tyrannical gods that want war the second they get the chance!!" Twilight finally stopped her yelling when she noticed herself standing over Crimson.
Crimson's arms reacted back with him and his body moved like a scared creature. He could barely keep his focus. Her shadow stood over him much like the wendigoes she feared. Ready to feast on him without a second notice.
Seeing this all, Twilight's rage faded as she retracted herself completely, falling back into her chair. "I'm sorry... It's that you wouldn't understand." She scooted closer to him and moved her hand out away from the eyepatch and over to Crimson's hand. She puffed out some air and leaned her head toward him before facing downward.
"But she is your friend--"
"She is not..." She stopped herself again, only now realizing what she just said. "No... She is my friend..."
"Then help me understand." He loosened his guard and even his shy voice more and returned the grip she was giving. "She isn't just your student, so show me the friendship that you share with her..."
A small icy tear tore through the eye patch as Twilight breathed heavily. "Fine, it happened two years ago, and yet two days from now." The story rolled out as her sight wandered over to the coolness of the Moon's light. It felt good but did little to hide the screams echoing in the back of her mind from this distance yet still very fresh memories.
******
The heat of the Sun's light beat down on the morning bliss as the screams of a blue train with twisting engines damped in force as the mighty machine came to a halt at a station near the Everfree Forest.
Granny Apple and Silver Pear stepped out once the smoke from the twisting chimneys cleared. They walked over to the checkout station. They grabbed their tickets and handed them to the clerk.
"Oh, you're here to see the Everfree Forest?" the clerk questioned as he punched the hole. "Strange isn't it? Business is booming since the forest appeared without warning, ten years ago this very day."
"Yeah, yeah, we don't need the brochure description," Granny Apple grumbled.
"Has the tour already left?" Silver Pear took the tickets back.
The clerk rubbed his head in sweat and confusion. "I don't know how to tell you this, but our ten-year celebration tour has been shut down for the day because of the sighting of a wendigo."
"Really? I know it's winter, but I didn't think they would ever come out during such a scorching morning." Silver Pear wiped the sweat off his head.
"Well, we will have to go out on our own." Granny Apple huffed a little as she walked over to the entrance. The doors made a creaking sound before opening on their own.
"Maam, it's rather dangerous out there. I already told another pair of ponies it was a bad idea to go out there and they haven't come back--" The clerk stopped his sentence when Silver Pear pulled out a massive claymore with a silver handle, bronze guard, and lime green blade that stretched to the ground.
"Well, it's a good thing I always come prepared." Silver Pear followed Granny Apple.
They entered the forest and Silver Pear swung his green claymore several times, cutting through tough branches as they walked off the arranged path. They trekked through nearly a mile until they came upon a clearing. Granny Apple held up her hand in a halting motion before he could enter through.
"What is it, mom?" he questioned with a whisper as he leaned down to meet her height.
"I think I hear a cockatrice." She held her hand up to her ear as she ducked down and listened more closely.
"I hear nothing-" He stopped and ducked for cover as a two-meter-long cockatrice walked into the opening.
"This is a good size." She pulled up her old rifle into position. "Lighttone has been asking for the sour, slimy taste of cockatrice meat and there have been a few recipes I want to try for him." She lined her sight like a pro and pulled the trigger without a single breath of hesitation. Her movement gave the sign of expertise that she had gained over the many years of her former poacher life.
Birds in the nearby trees dispersed as the gunshot echoed throughout the forest. The cockatrice went down with a quick thud and brief fight.
Granny Apple got up from her hiding spot and walked over to finish the job while her son cheered. She arrived at the body and saw the blood bubbling out of the wound as it continued to slowly breathe. "You were a fine hunt." She bowed her head in honor of the creature.
She pulled out her knife to end its pain when she paused upon the entire forest going completely silent around them. Silver Pear noticed too but assumed it was from the gunshot.
Granny Apple held up her hand and gestured to her son to keep his guard up. She knew much better than him. They were being watched. She swung her eyes left and right without moving her head at all.
She slowly turned toward her son while continuing to scan everything around her. She sighed in relief to see nothing was by him. "If not there, then where? Was there one?" She whispered, half assuming it was another cockatrice.
Her breath stopped once her eyes fell upon glowing red irises shining in the shadows a few meters to the north from the opening they had shot from.
Her heartbeat went shallow the second her mind realized it. The form of these eyes could only belong to one creature. "I know you are there. Come out now." She tried to keep her composure.
The unknown beast didn't seem to listen, so she tried something else. "I heard stories of wendigoes once having normal lives like other ponies and even living in small packs of families." Playing on old stories from Lighttone, she hoped to access a calming side of the beast.
"You seem to know so little, yet more than most," the wendigo finally answered as he stepped out of the forest and into the opening. He stood nearly twice as tall as Silver Pear and was icy blue, with a shredded blonde mane in ragged clothes. "How do you know of such things?"
"I have a customer who has been around for a very long time." She lowered her gun slightly in a show of trust. "Lighttone loves telling stories about all kinds of things. He never mentioned wendigoes knowing any of common ponies' languages."
"Most of us don't care to speak our reasoning, our actions do that for us." He charged right at her with his long razor claws.
His movement was too fast for Silver Pear to stop him. Meanwhile, Granny Apple closed her eyes. She knew from the very beginning at this range she had no time to stop the attack of a wendigo.
The wendigo edged closer, yet his great speed seemed too dull. Granny Apple's reaction speed slowed as well. Silver Pear was swinging his claymore but also seemed to reduce in movement. The leaves in the distance decreased in their descent to the ground and even the chirps of the birds had downed tempo.
Soon everything came to a halt. This was not because of some sort of extreme focus, or pulsing toward death. Everything had stopped in place. Time had stopped.
A crooked old vulture landed in a tree standing over the sight. He seemed utterly untouched by the deceleration of everything. He raised his wing to his chin and pondered aloud, "Who dares trample on my domain?”
A loud bang broke his train of thought. The sound came from a crack that appeared from nowhere. The crooked old vulture flew down and landed on Granny Apple’s shoulder to get a closer look at the anomaly. “It’s a tear in time.” The bird’s narrowing soon turned into a big smile. “I see, that old wizard spell to tame my realm was a success.” On that, he jumped back in the air and landed back in the tree where he was before. “Or at least it will be.”
The crack burst open with a massive surge of light magic shooting outward to the sky.
All of the time resumed, and the wendigo stopped in his tracks and jumped back quickly in confusion. Two mares fell out of the crack and landed with a hard thud on the ground as the light magic around them slowly vanished. The mares were followed by a giant crystal table with a small brown spider holding onto it. It landed with a louder thud as it trenched itself into the ground.
Starlight grabbed her rear as it ached. “That hurt.”
Meanwhile, Twilight landed with more of a roll and a bit more grace. “Madness told you to roll as we landed.”
“Like I had time to hear that crooked vulture, or you while time was standing still,” Starlight sassed back as she stood up and dusted herself off.
“What? I will not take sass from my new student.” Twilight narrowed her eyes at her.
“Like I want to have you as a teacher, too. Sure, that crooked old vulture gave us a mission. That doesn't mean I have to follow it.”
“So you were listening.” Twilight dropped her anger and snarked back.
Starlight backtracked her thoughts.
Granny Apple and the wendigo were understandably at a loss, with these two mares standing between them. Luckily, the old mare caught onto an idea and pulled up her old rifle. She had no time to aim properly, so she closed her eyes, pulled the trigger, and hoped for the best. However, there was no bang. She opened her eyes and saw ice covering the old rifle.
Twilight and Starlight saw the attack and went to Granny Apple's defense with no hesitation. Twilight grabbed out her kopises and swung out the magic that made the wendigo jump back.
As he got far from them, he filled his hand with masses of ice magic and touched the ground, quickly covering it in a sheet of ice. Seeing the ice head toward them, Starlight jumped in front of Twilight and filled her horn with magic, shooting it outward toward the ground, stopping the movement in its tracks.
The wendigo winced his eyes at them upon being stopped. He held out his hand and formed shards over his claws and quickly jumped right at them.
Starlight pulled up her arms in defense and hoped for the best as she was currently unarmed. The attack was stopped by the sounds of ice on metal. Starlight looked up to see the wendigo's attack was stopped in midair as Silver Pear stepped in quickly enough to catch the monster's claws with his claymore.
"Thanks," Starlight smirked at the stallion standing mere inches in front of her.
"No problem Lovely." He pushed the wendigo back with one hand.
"What did you call me?!" Starlight shrieked at the soft touch on her rear.
Silver Pear pulled his hand away and gave Starlight a slight wink. "Well, I don't know your name yet, so Lovely will have to do it."
"Not now, son." Granny Apple raised her hand to her face.
Starlight didn't know how to react to Silver Pear's actions. The only thing that came to her mind was hiding her blush.
"Well,-- Look out!" Her blush instantly vanished as she saw the wendigo lunge back in.
Silver Pear swung forward but a little too slowly as the wendigo's teeth struck into his arm and bit down hard. Ice quickly spread out from the monster's teeth.
Seeing no other choice, Twilight pulled out her wings and quickly flew over all of them, leaving the two in shock to find that she was an alicorn. She spun as she flew and tore one of her kopises into the wendigo's back.
The wendigo winced in pain and let go of Silver Pear. Twilight then pulled her kopises free and flipped backward, landing between them.
The wendigo jumped forward with rage burning in his eyes. Twilight went to meet his attack. The clashing magics sent out a small shockwave. The earth ponies looked on in awe, while Starlight only smiled at her teacher's power. The blasts of magic were at a standstill, yet with the little knowledge Twilight had against this new enemy, let alone wendigoes in general, her magic seemed to be enough to hold the beast at bay.
The crooked old vulture watched the battle with intrigue. He had no reason to be there any longer since his domain wasn't being trampled on, yet he felt a familiarity in the battle. “This is rare, their magic mesh so well, almost too well. This is the first time these two beings have met and yet. It’s as if… Could it be?” He stopped his train of thought at the sight of something bubbling forth in Twilight’s eyes.
The clash finally broke with another shockwave that sent both of them back. Twilight gave little reaction to the wave and stood strong with her kopises ready, aiming them back at the beast.
“Back... off from my friends.” In those words, the bubbling took the form of maroon smoke. It puffed out of her eyes and into the air.
“Friend... Friendship..." The wendigo twitched at the pillars and crawled back. “Dark... magic? Impossible?” His eyes strained at finally seeing her face. "You... You look just like..."
Twilight stopped once she realized it and tried to calm herself. The smoke reseeded, and she looked toward Starlight while keeping her kopises still aimed at the wendigo. “Starlight, is the earth pony okay?”
Starlight looked over Silver Pear’s wound and smiled. “He’ll be fine. I hope..." Her horn glowed and wrapped it in her magic. Her eyes went to Twilight. “Looks like it might be— Wait Twilight look out!!”
Twilight turned too slowly as the wendigo rushed forward with his claws and sliced at her left eye. The alicorn’s screams filled the air as she fell to the side. The wendigo jumped toward Starlight now that things were in the clear.
However, before it could get to her, Silver Pear dropped his claymore into his free hand and rushed forward, cutting off the wendigo's right arm.
Starlight moved on instinct as she turned and jumped right up, punching the wendigo in the gut. Black and white magic pulsed outward from her fist and launched the wendigo high into the air and landed him somewhere else in the forest.
Silver Pear fell to the ground as the pain became too much.
“What is happening to them?” Granny Apple ran over to her son.
Starlight turned back around and looked to Silver Pear, and then to Twilight. Her jaw dropped at the sight of black ice forming on their wounds.
“Oh no,” Her face went white. “That damn monster used a form of powerful ice magic on them.” She pointed to the quickly darkening skin. “This is a major problem.”
“How?”
Starlight’s eyes strained, “I only have a limited time before those wounds become unrepairable.” She looked back and forth between the wounds of Twilight and Silver Pear. The black ice on Silver Pear was moving much faster than the black ice on Twilight. “I... I... can’t save them both.” A tear bubbled in her sight.
Granny Apple stopped and looked back and forth between her son and Twilight. “You mean... but my son--”
“Your son won’t be losing his arm.” Starlight winced away from the tear and enveloped Silver Pear’s wound in indigo blue magic. She winced her eyes harder at the sound of Twilight's screams getting louder behind her. “I’m sorry Twilight. I know you would do the same.”
“Careful, Lo…” Silver Pear winced in pain.
“The name is Starlight!” Her hands squeezed down on the wound as she continued to do her best to heal and get past the screams of her teacher.
The screams... The screams...
******
The screams did little to fade away from Starlight's mind as she wandered around the tavern’s tables.
Before, they were always at the back of her mind, hidden under daily work and training. Even when pondering the coming anniversary, they were minor pebbles bouncing around her head. Now, though, they were loud as that day was, raging through her mind and every part of her thoughts.
"Damn it." She stopped cleaning and lowered her head. She slammed her hand on the table. “Why did I think I could make things better?”
“You can't change what happened.” Granny Apple gripped Starlight’s hand. “All you can do is keep moving.”
“But…” The tears stopped Starlight from getting any words out.
“Don’t.” Granny Apple placed her hand over the unicorn’s mouth. “Life will find a way. Time will move forward.”
“How?” Starlight pulled away. “War is on the horizon. Soon there won’t be time for sorry and forgiveness.”
“Really? You want that?”
“Of course, not?” Starlight looked back at her questioning tone.
“Oh, you poor mare. Twilight isn’t looking for a sorry.” Granny Apple placed her hand on Starlight’s cheek and wiped away a tear. “No teacher ever wants to hear you tell them such a thing.”
“What are we talking about?”
“You can’t simply tell a teacher you're sorry. They want you to commit to that forgiveness.” Granny Apple pulled Starlight into a soft hug.
“How? Why?”
“Because earning their forgiveness through your actions shows you can grow… even when they're not there.” She pulled out of the hug and kissed Starlight’s forehead. “And how? That you have to figure out on your own.”
“Thank you.”
Granny Apple grabbed the rag and went over to the sink. “Now, the day is off, get some sleep.”
“Okay, I’ll go to bed soon.”
“Good night.” Granny Apple took her to leave.
The tavern quickly went quiet with only the lone unicorn there. Starlight looked over to the window. The sight of the trees showed the winds were finally clearing.
Her tears had finally faded, and the echoes kept her sad face in form despite hours passing since her teacher's outburst. She took Granny Apple’s words to heart, along with her teacher’s words. All those words swam through her head, hoping that within them, she would dampen the screams.
All she could do now was wait and hope she could fix things. Once more...
The screams continued... louder and louder...
******
The screams of the engine buzzed aloud. The echoes bounced around the navy blue airship as it flew through the sky. Inside, the sounds were less noticeable when compared to the soft chimes of metal bells swaying to the movement. The inside was a wash of green and gold metals with blue lights near the tops of the wall and only a few feet from each other.
At the front of the navy blue airship, Fredricson was at the controls, surrounded by many black buttons and levers. In his hands was the wheel, which he turned every so often. In the room behind the front, Lady Cat was barely putting Adagio Dazzle to bed. most of the bedrooms were near the back of the ship, Adagio wanted to sleep near the front so she could see the Sun rising in the morning.
The rest were in the large meeting area in the middle of the navy-blue airship. The meeting area was seven meters by six meters and had a lush navy-blue carpet and two rectangular green steel tables that were one by one and a half meters on the sides and one round gold table that was at least two full meters in diameter. Each table had a set number of chairs with them, with the green tables having four chairs each and the roundtable having six chairs.
Not much of the sounds from either the engines or the bells reached past the sounds of ceramic hitting glass as chess pieces on one table moved back and forth.
Clover wavered her hands on her black pieces with slow yet jagged movements. Starswirl, however, moved his pieces with a fast yet methodical paste.
Rex was on the other side of the room, trying to read the map. He traced his fingers over a few words. "yjb ealaa almar' albahth lileuthur eal. Ealla." He backtracked his fingers. "albath laliuthur eale— Damn it!" He slammed his hand down.
"Still having a hard time reading it." Clover's eyes wandered over to Rex for only a moment before turning back to the game.
"Darn those Limbs of the Broken One." Rex stretched back in his chair. "Why did they have to write in that language?"
"Because it is the Broken One’s language and the language of the dark alicorns," Starswirl answered Rex's question without looking once away from the board. "And because of that, only dark magic users can read it."
"Maybe we could get Cold Blue to read it?" Clover smiled at the frown from Rex that was out of her sight. "I hear he is as brilliant as you at dark--"
"I will not let that siren aboard this ship." Rex huffed. "Besides, one siren is already too much, even if it's merely a filly."
"You can't make a rule like that." Clover looked at Starswirl, moved another chess piece, and smirked almost evilly. "And check."
"Hmm," Starswirl raised both his eyebrows at her words before moving a piece of his own. "Checkmate."
Clover's eyes shot open, and her jaw dropped. "Wait... Again?!" She leaned over the board and scanned over each piece repeatedly. "But, but... How?"
“This time it was your hesitation that ensured my victory.” Starswirl’s horn glowed, and the pieces moved back to their original spots.
“Darn it. You beat me again, master.” Clover moved back.
“Do you wish to go for another round?”
“Nah, forty-two losses today is enough,” she tilted her head and smiled at Rex. “I’m going to see if I can help him out.”
“Okay, I guess I will be in the library.” Starswirl lifted his left hand into the air and snapped his fingers. He vanished in a puff of pink clouds.
Clover laughed and took a bit of the pink cloud in her hand before all of it could completely disperse. She put the pink cloud in her mouth and bit down, munching on the sweet fluff as she walked over to Rex.
She looked at Rex’s monotone demeanor, as his hands were the only thing holding his head up now. Leaning down, she wrapped a free arm around his shoulder and brought some of the pink clouds over to his face with the other arm. “Mind if we trade?”
“You know I’m not a fan of cotton candy.”
“Oh, come on. I think Master is getting better at this. This one almost tastes like chocolate milk.” Clover leaned in closer to the back of Rex’s head.
“Fine…” Rex leaned over and took a bite. “Hmm, it tastes exactly like chocolate milk.”
Clover grabbed the map and brought it over as she leaned her face over Rex’s shoulder. “yib elem alma, alba.”
“Not quite,” Rex smirked, veered his sight toward her, and laid his head against hers “It’s yjb ealaa almar' albahth, or one must search.”
“Oh, I was close.” Clover placed another bite of pink fluff in her mouth.
“You would be closer to reading it if you could do dark magic.” Rex moved back.
“It’s not my fault I don’t have the blood--” She attempted to get another bite but stopped her movement and words when she saw her hand empty. Soon though, she noticed where the last piece was, in Rex’s mouth. She smiled at this and pushed her mouth forward to undo his thievery.
However, she stopped. Their lips were about to touch. Rex did little to stop Clover’s advance, but she found herself not going in for the prize. She was halted... frozen in place... Lost in her tracks.
Thoughts of Mon's death filled her mind. This was followed by other battles and missions they had had before all of this. Finally, her mind went on to the words Rex said to her in the cathedral.
Before any more movement could be made, Rex vanished into his shadow and reappeared over by the door. “It’s getting late, get some sleep.”
Clover held in her pouting until Rex was out of sight. She wasn’t annoyed at him, but more so herself. Her eyes wandered over to the window.
Taking in a deep breath, she walked over and observed the outside. The sight of Moon caught her attention as thoughts of another mare flew through her mind, “Was I right to choose him... my duty..."
She closed her eyes, and turned away from the window. She placed her head on the wall and listened to the engine scream.
The screams became more erratic...
******
Screams erratically echoed aloud as an argument shot back and forth between prominent leaders. A sole alicorn was sitting in the room with five other chairs. each of the other chairs was empty, and in front of three of them were small crystals. One for each chair and a certain color for each one. The crystals were projecting pictures of other alicorns, and they were the voices barking about the room as the only alicorn physically there could only hold her head down and hoped the screams would soften soon.
"That wendigo is a menace. He needs to be dealt with first," speaking out of the image being projected from a pink crystal, a white alicorn mare with a pink mane stood stern in her beliefs of what needed to be done.
"Oh, sure give concern to him, sister." From a blue crystal, the image of a light blue alicorn mare snarked back at the white alicorn mare, "War is on our doorstep."
"We could always negotiate," posed the image of a pink alicorn stallion with a golden mane projecting from a bronze-colored crystal.
"I'm not here to listen to your politics, Golden Williams." The light blue alicorn mare openly mocked him as she turned away.
"Don't be like that Luna," the white alicorn mare spoke more softly.
"Celestia is right." Finally, the only one who had not spoken throughout the entire argument stood up and made her voice known.
The other three stopped their words and came to attention, especially when her mane flew around them like a fog. A silver fog mane belonging to none other than Topaz Silk herself. "We are the Order of One. We have to handle this carefully. We have helped the mortals from afar for many years. I'm certain if we take things slow we can find out the connection between the strange possibility of my brother declaring war around the same time as this self-proclaimed Indigo Frost making his moves."
"Maybe it would be helpful if your husband was here--" Luna huffed at the older alicorn.
"You know very well that Lord Red is far too busy at this time of the year." Celestia interrupted.
"Okay, okay. Enough." Topaz Silk finally let loose some magic and silence their bickering. "Sorry, we need to look at the problem at hand. The mortals are still very young. They still have many things to learn. These actions--"
"Yes, but have you learned nothing from watching the mortals all these years? We have as much to learn from them as they do of us." A unique tone of voice interrupted the alicorn, a voice filled with raw strictness and eloquence that they all knew too well.
"Wait, I know that voice?" Topaz Silk traced her eyes over every part of the room to find the source but found that the voice belonged to a nopony there. Suddenly a turquoise-colored crystal floated into sight.
"Wait, that's my brother's crystal." Golden Williams smirked.
"Yes, but Lord Blood Diamond is shamefully too preoccupied to talk, so he delegated speaking to you all to me."
"Oh, of course." Topaz Silk slapped her hands together in realization. "Cold Blue, I almost didn't recognize your voice. Are you back from vacation?"
"Indeed, I am. I know we talk little--"
"Talk a lot. You haven't had the chance to speak to me in over two hundred years. You're always so busy." Topaz Silk chuckled.
"My duty is boundless, as it is my loyalty to the crown. But as I was trying to say, mortals like unicorns are not to be taken lightly. Yes, they can be cruel where you are stern, but they can also be kind in place of you... over generousness. My lord sees what I see, which is why he has told me to relay a message."
"Oh, and what does my brother desire?" Golden Williams leaned back.
"Yes... What do our other rarely seen members want to say?" Luna retracted her rage.
"You should leave the concerns of the unicorns to him. Meanwhile, let Rex continue his hunt for this fake king behind a mask of bones. Starswirl will continue his search for the remaining siren sisters. And..." The turquoise crystal floated over to one image, “Luna... you shall head over to the griffin kingdom.”
“And what do the griffins have to do with all of this?”
“Unsure, my lord simply noticed reports of an explosion in that area and suspects it might be another fly on this web.”
“But why me?” Luna poked with a stern glare.
“I don’t know his full reasoning but I suspect my lord, being your former husband, knows how quickly you fly off the handle.”
Luna’s eyes went wide and her mane darkened. “I will rip that alicorn’s flesh--” Her image vanished before her words could be finished as Topaz grabbed the blue crystal in her magic, breaking the signal.
“... Okay. Does my nephew have any other ideas besides torturing his ex?” Topaz Silk sarcastically chuckled.
“Indeed, it’s never wise to prolong the rage of my sister. He should already know this better than anypony.” Celestia, intervene. “And if indeed this explosion is connected, I shall go check on the griffins. I am closer anyway.”
“No, actually you would be better suited somewhere else.” Topaz Silk reentered as she finally remembered something else important. “Your father wants one of you to check out the Everfree Forest.”
“Again! Last time nothing was found,” Celestia almost pouted. "There is nothing strange about that. Forest."
“Yes, but the anniversary of the TDH event is coming up in two days.”
“You are referring to the Time-Dimensional Horizon sighting aren’t you?” Golden Williams interjected. “I would like to accompany Celestia. As a rising master of light magic, I would like to study the source should it be finally found.”
“No, you need to talk with your father, Golden Williams. If anyone is to get answers out of that old brother of mine, it’s his favorite son.” Topaz Silk stood up and bowed to both of them and the turquoise crystal as it took its leave. Celestia and Golden Williams bowed back and their images vanished as all the crystals left the room.
The crystal made soft screams in the winds as they flew out of sight.
The soft screams...
******
The snow-trenched ground softly screamed under the shadow of Twilight's steps as she made her way to the front door of the tavern. She walked up to it and stopped. Her breath went shallow before she reached for the door. Her mind wandered back over everything she had said to Starlight before finally wincing and letting some words loose, "Why do I have to be such a Twinannas?"
Once she felt the doorknob in her hand, she opened her eye. The inside was dark. This was no surprise since it was the middle of the night. Frankly, she was more surprised that the door was still unlocked. Maybe somepony was still up. Her eye winced once more but stopped upon her tripping. She caught herself from falling to the floor by grabbing a chair. She pulled back, and she noticed somepony in the chair.
"In the middle of the dark," her whispers did little to wake the sleeping pony. She lit her horn and her eye went wide to see that it was Starlight. "Were you waiting here for me?" A smile tore through her frown as she leaned over and pulled the blanket back up over Starlight. "Thank you, my little student." She pulled away and turned to the door to lock it. "Maybe Crimson was right--"
She stopped at the sounds clashing. Her eyebrows went up at it as she walked to the source. The noise had come from outside in the back area. Her eye jumped as the sound echoed again. It sounded like metal clashing against metal. It was too soft to be about a fight. It sounded tactical, almost repetitive.
Another sound followed, along with a slight yell. Her iris widened at that voice, "Silver Pear..."
Arriving at the backdoor, she looked through the window to see him with his green claymore. He was swinging at the metal dummy she had set up for her and Starlight. “Is... Is he training?”
Silver Pear struck the dummy once more. Despite the frigid chill in the air, sweat was pouring from his face, yet this sweat wasn’t from working so hard. “Ah,” He grabbed his arm in pain as his green claymore fell to the ground. Pulling away, he pressed tightly on his arm.
“It still hurts, doesn’t it?”
Silver Pear jumped back at Twilight’s voice. “Wow, where did you come from?”
“I got back.” Twilight placed her hand on the old spot on the stallion, scratching it. After a moment, she pulled away and raised her hand to her eyepatch. “How much does it hurt?”
“What? It doesn’t hurt at all.” Silver Pear spoke with more sweat than before.
Twilight huffed, “You are as much of a terrible liar as Applejack.”
“Who?” Silver Pear looked at her words with utter confusion.
“Oh, nopony special.” Twilight tried to hide her mess up with a small chuckle. She leaned down and picked up his green claymore, handing it back to him. “The pain won’t go away if you ignore it.”
“Would you rather I hide my rage instead?” Silver Pear took the claymore back and moved over to the dummy for another strike.
“What? I don’t hide my rage...” Twilight raised her hand to the eyepatch. “It …”
“I ignore it because I don’t hold a grudge.” Silver Pear narrowed his eyes.
“I... I see.” Twilight moved back more. “Look, I don’t resent Starlight for what she did.”
“Well, you certainly act like that sometimes.” He swung once more.
Twilight was about to answer him back but was stopped by his sneers of pain. “I... I’m sorry, we brought this pain on you.”
“And that’s where you are wrong again.” Silver Pear stopped and held the claymore toward the ground. He looked up to the Moon, “Pains we constantly suffer are pains brought on purely by ourselves.”
“What?” Confusion made Twilight lift her head to him.
“It is something more brother Gole would often say.” Silver Pear lifted his claymore once more and aimed it right at Twilight. “I placed this wound upon my arm when I fought that wendigo. as you placed that wound upon your eye when you fought it as well.”
Twilight closed her eye and raised her hand to the blade of the claymore. “Crimson was right. You and he are both right.”
“What?” Silver Pear lowered the claymore.
“I finished talking to Crimson before getting here.” Twilight turned away. “He said I should forgive Starlight for what happened and you say I shouldn’t hold any grudge for something that was... essentially my fault.” Twilight gritted her teeth and hugged her shoulders upward.
“Yeah, sounds like him.” Silver Pear pulled the claymore back completely.
“You sound like you know him more than I do.” Twilight halfway chuckled.
“Well, would you believe me if I told you I and he used to date?”
Twilight’s ear perched up at that and she turned back around slowly. “I did not know he went that way.”
“Well, not completely.” Silver Pear half chuckled. “He never slept with me, if that is what you are asking."
Twilight’s face went pale, and her cheek was rosey red. “No, I wasn’t asking that,” she deadpanned.
Silver Pear laughed, “Well, it was more like he needed somepony to comfort him.”
“Really?” Twilight’s deadpan vanished. “Huh, I didn’t realize he was like that.”
“Yeah, he is not that shy, he always felt so uneasy in this village.” Silver Pear looked at the ground for a moment before looking back at the dummy. “He never told me why.”
“I didn’t know.” Twilight raised her hand to her chin. “I guess I never got to know him that way.”
"You could always try!" His words poked a brighter blush from her face.
"No, no, no!" She stepped back even more.
Silver Pear smirked. “Enough of that. You need to get some rest if you want to be up early enough to make Starlight some breakfast.”
His words completely threw off Twilight. “... Wait, what?! I can’t cook. And why would I do that?”
“So you have a reason to ask for her forgiveness.” Silver Pear threw his claymore over his shoulder and walked to the door. “Besides, it’s getting late for me too.”
“Wait, I can’t cook,” Twilight repeated as she tried to stop him from leaving.
“That’s why you need to wake up early.” Silver Pear opened the door and walked inside.
“Wait, can’t I do something else.” Twilight ran to the door. "Spike always did all the cooking for me!"
“Hmm, maybe?” Silver Pear let go of the door and stepped inside.
“Silver Pear, I can't cook!” Twilight barely caught the door in the air. She walked inside and she chased after him. Her whimpering screams at him were only dampened by the closing of the door.
The Screams… The whimpering screams...
******
Whimpered screams surrounded the lands farther south. The desert terrain was now covered in thousands of crystal rods. These defiant objects were caked in blood and rotting flesh. Outside of the whimpering screams was a deathly silence.
In the center of this tortured forest were three creatures: a tall calm alicorn with red fur that shined like a diamond, a dark blue stern siren, and a beaten, weak zebra.
The dark blue siren placed down the gem and took a step back as the gem returned to the red alicorn. "Are you sure this is what you desire, Lord Blood Diamond?"
"Yes, we often side with the mortals, a command is still a command. You must be ready no matter what it may be, Cold Blue.” Blood Diamond took back the gem.
"Of course..." Cold Blue narrowed his eyes away from the prince.
"Now where were we?" Blood Diamond held out his arm blade toward the throat of the zebra. "That's right. Ogun was telling us how his magic works."
"Never, I never will."
Blood Diamond cleared his throat. "No, you have it backward. You have been telling us from the very beginning through your actions rather than words." On that, he held out the cobra. "The powder was probably the harder part to figure out."
Ogun smiled at his words. "Ha, you know nothing about my magic!"
Blood Diamond only gave a smile. "Your powder is made of alligator pepper, kola nuts, palm wine, and red palm oil. A very interesting concoction." His words left the zebra in utter loss of thought. "But that wouldn't be enough. The real magic comes from this cobra." turquoise magic covered the cobra before quickly ripping it open, revealing its entire inside to be maroon red. "Dark magic liquid, where did you get this rare item?"
"Never." Pulling on all of his strength, the zebra lifted his blade upward. Despite the blood pouring out of his wounds like a river, he refused to quit moving.
Cold Blue raised his hand to stop him, but Blood Diamond halted his ally's movement. "You will never tell us?" Blood Diamond backed up and narrowed his eyes at Ogun.
The zebra's eyes were unflinching and undaunting. They gave a strength Blood Diamond could only admire. Had this zebra been aligned with the prince, he would have met a much kinder fate.
Blood Diamond retracted his arm blades much to Cold Blue's shock and leaned in closer. Bold in his movement, the prince placed his hands on the hilt of the zebra's sword. "Fine... end it!"
Ogun turned his blade back down and stabbed it right through his own throat. He fell to the ground and his body jolted a few times.
"We almost wondered if he had the guts to do it." Blood Diamond retracted his arms and threw the cobra to the ground.
He turned back to Cold Blue and gave little care to the fear the siren had for his master. He walked ahead of the siren and a few feet before stopping. “Cold Blue?"
"What is it?" Cold Blue cut to attention.
"We believe we have beaten our father's record of criminals slaughtered in a single day." He looked over all the corpses. "Hmm, counting the ones here with the ones from this morning makes the count five hundred and thirty-two."
Cold Blue, eyes widened. "You're right. That's five more than your father's current record."
"Good, that's one thing out of the way." He was about to take a step to leave before holding his hand up when an idea flew forth. "Speaking of father, he has never been the creature to be so open about his plans." He turned back around. "Cold, the places that received the message."
"Them? It seems the message was only delivered to one place. And from there spread like wildfire."
“That is strange. What is the name of this lonely place?”
Cold Blue pulled out the report. “It seems the town is called Gelum Voce Pia,”
“A rare language… The language of the wendigoes if we are not mistaken. The name means ‘the Sweet Angel’.”
“The… Sweet Angel…”
"Indeed,” Blood Diamond turned around, “Cold Blue, we want you to go there and find out why father would ever consider that place so important." On that, a gem flew out of his sleeve and to Cold Blue. "This should make your travel easier."
"Thank you, Lord Blood Diamond." Cold Blue took the gem in his hand. The gem shined brightly over everything before vanishing with Cold Blue in tow.
Blood Diamond took a deep breath once his subordinate was gone. With the screams of the zebra’s dying breaths, the only sounds around him now. He let go of his smile and looked at them all. He looked deep into the terror and the rage they had in their eyes.
He turned back and looked at Ogun. The twitching had long ended, and the body was far from getting pale. Blood Diamond walked over and placed his hand on the zebra’s face, brushing the mane out of the way until the face could be seen clearly. “Such loyal beings should go to meet with Saturn with grace. Never hide your face from the reaper’s hand. And never look away from the ones you send his way.”
The zebra gave what strength he could to smile at the alicorn’s words. Blood Diamond smiled back at the paleness growing on the zebra's face. “That’s better. Greet him with joy, joy as if a son is meeting his father for the first time.”
With the place finally going silent, Blood Diamond let go of Ogun and waved his hands out of the field and the crystals slowly lowered themselves back into the ground, forming graves over each corpse.
Blood Diamond’s eyes changed color and form as his voice took on a different tone. “The joy that your journey has finally ended… and the joy that a new journey has begun…”
The morning cooed with the noises of a rooster. The reverberations tore through the tavern, following the sunlight to Starlight's face. Her nose twitched at the beam and her horn glowed to close the blinds without her needing to even open a single eye. The room wasn't filled with much of a mess when compared to Twilight's room. Even the blanket was perfectly folded around her form. She always kept her room cleaner than most.
"Oh... her nose is so cute." A soft male voice cracked through the rooster's now damping voice.
"Shut up, she will hear us." An annoyed female voice interrupted him.
"Twi... Teacher... I'm too tired... for training..." Starlight mumbled as her body moved.
The female voice went silent, and giggles of the male voice followed. Starlight turned at that sound; moving her hand free from the blanket and over her eyelids. The giggles faded with a slapping sound.
Silence followed as Starlight’s eyes timidly opened. Instantly she jumped at the sight of Silver Pear and Twilight standing in her room. "..." Despite being fully covered still, she pulled her blanket as close to her body as possible and sat up. "What's... going on here?!" Her voice was slow at first but quickly rose in an annoyed rage.
"Twilight tried to make you breakfast." Silver Pear smiled as he took a step back. Quickly hold his hand back from grabbing after a certain prize.
"I did?" Twilight almost forgot about the tray in her magical grasp until a nudge from Silver Pear changed that. "Oh yeah, I did." She lost her breath for a second and hesitantly placed the tray of food on the bed.
Starlight raised an eyebrow at this gesture. The tray had a bowl of cereal, an apple, and juice. It seemed rather pleasing to see, especially from her teacher. However, her nose twitched and her eyes watered at the stink. It quickly became apparent the choice of kindness was probably not the best.
Despite the look of the tray’s contents, it was very clear that almost all the meal was slightly burnt. This shouldn't have been surprising to Starlight, since usually all of Twilight's cooking was completely burnt beyond repair. This was the main reason when cooking was needed in the tavern: it was best to leave it to Starlight or Silver Pear.
Starlight had hoped, though, that with this sign of generosity, there would have been a bit more thought behind it. "Oh... thank you. It looks delicious." Starlight kept a smiling face as she brought the blackened apple to her mouth.
Twilight's face fell flat. "I know, I know. You don't have to eat it."
"Really?" Starlight looked confused at her words. "No, you worked hard on this." She took her bite, only to seal her mouth up in her best attempts to keep the contents down and prevent bile. "Mmm... good."
"Sometimes you are a worse liar than Silver Pear. Besides, it was his idea." Twilight deadpanned as she pointed to the stallion in the room.
“Hey don’t pull me into this. I’m the one who told you didn't need to roast the apple, especially with those kinds of spices.” Silver Pear held up his hands in distress. "And who's cook cereal?!"
"Don't worry, this wasn't the only idea for an apology."
"Oh, thank goodness." Starlight felt a sigh of relief fall over her as she put the apple down and got up. "Wait, an apology--" she was stopped as the bile rose back up and she disappeared in a puff of black and white smoke, presumably to the bathroom.
Silver Pear tried his best to hold back his laughter, and Twilight facepalmed.
"Don't worry, it will make sense later." Twilight let loose a smile. "Get downstairs as soon as possible." The two left Starlight alone, much to Silver Pear's annoyance.
Starlight's room itself wasn't empty of occupants. Sitting in a cage beside a window was an all too familiar brown spider. Gáidaros stretched out of his cave at the sounds of the flushing. The brown spider looked around before walking over to a web.
On the web was a fly that was perfectly tied into place to ensure no escape. Not remembering catching it last night, Gáidaros crawled right over and snatched it. He smiled at the scent of Twilight, happy to know that she also took the time to apologize to him as well. The brown spider dug his fangs in, sucking up the juices. As he ate his breakfast, his eyes wandered over to the rising sun in the distance.
“I’m not a fan of light and all its 'glory',” the spider spoke. “I can say with what good in my heart that this is indeed a beautiful morning… I will miss these kinds of mornings.”
The brown spider’s eyes wandered down the window to the road below. He continued to eat while watching the creatures of the town wake and walk through this pleasing morning.
******
Through those slowly growing crowds were many words being spoken. From the enormous mass talking about the coming war to the medium amount of daily grocery lists and even a small few wanting an early cider, begging for the Wolf’s Apple to open. Among those small few was Rainbow Dartz.
The stallion could rarely get far without a good drink, and, unlike most, Monday was his favorite day, because it meant the tavern would open once again. “Anytime now.” He rubbed some drool off his five o'clock shadow. As soon as he heard movement from the tavern, he reached for his pockets. “Alright, time to get my…” his hands moved erratically. “Wait, I know I brought my--”
A green blur passed by Rainbow Dartz, nearly knocking him off his feet. “Did you lose something?” a voice echoed from the green blur as it zipped around him.
“Yeah, Hermes I lost…”
“No, wait, let me guess… Your hand sanitizer?”
“No… my--”
“Hold on, I know, your belt!”
“I don’t wear a belt. My--”
“No, you're right, it’s not that,” the green blur couldn’t hide his giggles, “Hmm, your pants?”
“What? I’m wearing my pants?! Can you even see while running that fast?”
“Not sure, I’ve never crashed into anything.”
“Tell that to the pedestrians…” Rainbow Dartz snarked back. Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind. Despite recovering from a hangover, this sly drunk recognized what to do to get past this early morning annoyance. Holding his foot out, he closed his eyes and waited for it…
“Hmm, Oh I know you lost your wallet--” The green blur’s voice was cut off as he tripped and hit face-first into the wall.
“Yes… I lost my wallet, now how about you use that speed to go back to my place? I need somepony to pick it up, so I don't lose my spot in line.”
"Line?" Hermes spun his head around in a blur of movement. Despite, the dark blue pegasus's complaint, there wasn't much of a line at all.
“Oh, you want to buy something in the old tavern.” A fresh voice spoke up. It was filled with an honest grain that Rainbow Dartz took as familiar. He was too busy to care who it was... as long as it wasn't an ex asking for alimony.
In the end, though, he turned to see the owner of the voice... in case. The voice belonged to a rather foggy red stallion in ragged of clothing standing over his height. The foggy red stallion's face couldn't be seen as he wore a thick hood.
“And who might you be?” Rainbow Dartz raised an eyebrow and took a strong step forward. Determination to keep his spot in a line that didn't exist.
“That doesn’t matter, is the price still the same after all these years?” The foggy red stallion smiled at the dark blue pegasus’ nod. “Good, this should cover it.”
Before Rainbow Dartz could object, the foggy red stallion took his hand and placed some money in it.
“It’s okay, I decided I wasn’t going inside.” The foggy red stallion walked off.
“Who was that?” Hermes scratched his head as Red Steel picked him off the floor.
“I don’t know— Ah! Red Steel, when did you get here.” Rainbow Dartz jumped back.
“Silly, he was here the whole time.” Hermes jumped away from Red Steel's arms and into Rainbow Dartz’s arms.
“... Of course he was? Now get off me.” He knocked him back to Red Steel. “You two are perfect. One is too silent to be noticed and one is too loud to crash into.”
“Yea!!” The green griffin threw up his arms in joy. “I love that idea. Me and Red Steel, thick as thieves. Or maybe more…” He blinked his eyes fast at Red Steel for some reaction. The tall wall of buffalo gave a blank stare with no words. “Yeah, you're right, we should be friends.” The green griffin used his wings to push himself free and land on the ground upright. “After all, Twilight says friends are better as best friends than anything more.”
“That’s not even close to one of her sayings about friendship.”
“Speaking of friendship, it looks like you have expanded yours.” Hermes pointed at Rainbow Dartz’s hands.
“I’m not sure how friendship works… But hey, if he returns tomorrow with more money to give me, I’ll be his friend for life--” His words were cut short once he saw how much money the foggy red stallion had given him. His eyes went wide, and a sourness poured over him.
Hermes leaned over and looked at the amount in his friend’s hand. “... Wow, that is the exact amount for the most basic small-size cup of cider, tax included.”
“... no extra drink…”
Laughter poured out of both the griffin and buffalo. Their laughter echoed to the skies and back to Gáidaros, who was facepalming at the actions that happened.
******
The Sun's warmth tore through the thick clouds and onto the road. It cracked through almost any openings in the sky and knocked away every shadow from the night before.
An assortment of different species strolled past Starlight and Twilight without a care in the world. Griffins, sirens, donkeys, hippogriffs, and ponies alike were all walking by. War seemed on the horizon, very little would know this purely by looking at this old town alone. This place rarely had problems, and even when it did, it would be settled as quickly as it started. most of the time, many creatures were simply too busy to hold grudges. The alicorn and her student were among the ones to cause the least problems, and today was no different. Twilight looked like she was on a mission. Starlight, meanwhile, seemed bored with all this walking.
As they walked, Starlight tried her best to figure out what Twilight was up to. Her teacher’s recent actions made little sense. Yesterday, Twilight had been raging about the war that was most likely to break out any day, yet now it was as if none of that mattered. Starlight wanted to be happy about the smile on her teacher’s face, but there was something hidden under it.
Starlight's mind wanted to race back to plans she originally had for the anniversary of the event that trapped them in this timeline. It was tomorrow and everything she had thought up had been tossed to the wind with Twilight's outburst yesterday. She wondered if she could fix things.
“What's wrong?” Twilight's voice broke through the buzzing thoughts of the unicorn.
“N—nothing.” Starlight turned her head away from Twilight. “It’s that usually you only wake me up this early so we can get extra training.”
“Nah… no training today.” Twilight’s voice slowed, and she almost went jumpy.
Starlight's eyes went wide, and she giggled. “Wow, and I thought I was a terrible liar today.” She reached over and placed her arm over Twilight’s shoulder. “Come on, Teach. What's with the attitude change?”
“Nothing...” Twilight pulled the arm off and walked forward.
Starlight deadpanned. “Okay. can you at least tell me where we are going?”
“Don’t worry, we will get there soon.” Twilight’s smile faded once her face was out of the sight of Starlight. Yes, Twilight was happy, but unbeknownst to Starlight was also feeling the poison of guilt about anything that happened yesterday. Things today needed to go perfectly.
Without warning, Twilight came to a stop. “Well, here is our first stop.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow at the place. “A… butchery. But why here? We don’t even eat meat. Plus, the tavern gets its private stock meat for those certain customers.”
“I know that, but that’s not why we are here.” Twilight moved a little closer and made sure there was no dust on her clothes before knocking at the door.
There was no answer.
Starlight’s mind grew with confusion. To her, Twilight almost looked hesitant. “Oh, what’s wrong? Why are we here?”
Twilight didn’t answer. Instead, she gave the door another knock. Again, there was no answer. The alicorn tapped her foot twice before giving the door another knock, this time louder. “Where is he?” Her voice let slip words she didn’t want Starlight to hear.
“Who?” Starlight walked closer and looked directly at Twilight.
Twilight reached over again and knocked even harder. This time there was distress in her mind as Starlight could see the alicorn's wings tense up behind her cloak that was always used to hide them.
A moment passed and again… no answer came from the door.
“Okay, what is wrong?” Starlight gripped at Twilight’s arm before another attempt could be made.
“… Crimson isn’t answering.”
“Crimson?” Starlight blinked twice. She looked back and forth between Twilight and the butchery until it finally hit her. “Wait… is this where Crimson works?”
“Of course.” Twilight pulled her arm free and placed her hand on the door. “You didn’t know that he worked with meat?”
“No, I knew he worked with meat, didn’t know where.”
Twilight giggled, “Well, where else would he work?”
“Okay, that still doesn’t answer why we are here.”
“Well, I…” Twilight found her words wandering before finally up higher. “I wanted to say sorry to him as well.”
“Wait… did you yell at him too? Damn, Teach, your rage knows no bound--”
“No!” Twilight raised her voice. She was annoyed now, sure she never liked it when Starlight referred to her as Teach as it felt insulting, but Starlight was laughing even louder now. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize the true reason that Starlight was laughing.
“Stop laughing. He helped me get something off my chest last night.”
“Really?” Starlight was still skeptical. “You know that if Silver Pear was here he would ask how he helped you?” Starlight leaned inward with a devilish grin that perfectly brought a massive blush to Twilight's face.
“I and Crimson are not like that at all. You already know I choose to not have any relationships until we return to our time.”
“So, does that mean you are seeking? Or maybe Crimson can't live up to that Flash you sometimes dream about.”
Twilight's face glowed bright red, and she threw up her hands into the air, “That's it. If he is simply too busy, then I will leave a note.” On that, she conjured up her notebook. Quickly she wrote something and used her magic to teleport the note into the butchery, where she hoped that Crimson would find it.
“That's it?”
“Yeah,” Twilight smiled and her blush faded into a flush of rage. “Now come on, we have work to do before we get back to the tavern.” She grabbed her student by the arm and pulled her away.
“Hmm, speaking of which? Do you think Silver Pear is handling it fine? I have my doubts.” Starlight scratched her chin.
“You always seem to doubt that stallion of yours. He will be fine.”
“Yeah, I guess he will…” Starlight’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, what do you mean by ‘my stallion’?” Twilight let go of her student’s arm and ran ahead at her questioning. Starlight's face grew with anger. “Hey now, I see what you're saying. He is not my coltfriend.”
“Oh, you’re allowed to bug me about Crimson and even Flash, yet I’m not allowed to bug you about Silver Pear.” Twilight giggled at her student’s distress.
“Exactly. Wait, I mean… There is nothing between me and him. He flirts with every mare... and stallion... and even tree. Trees!” Soon they were both laughing as they went to their next stop. "Wait a minute, what was that letter?"
Twilight laughed even louder. "Isn't it obvious? I'm inviting guests to the party."
Starlight stopped at those words. "Huh... what party?"
Twilight's movements came to a complete stop. It was so abrupt that it caught Starlight completely off guard. As they stood still, waiting for an answer, a few snowflakes flew past Twilight's face.
"Teacher..." Starlight spoke through the silence.
"Starlight, hmm, I decided I am going to train you today."
"Wait, what?" Starlight took up her guard. "Here, now. I don't even have my gentlemare sword--" Her words were stopped as Twilight puffed from sight.
Starlight surged her horn with magic. She swung back and forth, looking for any sight of Twilight. Her mind raced on anything that would provoke this training. Yet, her thoughts were also on her teacher's words. What party was she even talking about?
Despite how long she thought, no answer came to mind. All she could do now was wait for Twilight to reappear. Suddenly, though, she felt a heavy weight on her head. It was pushing down on her mane. She reached up, only to stop once she realized there was a foot on her head.
She jumped back and Twilight landed back down. "This won't be training with swords, but words." Twilight stared at her with an evil glare.
"What do you mean?" Starlight stared at the fact that Twilight had her hands behind her back.
Twilight caught on to her student's keen eye. She was surprised. To Twilight Starlight’s greatest weakness was her inability to chance on to the obvious. Of course, this was indeed one of those times, as Starlight still had not let go of her magic. The teacher sighed at her pupil's fault and revealed what she had. "Here, read this?"
Starlight let down her guard at the sight of a rather large purple book. She quickly caught it but was unsure why she was about to read this. "What do you mean by 'read this?"
"I mean read. This is a book for my five friends. It’s not my original copy as that one is still in our timeline, but it is one that was made during our two years here through good old memorization." Twilight horn glowed, "Now obviously you don't have to read all of it, chapter eighty-two."
"Okay..." Starlight raised an eyebrow at this. "Why that chapter?"
"The chapter is called Similar Opposites and has to do mostly with my friends Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy."
"Wait, Opposites! I met those two, they are practically the same. I bet if I were to blindfold myself, I wouldn't be able to tell those apart at all, even by voice."
"Oh?" Twilight turned around and ran off. "Then that will be your training for today while we invite more guests to the party."
"Wait, what party?!" Starlight rushed after her
"Also, I expect you to carry some stuff as well." Twilight laughed aloud and continued to run, only this time much faster.
"Oh, come on?! I thought there wouldn't be any training today?!"
******
Loud noise tore through the tavern as the business of both worked and play made itself very clear to any onlooker. Inside Silver Pear did the best he could to dodge the voices flying through… well, the male voices anyway as he didn’t mind taking time out of his work to flirt with the nearest female patron, especially if they were new patrons or ones he still hadn’t slept with yet. Starlight was often on his mind… well her rear mostly he did often make moves on others, sometimes mares, sometimes even stallions.
Meanwhile, Granny Apple was at a thick round table playing a game of poker with Lighttone, Hermes, and Rainbow Dartz. Lighttone was simply passing the time until his medium-rare roasted turkey covered in pigeon leg sauce was done, Rainbow Dartz was trying his best to increase the amount of money he received so he could finally get properly blind-stinking drunk, Hermes was completely lost in this game despite having the winning hand for the third time in a row and Granny Apple was, of course, dominating the game with confidence as always.
Indeed, the place was filled with so much joy. Outside, though, was a different statement. The foggy red stallion from before watched from a window, making sure no one noticed him at first. His heart filled with joy but his face for what could be seen as nothing but sadness.
“Nothing changes around here,” He chuckled. “Always joy in this place.” He found the strain in stopping himself from tapping his foot at the blues playing in the background.
“Silver Pear. Not again.” He laughed at the slapping sound that echoed forth through the blues. He noted the bright red mark on Silver Pear and walked back to the kitchen. "You still keep the dream going."
After a few more minutes of watching, the foggy red stallion pulled his head away and looked at the clock tower, looming over them all. "Hmm, it's almost nine, I better go find myself some breakfast."
He turned his attention to the road. However, he crashed into a light blue siren filly. "Oh, sorry."
"No, it's okay, it was my fault." The light blue siren filly looked back and forth. "I'm sorry, I was looking for... my dog. He's big and gray."
"Hmm, sounds familiar. I guess I'll let you get back to it." He rubbed the filly's mane and went back to his business. "I hope you find him."
However, as he left, the light blue filly smiled and stood still instead of looking for her doggy. A deeper voice echoed from her mouth, "Hmm, could it be?" She stared at the foggy red stallion for longer than needed. "I think I did."
******
On the other side of town, the laughter of two beings out of time filled the market area as they explored. Starlight tried her best to read through the chapter of the large purple book and her teacher's less-than-pleasing writing style while attempting to keep up with her teacher's mission.
Twilight was gathering supplies as they were yesterday, though, this time Starlight was caring for the stuff. At the same time, she was inviting more to the party.
“Hmm, not this.” Twilight put down the brown book with fancy writing on it.
“What?! Not that one either, but you looked at it for a solid ten minutes. Beside…” Starlight reached over to the book, “The Encyclopedia of pneu mu… pneumon oulti… pneu monoul tramicro.” The fancy writing made Starlight take multiple attempts, each time being nowhere near the right answer.
Annoyed, Twilight finally grabbed her student’s mouth shut with magic. “The word you are looking for is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”
Starlight puffed away the spell over her mouth. “Wait, that's a whole word! There is no way that's a proper word.”
“Of course it is. It is the name for an infection or disease related to the inhaling or skin absorption of dust-size crystals.”
“Really?” Starlight was in complete disbelief. “Does that happen often enough to be given such a long and ridiculous name?”
“Not too often.” Twilight raised her index finger, “Actually the strangest thing is today’s newspaper reported pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis case happening last night.” She turned around and grabbed the book. “Hold on, this means I have to give this another read.”
“Wait, another read?”
“Of course, I’ve already read this copy four hundred and eighty-two times. I need more information now, though. Did you know that the recent case involved a group of zebras in the south?”
“Oh, joy... I’m certain you will tell me everything about this…” Starlight couldn’t help but give a deadpan. In the end, she knew once Twilight went into what she referred to as ‘ultra-teacher mode’, there was no way to stop her from talking.
“WAIT!!” Twilight stopped her train of words and halted her movement so fast that Starlight nearly crashed into her.
“Now what?”
“This isn’t the Encyclopedia of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Documentation IV Edition, this is Encyclopedia of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Documentation V Edition.” Twilight practically couldn’t hide her happiness.
“And that’s good how?”
“I haven’t read this copy. Who knows? It may have a report of the zebra case from yesterday.”
“I highly doubt they updated it that quickly.” Starlight’s words fell on deaf ears as Twilight walked back to the counter.
“I would like to rent this book. I'm going to need plenty of time reading this, so give me the longest amount of time you can.” Twilight gave more money to the thin red mare working the counter.
“Certainly.”
“Really?” Starlight rushed back over. “Don’t tell me you are going to read that one as many times as the last one.”
“Of course not.” Twilight turned toward her and gripped the book to her chest. “I’m going to read this easily three times as much, maybe even more.”
Starlight gave no words for that answer, the blankest deadpan she could muster.
Twilight couldn’t laugh back at her student, as happy in getting a new book, but also happy that her student had learned well from her own deadpans. “Wow, that was near as epic as the deadpans I’ve given Pinkie Pie.”
“Sure.” Starlight turned away. "Can we go now? We got more stuff to do."
"Give me a minute," Twilight wrote and noted and gave it to the thin red mare.
The red mare took the note and read it silently. “Sure, you can see me there as well.”
“Thanks, Jezebel. Invite any others that you can.” Twilight took her leave. "The more, the better."
“Wait, Twilight. I couldn't help but notice you were looking for something else,” Jezebel questioned.
“Yeah, I was. I was looking for a gift for a… friend. a friend.” Twilight stomped her foot down loudly to make sure it wasn't twisting. “I wish I could--”
“Wait,” a white siren mare with a big bust beside Jezebel interrupted. “Wish! I think we have what you need.”
“What do you mean, Izabel?”
“Hold on,” Izabel reached behind the counter, her ample size constantly getting in her way. “Wait, wait, I, I, got it.” The mare got back up and brought out a chest with strange writing on it.
Twilight’s eye went wide. “What is this?”
“I found this in the attic at my father’s old house. In some chest, he refused to open. Despite that, I opened it a few times when I was younger and I was overjoyed to see this.” She opened it.
Twilight’s eye glowed at the brilliant hue of a necklace with a turquoise pearl at the center. “Oh, it’s beautiful, but not my taste. I know a unicorn back where I'm from that would adore this.”
“Take it, it’s in the house.”
“What?” Twilight jumped back a bit.
“You were looking for a gift and I’m certain this will work perfectly.”
“I’m not sure how Crimson--”
“Oh, so it’s for Crimson?” Jezebel and Izabel both giggled.
“It’s not like that. And besides, I doubt he is the jewelry type.”
“Oh you are silly,” Izabel continued while giggling. “This isn’t for wearing constantly. give the inscription a read.”
Twilight leaned her head over the spot the white siren mare was pointing at. “Here lies the wishes of Morpheus. May the dreamer’s wish always be granted.” Twilight pulled the turquoise pearl necklace out and held the prize gem close to her eyes. “Wait, is this powered by some form of magic? Why would you give me such a thing?”
“I’m not sure about any power. All I know is my father never wanted me to touch it. So when he kicked me out yesterday I took it from him when he wasn’t looking.”
“Oh, to teach that cruel father of ours a lesson.” Jezebel bumped her shoulder against her sister's.
“Surely. Besides, if it is real, I’m certain you and Crimson will find better use out of it than he ever would.” Izabel reached over and caressed her hand around Twilight's chin. “Come on, you may work at a bar and he may work at a butchery, but we all see you two constantly looking at new magical stuff. You two can't hide your magical natures. I’m sure you both will get enjoyment out of studying this too.”
“You think so.”
“I know so. Besides, you are the biggest customers of books we're ever had. Consider this payoff for store credit.”
"Come on, Teach. Quit questioning and take the gift." Starlight pulled Twilight away to their next stop. "If we wait here all day, we won't have time for this party you keep wanting."
******
A rush of movement failed to get Rex's attention, as he finally noticed the darkened spot on the map. "If this is like the other, then that means one of the Alathar has been moved." He moved his fingers back and forth between the two darkened spots. "hna takmun raghabatin Morpheus. narju 'an yatima manh raghbat alhalim daymana." He retraced over a certain word. "Hmm, Starswirl, who is Morpheus?" He called out.
Starswirl's head appeared from a puff of cotton candy. "Hmm, if I remember correctly, Morpheus is the alicorn of dreams and husband of Cassandra, the alicorn of nightmares. He forged the dreamscape itself."
"Okay, thank you. That will be all."
"Are you sure? You don't seem to notice the surrounding rush." Starswirl spun his head around the room.
"Yeah... sure... rush..." Rex went back to reading.
Annoyed upon realizing that Rex had already tuned him out, Starswirl took his leave.
Rex traced his fingers over the writing again. "hna takmun raghabatin... hna takmun raghabatin... Here lie the wishes of Morpheus. May the dreamer--" However, he was stopped in his tracks at finding himself being launched away from the table. His body flew toward the wall as the ship turned to its side. The force was quite unexpected. He threw out his arms. His chains shot out and grabbed the nearest table as all of them were part of the airship's body and therefore wouldn't move with him.
The same could not be said of the map as it flew past Rex's eyes. He gritted his teeth at this and attempted to reach for it with his foot. Out of nowhere, a cloud of cotton candy appeared to catch the map.
"Thank you Starswirl..." Rex huffed in annoyance.
"You're welcome, old friend." On that, the cloud vanished with the map in tow. This only brought more annoyance to the umbrum as he lowered himself down to the nearest wall as the airship adjusted itself.
"Arg, sorry for the sudden stop, everyone." Fredricson's voice bells over the intercoms.
"You have terrible timing, you damn pirate." Rex picked himself up. It was at this moment did he notice all the movement from Clover and Lady Cat as they raced back and forth. The two mares were unaffected by the rush of movement, as they saw it coming. Plus, it helped that Lady Cat could fly. As for Clover, she was never the best with telekinetic magic, she had some promise at self-levitation.
Directions of movement from the two mares were centered on the front, so it was clear to Rex they knew the focus of this interruption.
Soon he too arrived at the front of the cockpit, where Fredricson was eating a sandwich. "Okay, I was in the middle of finding where the next Alathar might be. Do any of you mind telling me why we suddenly stopped? And please don't say it was because the pirate here needed a sandwich."
"Arg, don't get mad at me. It's the little filly that is to blame." Fredricson pointed to Adagio.
"What does the filly want now?!" Rex tossed up his hands and leaned into the door.
"Maybe, you not yelling at her," Clover pushed Rex out of the way and brought over a lollipop for the siren filly.
"A candy?! That is all."
"I see you're always terrible with children," Lady Cat also pushed him out of the way.
"I am not!" Rex threw out his annoyance and walked over to the nearest wall to lean on instead.
"Enough you four. We need to find the real purpose for the filly's outburst." Starswirl pushed Rex away from the wall as he puff out of it.
The old wizard walked over to the filly and knocked away the lollipop in Clover's hand. He leaned down to Adagio's height, giving her a cup of chocolate milk instead. "So little filly can you tell us why you demanded Fredricson stop the airship."
The orange siren filly took the chocolate milk and sipped it before finally answering. "I... I sensed her."
"Who?" Starswirl snapped his fingers, and the glass refilled itself.
Adagio took another drink and finished her words. "I sensed one of my sisters... I sensed Sonata Dusk."
"Hmm, where?"
She put the glass in her mouth and drank more while walking over to the nearest window. She pointed out to a town a few miles away. "That town, the one with the clock tower."
The town ahead of them was a mix of stone and wood. The stone structures seemed to circle toward the center where a clock tower stood.
A loud slam filled the room and reverberated through every metal chair. Star Stone slowly awoke. His face was covered in sweat, yet the room was ice cold. He scanned over everything, trying his best to find out where he was, what happened to the others, and above all, where was the being called Thule.
It was a luxurious oak wooden room filled with red and blue tapestry tapering off the ceiling, black cushions at the corners, and many animal pelts plastering the walls. Despite the coziness of this stuff, none of them were anywhere near him. He was stuck to a metal chair that had long lost its icy touch with a very basic and crude metal table in front of him, which seemed caked in dust and grime. He looked around the table and saw five other chairs. There was a very unusual stink in the air and the room seemed devoid of any recent sounds, out of the slamming echo which was finally fading.
The crystal pony turned to his left and saw the gray griffin sitting in one of the five chairs. “Clay Sand!” He spoke to the griffin.
The gray griffin gradually twisted in his chair. He realized what was happening and tried to pull free, yet the bars over his arms, chest, and legs made progress difficult. “Where are we? And, what is that smell?” He pulled back in revilement.
“I don’t know, but a better question is why didn’t he kill us?”
“Because we were told to spare you.” A voice filled the room. The voice felt western in tone and was clearly that of a female, yet the species couldn’t be grasped by these details alone. “He asked me to put the choice of life in your hands. The old cook's idea makes perfect sense and it fits fine with the ideas of lord Frost.”
Clay Sand looked around until he spotted a bell tone spout out from a wall in the far corner of the room. “Over there?” he pointed.
“Ideas of lord Frost? So you are not the wendigo, nor Thule?”
“Oh my, I am certainly not the good lord, but I will tell him you asked for his graces. The good king is currently busy with a few things.”
“What are you then? His secretary?” Clay Sand laughed through his weakening breath.
“Well, it seems our little spy was right. You are the comedian of the group.”
Her words cut through Clay Sand’s laughter and spun his mind around. The gray griffin’s rage grew at her words before finally giving in. “What? Did one of us give in? Bring that chickenshit over here!”
“Oh my darlin, maybe you should look at who is missing from your group.”
On that, Star Stone and Clay Sand scanned the room again. To the left of the crystal pony was the white changeling who was still not moving, but alive as her breath could be seen in the cold air. On the other side of the table, were two chairs covered in darkness and one that wasn’t.
The lone chair was empty and Star Stone remembered well enough that his batpony ally was very dead the last time they saw him, so he reasoned that the blank chair must have originally been meant for them. This left the question of who was in the other chairs and who was the traitor, if this traitor was even in the room at all, as the mysterious mare heavily hinted.
Star Stone turned to the changeling, “Sour Dream, wake up.”
“Grendel Sound and Sage Brimstone, answer me,” Clay Sand barked at the other chairs.
“What happened?” Sour Dream struggled in pain.
“Good news, now that all you folks are awake, the game can begin." The western mare laughed.
“What are you talking about?” Clay Sand struggled over to the table, trying his best to reach the black-lit chairs. “Grendel Sound and Sage Brimstone, answer me!!”
“Those two handsome gents were the first to wake up. And when they heard what the good Lord had planned to make you all talk…”
On that, a light brightened through the darkness and revealed the first chair.
“By the Broken One’s holy name?!” Star Stone cursed aloud at the sight of it.
The siren’s mouth had been ripped wide open and his eyes had been torn from their sockets. His chest had been torn apart and his stomach itself laid on a plate in front of the corpse for all to see while his intestines were missing. His arms were also missing along with his legs.
Clay Sand pulled back in horror.
Star Stone noted something else that his allies did not. The stomach was perfectly cleaned and had ice under it like it was being preserved. There was… brown and red seasoning on it and even small fruits around it, giving a certain flair to it.
“The proud siren gave up so easily. Tattling his little tongue off as fast as he could when we presented him with the choice, unfortunately, he still didn’t take our offer. So we waited until the rest of you were awake before presenting you with the same offer.” She stopped and the sounds of chewing followed. “Actually, as a doctor, I feel as if I’m lying to myself since a siren’s tongue is the longest part of their body.”
Hearing her words filled all of them with bile, except for Star Stone, who only became filled with rage. Yet, his mind raced over the next question. Who was in the other chair?
“Enough!” Clay Sand knocked his chair around loudly to dampen the sounds of her chewing. “We will not give in to this torturous talk. None of us betrayed each other, did we?” He pointed to the other chair. “Sage is dead too?”
“What makes you say that?”
“The smell in this room is far too strong for one body, especially one so well cleaned.” Star Stone noted every detail in the assumption that he was right, trying his best to ascertain a reaction from the western mare.
“Oh, wow. You are about as brilliant as a diamond in charcoal.” Hearing her words filled Star Stone’s mind with victory. “If the diamond wasn’t a hallucination brought on by pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”
“What?” The rather large word brought great confusion to them.
“You never heard of such a word. What are creatures learning nowadays? There was an additional issue on this disease published yesterday. I wish it had included the details of an incident that happened to some zebras in the south that also happened that night, I would love to know more about that.”
All three of the hostages were at a complete loss why the western mare brought this up. However, this knowledge brought more hints to Star Stone's mind. To him, this mare either was an incredibly thick bookworm with too much time on her hands or a creature that needed such knowledge on standby. "She said she was a doctor so maybe, but that is such a rare disease you only need to study if you… were living near or in volcanic areas." He smiled at all the facts coming together. “Enough of this.” He finally spoke aloud. “Show us that the other chair is empty.”
“It is?! It wasn’t empty when Thule was there.”
“What are you talking about?” Clay Sand questioned his friend.
“Of course, I know it’s empty as I know who the traitor is.” Star Stone is confirmed.
“Oh, and how would you know that?” The western mare twisted her words.
“Because of who you are. You are Vanity Claymore, the sister of Annity Claymore, the ifrit who was killed by Rex that sparked the debate that brought all of us into the same place so the traitor Sage could lead Thule to us.”
"... oh, you're good. Sage was right about you. Yes, he's not in the room with you." The final light revealed the truth. In the last chair was a decaying slap of bones and thinly held-together flesh. One distinct feature could be made of the mess, and that was the large hole in the ribcage. “Sorry, I didn't have time to stitch up the batpony before the ingredients were removed.”
“So, Draken Shard didn't make it after all." Star Stone sneered at the corpse and turned toward the speaker. "Look, it doesn’t matter what you do to us. We won’t talk,” Star Stone assured his confidence with looks from the others. Clay Sand smirked an obvious yes, while Sour Dream, still shaken up, nodded a slow yes as well. “There you see.”
“Won't matter, Thule is watching you from somewhere in the room. That octopus won't let any of you leave until you concede.” Vanity snapped her fingers.
Tentacles descended from the darkness above with covered steel plates in tow. “Give yourself some time to think. Meanwhile, I’ll get to the real reason you are all here.”
“And that is?”
“The offer. Lord Frost wants your monstrous side to come out.” On that, the covers were lifted back up to the ceiling and the contents were revealed. “Behold a delicious meal for you to enjoy.”
All of them were at a complete loss for this. They did not know how to even react to such a suggestion. Sure, the meat was cleaned perfectly and even finely prepared with all kinds of seasoning. There was even a collage of vegetables on the plate as well. The meal looked expertly made as if by the finest chef in the land... however, the meat was none other than the very missing 'ingredients' from their batpony ally.
“What is this?!” Sour Dream finally gave a response.
“Dinner made from Draken Shard. I wish I could see it now. The smell was quite incredible while our butcher was making it. I'm only a doctor, so seeing such things being made is a rarity.”
“We would never do such a thing. Why are you doing this to us?” Star Stone struggled away from it.
“You aren't listening, are you? Look around you. Take the advice of a professional doctor who has had years of experience dealing with the dead or near dead, ranging each of your species' limits on starvation and dehydration, it will take five days at least for the first of you to decay from the inside and show the signs of malnourishment. So Lord Frost’s 'torture' will be simple. You either give Thule the coordinates to each of your alathar and get a quick and cowardly death like your siren and batpony compatriot, or you eventually eat this delicious meal in front of you and see things a new way, our way, and finally give in to our demands, willingly. Doing the last choice will guarantee no death and even your freedom will be granted with no hesitation.”
“What if we let ourselves die?” Star Stone smirked in victory. He was quick to spout his words because he had dealt with the worst problems before, being a former member of his species' black op core. He had seen torture first hand and to him, this seemed poor.
“Really?" Thule's voice poured over the room and tore at Star Stone's bravado. “You are being more unnecessary than you need to be.” Tentacles rose from the chairs and crawled over their bodies. “Let me hint you in on one thing that I learned in my billions of years of life.” The tentacles wrapped tightly around their throats. “All creatures have one powerful urge in common. Something that will never separate them and will tear through every part of their soul... always.” The tentacles stopped before cutting off circulation and instead traveled to their mouths, gripping at their lips, almost like a demand to be let in. “It is something all creatures, no matter what morality, race, religion, personal history, or even mortality, can ignore. It’s the one thing that holds his plan in place and why it will never fail.” Finally, the tentacles forced their mouths open and pulled their heads over the meat. It held them in place and refused to move, no matter how much they struggled.
“Survival!!” an unfamiliar voice spoke aloud over the speaker. It was so icy that even the old warmth of their chairs seemed to vanish and fill their whole body with an unbearably painful chill that was far colder than the outer air and struck through to the center of their souls.
Vanity took her chance to finally retake command of all this. “Look around you all once more. This place is devoid of everything needed for survival. There are no water, food, or nutrients except what lies in front of you. In five days, you will be malnourished and in ten days, your body will do what ever you seemed to be currently refusing. Eat, that is inevitable.”
“It’s only a matter of time.” Thule's tentacles pulled tighter.
All of them twisted in their chairs as static filled the speaker. Emptiness followed, filling the air with dread and fear and eventually, but most important of all…
Among them, despite how much they wanted to deny its existence and the victory of the icy words spoken. They could only fight it for so long…
Soon, hunger would arrive.
******
In a cold room with many windows and leather chairs sat Vanity and Sage. The two were at a table with nine cozy chairs that ideally gripped around the users and empty plates gleaming with clear light, one per chair. Each plate had fine utensils laying them perfectly placed in such a way to give the form of elegance above all else.
Laughing again, Vanity leaned her head back. Dropping the last bite of the siren's tongue right into her flaming jaws, she lamented that its unique taste was akin to that of a meaty piece of fat. With a few chews and a swallow, the piece was gone. She lowered her head and looked to her left. "Now, where were we? It's Sage Brimstone isn't it?"
"Yes, ma'am." the white ifrit shrunk into a chair beside Vanity.
"Well, as you heard from your former compatriot, I am Vanity Claymore." All her actions sent an ever-growing chill through his whole body. How could a beautiful mare do such vicious things?
Yes, beauty was one thing he couldn't deny. Vanity stood nearly half a foot taller than him. She wore a pure white lab coat over a pink skirt that perfectly cupped her small chest and a shirt combo with magenta jeans that curved so tightly around her long, slender legs.
"Oh, don't stare, I might think you have your eyes on other plans." Her words pulled him from his thoughts.
"I... I'm sorry." He turned back to the empty plate in front of him.
"Nah, why should I care? It's a common form of survival to find the opposite gender appealing." She winked at him.
Sage was about to apologize when the creaking of the fancy door at the other side of the room stopped him. A purple aura flowed over it and pushed it open. Two ponies walked through to the table. A short black earth pony and a dark lavender unicorn with a chef's hat. The two brought forth a group of eight metal plates with covers over them.
"Oh, Carnival, it's good to see you. How was Annity's funeral service?"
"Quite palpable, quite palpable. Your parents were quite sad to lose their... son." He carried his words so finely that when the last word came up, it almost sounded too far out of place.
Vanity slammed her hand on the table as her mane flamed up. "Son... Is that the damn word they used?"
"Of course, of course. You know I would never take such words in vain, especially around you. Besides, we need to get to the recruits. We will arrive soon." Carnival stared deep at Sage.
"Don't worry, he can be trusted." She looked over at the dark lavender unicorn with the chef's hat. "Chef, get over here with that food and help me prove Sage's loyalty."
"Calm yourself, calm yourself." Carnival walked over to a chair and sat down before finishing. "We still need to give grace." On that, the dark lavender chef brought over the plates and placed them down. One to each of them, leaving six plates unattended.
The dark lavender unicorn didn't take a plate at all, or even a chair. He simply stood back and waited, keeping his face hidden the whole time.
"I'm assuming one of those extra plates is for Rex?" Vanity snarked. "Why does Lord Frost continue to try?"
"Our great lord sees so much potential in him."
"Even if he killed Annity!"
"What happened doesn't excuse the possibility of him joining?"
Vanity rolled her eyes and pointed to the next two plates. "Okay, so those are for..."
"The Night Brothers. They are running a bit late. It's rather hard to cross the celestial sea this time of year. But they said that they would arrive at the unicorn providence soon."
That answered all but the final two. "What about...?" Vanity paused her words and let Carnival figure out the rest. This wasn't that hard, even for the very blunt priest in circus attire. The last two plates were certainly special since they had gold rimming them.
"Oh, yes, oh, yes. One is for our good lord, the other is for a special guest."
"And that special guest is?"
"We will arrive to see her soon." The dark lavender unicorn interrupted them. Putting to rest the question, finally, the chef walked over and pulled the covers off.
Sage was taken completely aback by the sight of the finely cooked arm of his siren ally now in front of him. The arm was cooked to a golden brown with much of the skin crisped and barely hanging on. Some freshly cut carrots and red wine vinaigrette lay around it.
"Well done, again." Vanity smiled. The dark lavender unicorn took his leave.
Once the chef was out of sight, Carnival held his hands outward toward Sage and Vanity. "Let us pray for this elegant food. Indeed, let us pray." Annoyed, Vanity bowed her head. Sage didn't at first, but slowly followed a shove from the ifrit beside him.
"The great darkness once shielded us from the light. It never seemed to care to guide us until he came along. The bastard, the killer, and the butcher. Our great lord Frost led us out through the darkness and into a light greater than any light could be. He showed us, yes, he showed us the path and the way to righteousness. Union, family, and above all--"
"Yeah, yeah, all that good stuff." Vanity interrupted.
Carnival huffed in annoyance. "Amen."
The word didn't even reach Sage's ears. He was still in too much shock at the plate. Slowly though, the ifrit's eyes wandered over to the others. Carnival showed absolutely no hesitation, gulping down red wine from what Sage could only assume was a filly's skull, slurping up the juices like a deranged pup. Despite her rush to eat, Vanity was slowly cutting off small pieces of meat from another siren arm and savoring every piece in her mouth before swallowing.
Suddenly, Sage caught sight of Vanity's clean, olive-colored eyes. She stared at him while continuing to eat. Her eyes pointed toward his food more than twice. Seeing her hint, Sage turned back to his plate. Despite knowing the owner of the arm, he felt an urge of hunger that he knew he couldn't ignore.
Taking in a deep breath, he picked up the fork and knife and stabbed the nearest piece of flesh. He found that the flesh was quite tender in the cut, as brief pressure was needed at all. He brought the piece to his mouth and hesitated for only a single moment that felt like an eternity before finally placing it onto his tongue. Pulling back his teeth kept the meat from rolling out. Closing his eyes and releasing his jaws, he let it move back and forth around his mouth.
He expected himself to gag, pull back, or even choke on revilement, but the flavor was all he could taste. His mind screamed in agony at the taste, but no matter how many dark thoughts went through his head, his stomach didn't hesitate once.
Seeing the swallow made Vanity smile.
******
In town, Starlight struggled to keep up with Twilight as they raced toward the center. Sure, there have been many times when the student could outpace her teacher, but today things were different. Starlight was still carrying a large amount of stuff and attempting to finish the chosen chapter of the purple book, so her speed was hurt.
“Finally, we're here.” Twilight came to a stop. “And in time too.” She pointed to the clock tower as it struck noon.
Starlight lifted her head at the sounds of the clock tower as it boomed over the area. Her sight traced over a dusty altar and a few dozen meters of extra room in all directions. “This place? This is where you will have your party?!”
Twilight smiled in confusion at her student’s question and walked over to pat her on the head. “Wow, you are truly forgetful today.”
“What do you mean by that?” Starlight didn’t like this demeaning tone from Twilight.
“This wasn’t my party to plan, this was yours.” On that, Twilight pulled her into a tight hug.
It took a few moments for Starlight to finally realize what Twilight meant. As everything fell into place, Starlight’s eyes widened, and she returned the hug. “Really? Oh, thank you! Thank you!”
“Of course. That’s why I asked you to read that chapter about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.”
“Wait…” Starlight kept the hug going, but pulled her head back in confusion.
“Exactly, the lesson was about--”
“So… a party.” A lone male voice beyond them stopped Twilight's train of thought.
She turned away from Starlight and saw Crimson standing at the entrance. In pure reaction, she puffed out of Starlight’s arms and right in front of Crimson. “Yes… a party to celebrate the day I arrived in this timeline.” Despite the clarity in her words, they were slow to pull out of her mouth. She was a bit shocked he would show up, she was also surprised by his clean trim of clothing. She was so used to his always unkempt style. It seemed like he cleaned up… for her.
“The day you arrived… Isn’t that tomorrow?”
“I wanted to celebrate today instead.” Again, she was surprised for reasons she couldn’t explain. She knew she wasn’t blushing, so what could have her mind in such a fluster?
"That's fine by me." Starlight threw the stuff into the air and puffed them away. Seconds later, the stuff returned with extra that had been part of the original plan. At first, what Starlight had was simply to include Silver Pear, herself, Twilight, and a few regulars from the bar, maybe even Crimson, but since Twilight spent the day giving messages to so many others it was clear this kind of party would be much bigger.
"And it's perfect timing." Crimson walked over to help Starlight. "Today is the eve of the Winter Solstice too."
Twilight's eye went wide at those words, and Starlight herself nearly dropped the stuff to the ground.
Crimson's horn glowed an icy blue and caught the stuff at the very edge of the ground. "Did I say something wrong?" He placed the stuff down softly. He looked back and forth at the faces of both mares. "Don't... tell me you forgot?"
Twilight's mind went racing nonstop, "Don't tell me we ... Did we create... No, that's not possible... Could it?"
Starlight grabbed her teacher and attempted to push everything aside to walk her around and rest her brain. "Okay, you can calm down, Teach... I highly doubt we will change the timeline with one party."
"How would a simple party do that?" Crimson walked over to Twilight, only to be stopped by a gesture from Starlight.
"Well... we have a holiday in our timeline called Hearth's Warming." Starlight tried her best to smile, knowing that saying those words aloud would only make her teacher's mind race faster. "It takes place on the winter solstice..."
"How could I forget...? How could I forget...?” Twilight mumbled to herself, back and forth. "We have to make sure... No earth ponies or pegasi. Did I invite anyone of importance to... history?"
"Hmm, oh, I've got it." Starlight stopped pushing her teacher around. "Twilight, isn't there something you want to show Crimson?"
"I forgot... I forgot...--" Twilight stopped herself and looked at Starlight. "What are you talking about--" Her eyes went wide, and she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers. A box puff into view and landed in her free hand. "Yeah... wait what if giving him this... will it create the traditions that we celebrate--"
Starlight closed her teacher's mouth with magic. "Take a deep breath, we will not change history!" Instantly she let go of the magic hold and quickly apologized.
"You... got me a gift." Crimson placed his hand on the chest. "I believe Starlight. Let me see. Last time I received a gift it was from my father."
Twilight dropped her confused and moody look. She took a deep breath and spoke, "Okay, it's something small." She opened it.
"Oh," He smiled and pulled out the necklace.
"I thought it would be something cool if we could study it together. I mean, if that's what you enjoy doing with me."
Crimson didn’t answer at first as he continued to look over the necklace so closely. His stare was so intense, it was as if he was in another world. "It is fate..." he whispered.
“Crimson?” Twilight walked closer.
“Just as she said.” His eyes blinked twice. Twilight’s words had pulled him out of whatever wandering his mind was going through. Crimson looked back at her and smiled. “Of course, I always enjoy studying stuff with you, Twi.” His words differed from before. There were hints of joy, yes, and even sincerity, but there was an underlayer of something else that caught both the mares’ attention. They couldn’t place what was so different about his voice, only that it was a hint of something they never noticed in him.
Crimson posed as he held the necklace up high. “I think I should wear this, so we don’t misplace it during the party.” He dropped it over his head and around his neck. "Is that okay, Twi?"
“Uhh.. sure.” Twilight backed away with a smile.
“Well, we better get ready for this party. Silver Pear will be here soon.”
“What about Granny Apple?”
“Oh, come on, you know she is not a big party pony.” In those words, the three moved to set things up as ponies and other creatures slowly made their way to them.
******
Back at the Wolf’s Apple, the business had slowed to a halt. Granny Apple stepped out of the tavern and looked around. She was curious about the sudden drop in business, but also interested in what the commotion was. She could hear Twilight and Starlight’s names being brought up constantly by random ponies as they passed by. “Now what have those mares gotten themselves into?”
Seeing that everyone else seemed too busy, she reached over and flipped the open sign to close, then put her cane to the side. She reached back inside and grabbed out the broom and a bag of salt. “Well, I best get things ready for when they get back. I hope those two are finally having fun. Speaking of which, where is that son of mine.”
Suddenly she heard footsteps crack through the thin snow on the road, heading in her direction. The stepped separated themselves from the rushes in her ears because they were much slower and more precise. As a former big game hunter, this old mare could easily tell the difference between rush and hesitation. “Now who could that be?” She stopped her work and looked toward the sound.
A few meters ahead of her was the foggy red stallion. She felt a strange emotion at seeing him. She couldn't quite place the emotion, other than strange familiarity.
“Hello, sir,” she waved at him, but he stopped his approach and backed away a few steps. “What's wrong sir?” Granny Apple walked closer. She knew he wanted something, but couldn’t figure out what.
Suddenly, he held up his hand in a gesture to stop her. He stood still for several moments before waving his head. He turned around to go in the other direction.
“Adults these days are so confusing?” She scratched her head in confusion before going back to work.
******
Booms filled the air above the center of town as ponies and many other creatures danced through the altar outlet. Starlight was surprised. She didn’t expect so many to show up for this party. She only planned for a few ponies before Twilight twisted everything around. “It’s a good thing that Twilight told me to read that terrible chapter.”
“So that teacher of yours had a brilliant idea too?” Silver Pear walked over with three mares wrapped around him.
“What? Of course, she always does.” Starlight gave little reaction to the other mares.
“Is that why you wanted it to be a surprise?”
“Well, actually I wanted to handle everything myself.” Starlight leaned her head down.
Seeing the sadness he brought to her, Silver Pear nodded to his dates, and they walked over to the punch bowl. The slick stallion walked over and leaned on the wall beside Starlight. “There is nothing wrong with asking for help.”
“I know that. She has done so much for me during these years, trapped in multiple timelines. Helping me through all kinds of stuff. From saving me from a vicious killer to standing by me against a titanic god, of all things. And yet through all of that, she still forgave me for any mistakes that I made during this journey.”
“You make it sound more like she’s your mother rather than your teacher.” Silver Pear’s eyes wandered downward.
“Huh, I never thought of it like--” Starlight’s eyes went wide and her face went bright red.
“Got it--” Silver Pear was stopped by the crushing magic as it quickly removed his hand from Starlight’s rear.
“I can’t believe I expected better from you.” Starlight pushed herself far from the wall and walked away. Plumes of black and white smoke followed her until she was out of Silver Pear’s sight.
Silver Pear laughed at the pain in his hand as it went away. His eyes wandered over to the mares he was standing with earlier as they came back with some drinks. With them were two siren mares, Izabel and Jezabel. “Well, five mares might be pushing my limit. I might have to throw in some stallions to help me out.” His eyes wandered over some possibilities until they came on Crimson. “Hmm, I wonder if Twilight won’t mind?” He walked away from the wall and toward Crimson, only to stop halfway when he saw Twilight walking over to the unicorn.
Silver Pear backed up and stared back at the mares as they surrounded him. “Nah, I think I can handle things fine.” He pulled the mares in tightly and they couldn’t help but laugh at his feudal attempts to caress multiple rears. “Yeah, that’s the ticket.” His smile got bigger.
Inadvertently, his eyes wandered back to Crimson. Seeing Crimson and Twilight standing so close to each other and not dancing filled his mind with a clever idea. “Hold on ladies, before we can have fun, I think we should help a certain other pair.” He pointed over. The mares laughed aloud at their targets. "Now, listen closely.”
******
Twilight and Crimson were by some tables laying out food and checking drinks. Though the party was for Twilight, she felt it would be best to make sure everything was ready before she could enjoy herself. Crimson was staying by and keeping her company, helping with as much as possible, so she wouldn’t use up too much of her time.
“There are plenty of things to drink but there might not be enough cups to drink with.” Twilight continued to count.
“Didn’t you buy all the stuff today?”
“Of course, I did.” Twilight stopped and looked at Crimson’s doubt with a slight annoyance. “It's …” She walked over to another table. “They showed up so fast, we barely had time to react.”
“Maybe if you hadn't written in the letter ‘get here as soon as possible’.” Crimson chuckled. Suddenly Crimson’s eyes wandered over to the far right away from Twilight's sight only for a second.
“Well, I guess I got so used to a certain pink pony handling almost all the parties I’ve been to and now I’m a little rusty on how things work.”
“Enjoy yourself, Twi.” Crimson puffed himself in front of her.
Twilight stopped her movement at this advance. Her eyes wandered away from him. “But there are things we need to do--” The alicorn was caught off mid-sentence by a push from a certain earth pony. Before she could stop herself, Twilight crashed into Crimson. Fearing an awkward moment, she closed her eyes and leaned her head down.
Without warning, smoke flowed around them.
“Twi…” Crimson’s voice brought her back to reality.
Twilight lifted her head and found herself in Crimson’s arms. His face was mere centimeters away from hers, yet the only thing going through her head at that moment was the pulsing pain in her rear. “Silver Pear…” she hissed under her breath.
“Twi… I don’t think Silver Pear’s little move is what you should be worried about.”
“What are you talking about--” She stopped halfway upon feeling the ground, or the lack thereof. In pure reaction, her wing muscles pulled in failure. Remembering only seconds later that her wings were kept hidden for obvious reasons. Panic filled her mind, only for it to be quickly stopped at the graceful touch of Crimson's hand on her back.
“Calm yourself, we're not falling.” His hands traced over her back, perfectly smoothing each feather of tension with every trace of his fingers made.
“Wait, we're not.” Twilight looked at the smoke as it finally cleared. Down below them were the onlookers, including Silver Pear and his five dates, two of which were unicorns. It was at that moment Twilight noticed the pulsing of magic under her feet. There was a floor of thin magic holding the two of them up about five meters above the altar.
“Silver Pear!” Starlight’s voice could be heard roaring over the crowd.
“What? It’s Twilight’s party. I think she should get at least one slow dance.” Silver Pear laughed aloud and held tightly to Jezabel and Izabel. “Ladies, do you mind helping the others out.” On that, the two sirens opened their mouths and let loose soothing music.
“That little pervert didn’t need to grab my ass to do this--” Twilight was stopped by Crimson's advance. Before she could even compute what he was doing, she found her whole body being twirled.
“We could enjoy this at least, right Twi?” It was at this moment she realized that Crimson's shyness had faded completely. He had been moving far bolder ever since he started calling her Twi.
Twilight followed his movement and kept a close motion. “Yeah…” Now her voice was slow in response, too distracted to notice the blush growing on her face. “I guess we could…”
Crimson gently pulled her in close until their bodies were right against each other. Twilight placed her free hand on his shoulder. The two turned a few times before thinning the embrace. Both were no longer speaking now. Instead, they were letting their movements do all the talking they would ever need.
Twilight found her flustering fading around her. She didn’t know why she was agreeing to such close movements. She didn’t know why she wasn’t disappearing over and slapping Silver Pear across the face. She didn’t know why, she was pushing this to go further, but something inside her was telling her the reverse. The only emotion she could glean from this was simple happiness, not love, certainly not lust, not even longing. Pure happiness was all that filled her.
Maybe it was because of Crimson, maybe it was because of this party, such a thing she had not had in a very long time. Maybe it was a simple ease of the mind. In the end, Twilight found herself no longer caring about any more possibilities. The only thing she wanted at this moment was for this joy to never, ever end.
******
Snowflakes poured over the altar and despite all the cold everyone had been having these last few days, they were all filled with joy. They cheered at the sight of them. Happiness seemed to be everywhere as many of them remarked at the fact that the snowflakes appeared to be moving on their own.
The snowflakes swarmed around the altar’s center and flowed right up beside the two dancers as they floated. Neither one noticed it, and really would they care to notice? Who would? Notice it during all of this happiness? Who dares question the snowflake’s actions, or even notice the strangest of all?
Indeed, in all of this happiness, who would notice when one snowflake opened to reveal an eye? An eye that had been watching them the whole time.
"Soon, my special guest, soon." An icy breath blew in Twilight's ear. She didn't even catch it as she leaned more into her dance with Crimson as the two started to finally descend. “The table is set and soon you will take your place."
A great howling echoed over the icy seas without a single sign of dipping pitch as it traced through each wave and fall. Reaching the shores, it quickly traveled over several mountains and down to the surrounding canyons. It flowed to the cities, first hitting the most northern lands of the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies gave it no mind at all.
The howling traveled to lower lands and to the great pastures, reaching the Unicorn Providence where most gave no care to its sounds or reasons. Many creatures, both young and old, seem to give no thought to this noise as it passed by them. Never once did they question its origins or why it never lost its tone no matter the distance it traveled.
The noise then spread outward like a wave over the lands in all four directions. In the west, the Earth Pony Conglomerate could hear sadness about it but paid it no mind. In the east, the Pegasus isles were feeling nervousness about it and gave it no heed. And finally, in the south, both zebra tribes and buffalo tribes sensed an urgency about it and again believed no concern for it.
All heard its voice, but all presented it with little if any consideration, interest, or concern ever. Delivering enough attention to notice it and move on. All went about their own business as if it never happened.
Soon the howling went silent, and the creatures of these lands continued with their lives. Within a matter of seconds, the sound was forgotten...
Until it returned a year later on the same day. Again, no one creature gave it single care, and as quickly as it started, it was forgotten. No matter how loud it was or moving, it never gave attention enough to discern meaning or reason from it.
Again, it left only to return another year later on the same day. Again the same reaction, so it left and was quickly forgotten. Again, it returned after another year and again the same.
Another year passed and another year. Time moved faster than any other. Years became decades, then centuries, then millennia. Finally, this howling came as an acceptance by most mortals. By this point, they knew not when it started, only that it was always there…
To them, there would never be a reason to discern it or query its possibilities. What little reason existed had vanished, and it simply became an observable cycle in this world, like the Sun and Moon.
It always arrived on the Winter Solstice. The moment the sun would set on the previous day, the howling would start. It was the shortest day in the year and the howling would last...
******
Starlight opened her eyes at a white as it shined over her face. She held her hand up to this beam, almost trying to reach for it as it rose over the horizon. "The Moon looks so close in this timeline. I never noticed that before." She got up and looked around, and found herself on a table. The party seemed to reach its end some time ago. She didn't realize she had fallen asleep.
She jumped off the table and walked around to pick up some of the trash. "That part that Pinkie wrote is right. There always is a mess. I don't think I would agree with that pink pony on how fun the cleaning is." She was quick in her movement, getting almost everything in only a few minutes.
Soon enough, she realized Twilight was nowhere in sight. "Huh, I don't remember that much before falling asleep," her mind tried its best to glean any memories but came up empty. "Well, Teach must have gone home after I dropped out--" her voice stopped at a strange sound that caught her off guard.
Looking up at the sky, she finally noticed the unusual howling that filled in the air. "Wow, it's started already. Even after being here for two years now, I don't think I'll ever get used to that howling." She placed the last piece of trash away and let her mind ponder on something other than the party. "I wonder why it howls?"
"Some believe a creature is searching for his lost love."
Starlight jumped at that voice and saw a tall charcoal stallion with a short unkempt navy blue mane standing at the entrance. He wasn't there before; she knew that for sure. She was looking at the exact spot not but five seconds earlier.
"Right? I'm sure you would know more about that than I would." Starlight mentally slapped herself when noticing how much humility came out of her voice with those words. If only her teacher heard that line.
"You could say I've heard it way too many times to count." The charcoal stallion walked through the area and to the altar. "Looks like there was a mess here."
"Sorry, we had a little party."
"Oh," the charcoal stallion nodded and seemed to mumble a few words to himself. While he seemed to be in his world, Starlight couldn't help but stare. She didn't know what it was, but she sensed a familiarity in his voice. His face, despite its rough cut, gave an air of trust. But she couldn't place why. He wore several scarves and even chains, so the rest of him certainly didn't convey this idea at all.
"Is this the center of town?" His question brought Starlight out of her thoughts.
"Uh, yes, it is."
"Odd, if this is the place, it should be right here. How old is this place?"
"Well, I haven't lived here that long, so I don't know." Starlight walked over and placed her hand on the altar's edge. "It's been here longer than I have. look at the cracks."
The charcoal stallion looked at them. "Huh, I guess you're right. Look, I need to know. If you don't know then I'll go somewhere to find this information."
"Wait!" Starlight nearly yelled.
The charcoal stallion put up his guard on pure reaction, yet was at a greater loss when Starlight dropped her head in shame. "Dang it, if my teacher found out I was being this forgetful, she would sentence me to even harsher training." Starlight gestured to him to move away.
"Sounds like an old friend of mine." He moved with confusion but gave little care either way.
Starlight placed her hand on the crack and took a deep breath. "How much do you need this information?"
"It will save me a lot of time, but..." He turned away, "It would save lives too."
"Save lives, huh? I never considered using this for that." Once she was sure that he was the only other living creature there, she began. Frankly, she didn't know why she was being so trusting of this stallion. Nothing he did provide her any reason to help him, let alone trust him with witnessing this. Wincing, she pressed her hand down hard on the sharp end until blood poured forth. A mighty purple glow shot out from her wound as words spoke forth.
"Light," Starlight spoke a word from her mouth and at that exact moment, the purple light turned blue and quickly faded. She opened her eyes and pulled her hand away. The charcoal stallion was shocked to see no wound at all in her hand. Without warning, Starlight fell to the ground. He went to help her, but she gestured a no to him. "Sorry, that happens sometimes. One reason I did that was that I wondered if I still could."
"That was a vision spell."
"Sort of. I never really perfected it. I can only see dates when it's blue and when it's red coordinates."
His eyes widened at her words. It only took him a second to put such seemingly unconnected things together, for he knew of such forms all too well and this was best shown by one word. "Omnipony..."
Starlight felt her whole body pulsate. She didn't know why at all, but the word seemed to hit her very core. It filled her with so much fear.
The charcoal stallion let go of his fear at her reaction. "You don't know yet." He mumbled. "It doesn't matter. There are greater problems to deal with first." He walked closer to her and recomposed his voice. "Please tell me what date this was made."
"Huh," Starlight came to her senses with this less stern voice. "Right, it was made nearly five thousand years ago. I can only see numbers but I felt... pain from the moment of this thing creation."
"Nearly, so it has no direct connection to him or the alathar. Or at least none that can be seen." He smiled and walked toward the exit. "Dang, that pirate was right-" His words stopped at the sight of something at the entrance blocking his way.
Starlight turned to see what stopped him and was met with an almost perfect ice sculpture of a wendigo, out of nowhere, standing in front of the entrance. “Did you make this?” she questioned him.
“Impossible, I was talking to you the whole time... I need to get going.” He walked past to ignore it.
“Well, who did? It wasn’t there a second ago. It seemed to appear from nothing.” Starlight walked closer to it. "A significant question is, how is it so flawless? It’s strange, it's like it appeared as fast as you did. Maybe even faster."
The charcoal stallion stopped at her words and reached to his chest. A maroon glow could be seen coming from an object on his neck. He took a breath and almost nodded a no at nothing before finally turning around. Once the glow stopped, He looked back at the ice sculpture.
Starlight scanned it with magic while he walked back to give his examination. He approached closer and found that the surrounding air was much colder than the rest.
“Maybe it remembers. There are a lot of memories in this sculpture.” He stopped scanning and mumbled a few words to himself.
“Ice with memories. If you had told me this when I was younger, I would think you were silly.” Starlight stopped scanning.
“What is wrong with being silly? I know an old wizard who can make anything silly."
"Oh?"
“What is your name?” he asked as he fixed something he had hidden under his scarf.
“Starlight, and your.”
“Rex. I was glad to meet one of your kind, but I must be going. I have work to do. And, a bet to lose,” he mumbled the last part as he turned away and took his leave.
"One of my kind?" It took Starlight five seconds for the name, Rex, to even compute, but once it did her jaw dropped, “Did he say, Rex?” with no thought on the matter, she stopped what she was doing and ran right after him as fast as she could. She ran off so fast that she didn’t even notice that the sculpture vanished.
"Wait..." she called out to no avail. Following him down a corner and stopping as she held her hand toward him, “You said, Rex!”
Annoyed, he finally turned around. “Yes, and?”
“It's that I--” Starlight stopped her words in her tracks as she saw the sculpture now behind Rex. He stopped moving too, with no need to notice her. "I thought so."
Suddenly, the surrounding snow shook as even more sculptures form from the surrounding snowflakes. Rex sighed in annoyance. “I had a feeling they weren’t sculptures. Looks like I certainly lost the bet now. He is here, or at least he will be soon. Now I owe that dang pirate ten bits.” He swung his arm around and the chains covering him loosened and stretched out to a much longer degree than what originally could be seen. "You need to leave now."
Starlight frowned at his words, and her horn glowed. "Not a chance." Her gentlemare sword appeared in her hand. "If I left this, I would never hear the end from my teacher."
On that, the sculptures came to life and jumped at them. Starlight stepped back as the two crashed into each other where she originally was. “They aren’t as bright as I expected wendigoes to be.” She charged forward and stabbed the closest one in front of her. Three more jumped above her from behind. She turned and swung black and white magic outward, slicing them in half.
“No, this is a cheap duplicate spell. The real wendigo is somewhere nearby, or at least one of his allies is.” Rex swung his chains to take down four charging toward him. With a few fast strategic hits, they shattered like glass. Two more grabbed him from behind. His dark alicorn amulet glowed red and special golden chains shot out from it and wrapped around their necks and moved at high speed, chopping their heads off. Now there was only one left.
Starlight and Rex turned toward each other and swung their weapons forward, slicing the last one into pieces. Once they were finished, they stopped to catch their breath.
"Damn, you are as powerful as she is," Starlight remarked.
Rex was at a loss about who she was referring to and didn't care. He needed to leave now. This new mare and her teacher would have to be ignored.
"Hey, Rex, an odd question--" Starlight stopped once she noticed Rex had completely vanished without any trace. "What? And here I thought I was good at sensing magic." She walked over to the shards of the sculptures, curious about everything that happened.
Suddenly, she threw up her hands and her gentlemare sword vanished. "Oh no, oh no. I have to find Twilight."
******
Icy blue eyes opened out to the world. They looked up to the night sky and the far east as if longing for something. The eyes had a determination in them to search for something that wasn't there anymore. The stare hardened once the sounds of the howling reached them. The irises widened yet narrowed around the tips like a creature of the night. Deep within those irises were a torrent of emotions that couldn’t be placed on one reason outside of the howling that held the sight so tightly.
Footsteps cut through the howling bringing his attention to the west. Approaching closer was an all too familiar unicorn mare. She seemed out of breath but urgency.
The unicorn came to a stop and her face of fear slowly faded at the sight of the owner of the icy blue eyes. “Crimson…” she questioned.
The dark lavender unicorn smiled at her and held up his hand. “Starlight… what is it?”
“Do you know where my teacher is?!” Starlight spoke up. However, she found her mouth being closed by a red hue of magic.
“Shh, she’s right here.” He lifted the blanket over the bench and revealed that Twilight was asleep with her head on his lap. “She didn’t want anypony to get insulted by her exhaustion, so she told me to cast an illusion spell if she fell asleep during this party.” He whispered.
“Huh, and I assumed she didn’t expect to fall asleep in your arms.”
Crimson raised his hand over his head and attempted to not laugh. “Well, let's say she trusts me more than you think.”
Starlight let out a deep breath. “My teacher works herself way too hard. Here, I plan this party for her, and she is the one pushing herself to the limit.” She dropped gently to the other side of the bench and looked down at Twilight. “I guess it's better she falls asleep near you since you wouldn't try anything, unlike Silver Pear.”
“Yeah, Silver Pear sort of tried to invite me and Twilight to his… orgy… that he was planning to have after the party. Twilight quickly slapped him.”
“Well, I would have done the same.” Starlight raised her hand in righteous fury.
“Ha, ha, it's not his fault.”
“What are you talking about? He flirts with literally anything, even trees.”
“Yes, but that is how his father raised his family.”
“Really?” Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Huh, I knew none of his other family members outside of his mom.”
“Well, his father had strange ways, and that seemed to rub onto Silver Pear a little too well.” Crimson looked down at Twilight. “It is one reason I ended things with him. Silver Pear needs companionship… but desires sexual relationships... sometimes a little too much.”
“I never thought of it that way. If only he would show admiration for a somepony's face rather than their ass.”
“I guess that's why you feel so drawn to him…”
Starlight’s eyes went wide. “What?! I hate his guts! I mean…” She lowered her voice at the movement of Twilight. “He's my friend and I have nothing romantic for that idiot.”
“And you don’t have to. You have been alone all your life that simply having somepony who is so far different from that is comforting to you.”
“Really…” Starlight stopped her questioning and let her mind think about that for a few moments. “Hmm, maybe. But he and I are friends, nothing more and nothing less.”
“Oh, alright. That's fine.” Crimson relented.
Starlight noticed something else, though, in all of this. This talk was the longest conversation she ever had with Crimson. “Usually he would shut me off by now.” She whispered to herself in the lightest tone possible.
“Why were you in such a rush, anyway?”
Starlight threw her arms up in shock at that, as she had forgotten. “I need to tell Twilight something important!”
Crimson quickly placed his hand over Starlight’s mouth. No magic this time. “What are you doing?” He questioned with annoyance.
Starlight noted yet another thing Crimson rarely showed. Starlight couldn’t think of a single moment where Crimson was ever angry. However, the next thing that came to her mind was the harshly cold feel of his fur. She tried to push that thought away and pulled away from his grip. “Sorry, it’s --”
Crimson stopped her words by placing two fingers on her forehead. “It’s okay. I’ll send a message to her.” Before Starlight could protest, the dark lavender unicorn read through her memories. “I see.” He slowly removed his hand and repeated. “I see…” His horn glowed a red hue and Twilight’s head slowly lifted. The blanket went up as well and wrapped into a pillow shape and quickly floated under Twilight’s head.
“Wow, to quickly switch between multiple spells that fast and so casually. I did not know you were so proficient with magic. And where did you learn a memory spell?”
Crimson raised his finger back to his mouth. “Please, I must go. Keep watch over Twilight for me. There is somepony I wish to talk to.” Without warning, Starlight’s eyes fell closed and she dropped to the ground, unconscious. With a snap of his fingers, Starlight and Twilight vanished back into the tavern.
“I’m sorry about that, omnipony.” Crimson walked over to the road and looked back to the east. He stopped his advance and lifted his ears to the howling. He gave one more thought to Twilight. The moonlight shone off her face, filling it with beauty. “I… I’m sorry too, Twi... No, Twilight, I had wished she was wrong...” His smile turned into a frown, and he turned toward the road and walked away. Before Starlight could question anything, he was far from their sight.
******
On the other side of town, deep in an alley, the foggy red stallion walked around aimlessly. He knew he had stayed too long. He needed to find a place to sleep before the cold of the night sat in. He walked further before stopping by a trash can. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he didn’t notice he was being watched.
“Hello.”
“That voice?” The foggy red stallion sprang to attention. His head swung back and forth until his eyes fell upon a filly standing at the front of the alley. It was a light blue siren filly. “What? A filly?” he whispered to himself. He composed himself and walked over once he recognized her. “Hey, did you find your dog?”
The siren filly looked up to his tall height and smiled. “I did. It’s been years, hasn’t it… Bad Wolf.”
The foggy red stallion jumped back at that word. His skin trembled at that voice. It was not the voice of a mere filly. “No… who are you?”
“Hmm, have you forgotten my voice?” The siren filly walked closer, talking with an ancient male voice filled with wisdom and great intelligence far beyond her age and appearance.
“No…” The foggy red stallion’s knees jolted in place. “That… voice…” His arms pulled inward, and he attempted to distance himself from the siren filly, but this did little to halt her advance. “You can’t have found me.” The further he attempted to get away from her, the better she closed the distance. It was as if the world was shrinking around him.
“Oh, but I have and as you can see, Lord Frost has allowed me to continue my work.” The siren filly traced her fingers over her body as she walked closer. "This filly was one of a triplet." She placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's face and traced it down to his chest. Her fingers ran over each muscle slowly.
Both scared and sickened by these actions, the foggy red stallion attempted to push the siren filly away. She ignored him and kept her advance until they both reached the wall.
Feeling the world close in on him, the foggy red stallion grabbed out a knife. “No, stay back… I… I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Would you dare aim a knife at a poor filly?” The siren filly reached out and placed her hand on the knife. She moved closer until the knife was right against her chest. “Would you dare kill such a hostage?”
The foggy red stallion’s eyes went wide and his face turned pale at the sight of the small amount of blood pouring from the spot. “I…” His hand trembled, “I don’t want to hurt her, yet I don’t want to remember… I don't want to serve you anymore!”
The siren filly pressed her hand hard on the knife until more blood poured forth. This made the foggy red stallion drop the knife to the ground.
“What do you want with me?”
“My ally calls upon you once again,”
“No… I won’t go back… I can’t.”
“He is finally forming the Nine Families.”
“The… Nine Families?”
“Indeed, all he needs now are three more members. One of the next choices is Rex, but the others are still undecided.”
“He wants me to take a spot.”
“Of course.” The siren filly reached over and placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's cheek. “Join the wendigo in his fight.”
The foggy red stallion’s eyes narrowed. “I will never join you or this Indigo Frost.”
“Oh, but you will. If you don’t, I will have to give this curse upon another.” Her hand traced to his eyes, where a faint glow was now growing. “Maybe…”
“No, you leave them out of this. I left them behind.”
“You left because you couldn’t hold up the end of your father’s bargain. You left because you took it upon yourself to take the curse he couldn’t keep and continued the blessing your family has enjoyed.” On that, the siren filly brought her finger to his eye and pressed down.
The foggy red stallion quaked in agony as maroon-colored blood drained. “No, please, I don’t want to go back. Ahh!!” He screamed aloud as his fur changed from a foggy red to a distinct silver. His cheeks stretched backward and his hood fell, revealing a bony-like mane that was booming.
“Rise, forth. My Big Bad Wolf.”
******
Soon the earliest piercing of light cut through a night. The Moon rested its head, and the Sun woke to the new morning. The howling had yet to lose its strength and wouldn't end until the Sun itself took a new rest. This didn’t stop many ponies from waking rather early on this day.
Remembering the events from yesterday filled them with such joy. Their voices grew with great songs of gratitude toward Starlight and Twilight as they walked down the streets and back to the center of town.
Yet above the altar, sitting upon the mighty clock tower as it shadowed overall a tall figure wrapped in a stitch cover cloak. “Hmm, such a lovely song…” On that, a pale white hand pulled free. Sapphire blue eyes opened and glowed brightly. Without warning, the warming Sun’s light vanished. From the white hand shot forth endless cold. It flowed over the city without any restraint or loss of power.
Soon, all was covered in this icy wave. The great and joyful songs, boastful and wonderful sounds slowly faded. What replaced them was something much stronger and bolder. And it was as clear as day. Nothing but icy silence and most of all the true and undaunting howling of the Winter Solstice.
No more was ignored. No time like any other gave it much greater care. All stopped and listened and accepted the pain of one lost soul crying out to the world.
“No song is greater, no words are stronger than the voice of one utterly strong emotion. Hmm, such a lovely song… And that song’s name is…Lamenta.”
Explosions tore through the darkness and lit the sky up with a flurry of lights. Starlight struggled at the brightness, unable to stand the burning. She slowly awoke, looking around, but couldn't figure out what was going on.
“Why?!” A loud shout echoed above her. “Why would you attack this place out of any other?” It was a male voice, but the owner's face couldn't be seen anywhere.
“Because this is the center of everything." Another male voice echoed outward. "All my joy and all my hatred are in this single place. This. Is. Where. It. All. Begins!!”
The last roars carried through the swirling ruins of the older and new buildings as they fell to the ground. Finally, the booms reached the clock tower and the altar that stood before it.
Starlight stood in a crowd of many creatures that seemed to have been gathered in one spot. She tried to find the voices' owners, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't see them. Their voices were dampening by the second and yet a new sound was replacing them.
Sounds of drops echoed louder and louder. Starlight spun back and forth curious about the noise. Finally, it became clear.
Tears fell from the face of a lavender mare as she shivered in place, a few meters away from Starlight. The mare wasn’t cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her, no matter what.
This lone mare seemed to give little care to the echoes or the ponies, griffins, and sirens that coward from it.
Starlight tried to approach her but found her feet stuck in place. Her mind replayed over the events that led to this, yet she could feel that the events had only happened minutes ago, everything about them was a complete blur. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember any details, nor who the lavender mare or the corpse was that the mare watched so closely.
She wanted to remember so badly, but something deep inside her chest kept stopping her. It was as if her own heart didn’t want to know, or at least it didn't want to give in to what her mind was demanding.
Answers…
Answers…
Answers…
Starlight stopped her questioning at the sight of the lavender mare. Starlight attempted to follow her. Despite, her knees jolting back and forth, her feet refused to move. She tried again, and her legs nearly fell out from under her. Pushing harder, she finally got one step out. Her legs were screaming in pain, yet she pushed onward. Each step she took echoed through her head louder and louder.
Starlight fell a few inches from the lavender mare as the mare reached the corpse. She picked herself back up and knocked the snow out of her face and looked at the corpse, then back to the mare.
Answers…
Answers…
Answers…
Again, no answer came. She couldn't figure out the corpse, nor who the lavender mare was, no matter how hard she tried.
“Oh by the gods, it’s an alicorn.” A voice, so small, yet loud enough to break through Starlight's confusion.
Starlight turned to see a small dark blue colt pointing to the wings on the lavender mare's back. She gasped as he walked over to console the lavender mare, “Oh lovely goddess, don’t weep!” The colt walked closer. “The good lord said when we die we go to a better place?”
The words made Starlight’s lips tremble and her face shake. She didn’t know what was going on, but she certainly didn’t want this to be true. But she couldn’t deny it anymore. All the facts were now clear. The lavender mare could only be her teacher, Twilight.
Then the only question now was, who was the corpse? However, before any more answers could be found, the unexpected happened.
The colt's attempts to calm Twilight’s pain were halted by another voice, this one far older. “It’s an alicorn, a famed immortal!”
Starlight turned too late to see a stone fly by. It landed on the ground, barely missing Twilight’s face.
“Like the immortal who brought this war to us!” another voice screamed out in rage.
Starlight’s mouth drops, “No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t her fau--” she attempted to stand in the way of another stone, but this one went right through her. Her eyes widened at this. Finally, everything was clear. She wasn’t here.
Was this a dream? A vision? Some twisted nightmare or hallucination?
“Get away from that colt!” Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight’s face. “You don’t deserve to be near him. You practically are the one who killed them all.”
The eyepatch fell to the ground.
Starlight was at a complete loss for words. Why was she being shown this? She couldn’t watch this any longer. Closing her eyes, she demanded that this whatever it was end. “Stop it!”
“Get away from him!” More voices shouted.
“You are responsible for all of this!!”
“Don’t you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!!”
“You are as evil as that ghost!!”
“Stop it!” Starlight kneeled, hoping this would end soon.
Yet as quickly as it began, it ended. The shouting stopped and the echoes of the stones ended. Starlight slowly let go of the grip around her ears and lifted her head. She half assumed this vision was over, but she was regrettably wrong.
All the ponies had stopped. Despite them still having stones in hand, they were still. A slash of fear covered each one of their faces. Starlight was in utter confusion… until she turned to see where Twilight was.
Her teacher was nowhere in sight. However, standing in Twilight’s spot was a brown donkey in tattered clothing. “Did you like what you saw?” he questioned.
Starlight was caught completely off guard by these words. She felt deep inside herself that the brown donkey was talking to her. She had to know for sure, so she pointed at the ponies around the area before pointing to herself.
“No, not them. I’m talking to you. Only you can see me.” The brown donkey walked right up to her. “This is the first time we have met in this form, isn’t it?” His voice was filled with a thick amount of familiarity, yet Starlight couldn't place where she had heard it before.
"Elisus tried warning Twilight. She wouldn’t listen, so I must warn you.” He leaned down and grabbed her hand gently. "Stop them."
"What do you mean?" Starlight reached out to him but without warning, the vision finally faded. "Wait... who are you?!"
"You already know who I am. I've always watched over you two from the moment you entered this timeline and now the strings of fate are making their move!!"
With those last words, the vision fully faded to darkness. Starlight reached out in vain demanding answers, "Please, tell me what is going on?"
"I would... but you have to wake up... "
******
Starlight jumped out of her bed with no hesitation. An icy chill covered every pore of her body. She could barely catch her breath or realize that she was in the bed, even though, she never remembered reaching it. Flicking her horn, her gentlemare sword flew into her hand. All of this before she could even compute the dream had ended already.
It was the grip of the doorknob that brought her back to reality. She pulled back as intense pain filled her hand. Such sensations she knew could never happen in a dream. But then her mind raced with great confusion. “How did I get back to my room? Where are Crimson and Twilight?”
Her heart sank so fast into a reality that despite her fear of the dream having vanished, the chill over her body had not. It was far colder now than it was before. She tried to fight it, but her body at that moment wanted to stop in place.
Pushing forward, she placed her hand on the wood door instead of the frozen metal knob. With little force at all, the door broke off its hinges and slammed into the ground.
Starlight’s eyes were wide at the sight of the entire tavern covered in ice. Taking in a deep swallow of breath, she stepped out and found the floor could barely hold her. She quickly ran as the ground fell without pause, making her way to the window as the entire third floor collapsed.
Outside, she was greeted with a cold punch to the gut. The only thing stopping her from falling was the fact that her teacher, Silver Pear, and even Granny Apple couldn’t be sensed anywhere in the building. She concentrated harder on sensing them, but still nothing.
"Damn it, calm down Starlight!" She yelled at herself. However, her grip on air became very shallow once she looked at the ground.
"No... " Her eyes widened at the sight of blood over the thick snow. A trail going off away from the tavern. "No... No..." Before even finishing her words, she burst into a run in that direction.
After she went, deep within the rubble, something moved. A brown hand reached out, and a voice spoke forth. “Please don’t fail.”
******
Ice beat against the titan airship as it fought through the winds. Inside, Fredricson held tightly to the wheel while the others ran around. “We best hold on to, well, everything!”
Lady Cat rushed out from Adagio’s room and toward the head of the ship. “Of course, you damn bilge rat. Why do you think I'm rushing through every room?”
“Of sure you know better than me, you’re a batpony. You are used to living in these types of conditions all the time with your canyons.”
“Don’t get stereotyping with me, you racist!” She gripped the door, reacting to a dramatic shift in the ship. “Shit, leave it to the earth pony to drive like a mule.”
“Hey, you didn’t act like that last night!” Fredricson turned the wheel to the far right.
“That’s because my rear isn’t as big as this ship--” Suddenly they were both stopped by cotton candy poofing into their mouths.
“Will you two please not compare this fright to your nighttime fun?” Starswirl walked past them to the very front of the ship. Holding out his hand, his yellow eyes glowed brightly. Many yellow circles swarmed out from his hand and incantations followed. “Chaos Spell Number Fifty-Five!” He twisted his hand and the circles' span, “Absolute Halt!!”
Without warning, the ship came to a complete stop. It was so sudden that nearly everything in the front deck flew forward.
“Why did you stop us, sir? I knew we could have gotten through that.” Fredricson finally got his mouth free.
“Yes, but at what cost?!” Starswirl rarely showed his anger, but this was needed right now. “The ship would have been completely shredded by that.” He pointed to the thickening blizzard that was quickly covering the entire town.
“Damn, that umbrum was right?” Fredricson walked over to see the destruction. “I should have parked closer--”
“Settled your bet with Rex later. I'll have to go down to the surface. He and Clover will need all the help they can get.” On that, Starswirl vanished.
******
Starlight’s feet kept kicking herself forward as she followed the bloody trail through the village streets for an unknown amount of time. She didn’t know how long she had been following the trail, only that she was at least still in town but long enough that the chill of the frosty morning air was no longer bothering her. Her mind wandered on hopes and fears as she increased her speed.
Sounds of crashing broke her from her thoughts. She turned to her left and saw townsfolk being attacked by wendigo sculptures. Her feet wanted to go forward and keep following the blood, but her hands were saying no as they reached for her gentlemare sword. Her eyes darted back and forth, she knew from the look of the creatures they were the same type that she had fought yesterday, but she didn't have time to deal with that as the blood trail thinned out with newer layers of snow covering it.
Suddenly, a scream from one of the townsfolk chose for her as she rushed to wendigo sculptures. She rushed in with a quick slash, taking down one before turning to slice another clean in half. She felt the chill of one from behind and ducked below its twisting claws as it barely missed her mane. She swung backward, punching the hilt of her gentlemare sword into the jaws of the enemy, busting it open. She spun back around and kicked with significant force, sending the wendigo sculpture crashing through the snow and into a wall.
Her teeth gritted at the feeling of ice grabbing her feet. She pointed her gentlemare sword downward and stabbed a rising wendigo sculpture in the eye. Pushing herself upward with the force of the attack and jumping into a crowd of them that had quickly surrounded some fillies. Standing over the fillies, she swung.
Suddenly, a green blur ran through the crowding wendigo sculptures and saved the fillies. Starlight smiled as she felt the big powerful arms of Red Steel lifting her above the attacking forces. Starlight used his arm to jump clear of the crowd as he pulled out a massive boulder out of the ground. The buffalo swung the boulder around with very little strength, smashing the wendigoes around them.
Hermes appeared with the fillies in his arms and put them down as the wendigo sculptures shattered a few meters behind him. Starlight and Red Steel walked over to him. “Wow, wow, I didn’t think I would ever in a million, zillion years be fast enough to save those adorable little fillies. It was like the push from a strike of lightning, or maybe faster. unlikely as the speed of light, which is--”
“Okay, we don’t have time for that, Hermes,” Starlight interrupted him as she held her hand up to his mouth.
Suddenly, a deep whistle pierced everything around them. They all came to attention and spun around to find the source. Starlight didn’t know who sent the noise, noting it was very distinct from the Great Howling that always appeared during this time of the year since she could still hear that as well in a faint distance.
Instantly she stopped as the whistling ended, and her eyes fell upon a tall, icy blue figure standing on the clock tower in the distance. It was too far to see what the figure looked like, but it was very clear that this thing was the real wendigo responsible for the attack.
Without warning, a massive amount of snow shook between them and the icy blue figure. Giant chunks swarmed from the ground and formed a massive wendigo sculpture. This was way too big for them to take alone, they had to stan together. Starlight with her gentlemare sword, Hermes with his sabers, Red Steel with his tomahawks.
Luckily, on the best of timing, the mighty lion Lighttone jumped out of nowhere into the air and bit down on the wendigo sculpture’s neck as his attack pushed with enough force to knock it into an empty building nearby, missing them completely.
Once he had it pinned, he bit down into its pseudo-flesh, only to pull back and gag. “Ugh, this doesn’t taste like a wendigo. It tastes more like something else.”
“Something else?” Starlight ran over to him as he climbed out of the rubble.
“Indeed.”
“But how? This is a memory duplicate spell, right? There has to be a wendigo responsible for this.” Starlight pointed outward.
As they argued, Rainbow Blitz walked up, “Don’t you two sound confused, but I’m going to have to agree with Lightttone’s taste buds today. I came from the direction of that whistle and that tall one is far too large to be a wendigo.” He stopped long enough to take a swing of his whiskey. "Not only that, but I also saw Granny Apple being held hostage by some sort of wolf creature.”
“What?” Starlight turned toward Rainbow Blitz in a bit of a rush and demanded, “Is she okay?”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get close enough to see.” Rainbow Blitz rubbed his dizzy eyes. “I had too much to drink today. But I saw that Twilight and Silver Pear were fighting their way over there.”
“It’s okay.” Starlight grabbed his whiskey. “I’ll go help save Granny Apple. You stop with the drinking.” Suddenly, several more wendigo sculptures rose from the snow. “Meanwhile, you four save as many town folks as you can.” She threw the bottle to the ground and jumped upward and forward. Quickly, she ran over the heads of the wendigo sculptures that were in the way as the others charged into the surrounding enemies.
******
On the other side of town, black shadows covered buildings as wendigo sculptures were cracked and busted with little effort. Clover jumped over roofs and through layers of chains as they shot by. The seafoam green unicorn despite not being very good with most flying or levitation-based spells, was always extremely acrobatic and useful to close combat spells.
Rex was prolific with field spells, especially the native ones of his species. He stayed near the ground, controlling most of the area's movement to his advantage.
"So, were these fakes as durable as they were yesterday?" Clover questioned.
"No, these are more sturdy." Rex swatted some away.
"Maybe the earlier ones were more of a test."
"Possibly he was building up strength--" Rex was stopped by twenty of the sculptures jumping from the snow and grabbing him. Clover jumped down to help him but stopped halfway at the sight of his eyes glowing. "Hell's Spikes!!" He roared outward, and many spikes shot out from the shadows.
Clover spanned her staff to knock away as pieces flew by her, and Rex waved out the remains off of him. "Either way, we need to take out more before we get a sight of him.”
"Fine!" Clover smiled and slapped Rex's right hand before doing several flips in that direction. Before reaching the crowd, she pushed on her final touch of the ground and launched herself high above the enemy, and landed on the other side.
Rex held back his right hand. "And..."
"Get down!!" Clover shouted to the griffins.
"Now!" Rex fell into his shadow and the strings on his fingers pulled with him. Clover followed suit and gripped tightly onto the other side of the strings that she grabbed earlier and ran to one side, quickly using the sharp sides to slice the sculptures in half.
"Yes--" Clover's victory was cut short by feeling the edges of a knife to her back. Jumping forward barely quick enough to dodge being stabbed, she landed near the griffins.
"Dangnabbit. I missed." A scalpel span in the hand of a flaming mare.
Clover's eyes went wide. "Impossible, Rex killed you."
"Oh, I'm not her." Vanity smiled and charged forward.
Clover twisted her staff, knocking away the small weapon as it closed in. Vanity crashed her fist into the staff and turned her scalpel downward through the defenses, barely missing the unicorn's throat. Clover withdrew her staff away in a false pullback. Before the ifrit could react, the staff flipped back around and knocked her scalpel away.
Seeing herself weaponless, Vanity went in with more fists, punching Clover right across the face. Clover caught it and twisted the hand and elbowed Vanity in the gut and punched her staff into the flaming mare's chin. The hard-hit, pushed Vanity fair back, breaking the closeness of the bout.
"I assume you are working for that wendigo as well." Rex rose behind her and wrapped chains over the ifrit.
"What?!" Vanity struggled. "Damn you Alicorn Lapdog. You killed my sister!!"
"So that would make you Vanity Claymore. The ifrit doctor who helped your brother with their unusual ways."
"Shut up! She was a fine mare--" Vanity was knocked out by a swift punch to the stomach.
"Well, everypony has their ways." Rex dropped her and walked back over to Clover. He reached over the unicorn's face, noting a minor cut near her chin. "Sorry, for not coming back sooner."
"Don't worry, I had that fight handled fine." Clover walked over and kicked Vanity in the face.
"Okay... I guess we should go back to the hunt..." Rex stopped as flames surrounded them both.
"Rex..."
"It's not this one..." Rex pulled in his chains, only to find that Vanity had been freed and was nowhere in sight.
"How did she get free?" Clover jumped around in annoyance.
"I don't think she is the only ifrit that wendigo has in his employment." Rex held up his hand and swung outward, knocking the flames away with his chains. "Either way, we need to get back to work."
******
Back toward the center of the town, Starlight arrived at the area around the altar. The place differed vastly from before. All the joy from yesterday was replaced with horror and violence as many creatures did the best they could to survive the vast onslaught.
Hearing a crash of familiar magic, she saw Twilight fighting off a few of those wendigo sculptures. However, she couldn’t spot where Silver Pear or Granny Apple was.
She didn’t have time to keep searching forever. Plus, her memories of the dream were still at the back of her head. She decided her best bet was to help Twilight out first.
She charged forward and sliced off the head of one as she passed around the group that was surrounding Twilight. Twilight smiled as she saw her, knowing almost instantly what she was planning to do. She held up her kopises and summoned a shield spell around herself as Starlight made the last pass.
Starlight concentrated magic to the tip of her gentlemare sword as running around the group was creating a white circle of magic around the enemy. Meanwhile, a black circle appeared on the edges of Twilight's shield as they spoke the words to complete the spell.
“Dark Magic Ring!” Twilight shouted as she completed her circle.
“Light Magic Ring!” Starlight shouted as she completed her circle.
"Omni Cleve!!” They spoke in unison as the two circles became one and chopped the large group of wendigo sculptures in half.
Twilight quickly fell to the ground as the scar under her eyepatch burned.
“Teacher, you okay?” Starlight ran over.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine…” She could only sneer the rest of her words with pain as her horn glowed with dark magic, purely on its own. "It's been reacting like that all morning."
A large one shot out of the snow behind, too fast for Starlight to react. She turned with only enough time to pull her guard almost into place.
“Sorry, I’m late, Lovely.”
She smiled as it shattered upon hitting the ground and then quickly gave a look of annoyance at that damn nickname. Silver Pear stood grinning over the rubble with his claymore out over his shoulder.
“Glad you could make it.” Starlight jumped forward and punched him in the gut with the hilt of her gentlemare sword.
“Ouch, what was that for?” He grabbed his gut in slight pain.
“Watching your back,” she gave an evil smile as she pulled her weapon out of the enemy that had been standing behind him.
Silver Pear blushed once he realized his mistake. “Sorry, again.”
The two jumped back from each other as another giant one dropped his hand between them as Twilight stabbed her kopises through it.
“Eno… Enou… Enough… flirting, you two. Fight!” Twilight could barely get her words out, so she switched to basic magic, hoping the pain would subside. She jumped back upward and took off the giant one’s head with a crescent-shaped attack. “Single Crescent Moon.”
"Fine..." Silver Pear huffed.
Starlight didn't let any little breath stop her as she rushed through the armies of wendigo sculptures. She had to end this fight and now before the dream became reality. “Did you see them from that building?”
“No, I didn’t" Silver Pear sliced through more enemies. “Where could my mother possibly be?”
“I don’t know, but we will find her.” Twilight knocked the sweat off her brow after shattering another one.
******
As they charged into the increasing number of wendigo sculptures, a mysterious dark blue siren watched from above a small building in the distance. He narrowed his eyes deeper into binoculars, aiming them at Twilight. His stare was so intense, yet the rest of his face was so placid, giving the feeling of strong thoughts with no outer reason to react to them.
One of the wendigo sculptures knocked Twilight down. Its claws went toward her throat. On pure reaction, the siren stallion reached for his sheathed falcata but stopped and took a breath. “No, you are here purely to observe.” Letting go of his weapon, he looked outward across the battlefield. “Now where are you? Rex..."
A buzzing cut through the air and he huffed in annoyance. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a crystal. Pressing on it, a voice spoke forth. "Cold Blue, How is your surveillance?"
"No problems, Lord Blood Diamond. I have found a few promising details, including a strange lavender mare."
"Hmm, didn't the legends say Indigo Frost had a lover that was lavender--"
"That was a dark lavender siren?" Realizing he interrupted his lord, Cold Blue quickly apologized.
"It is okay." Blood Diamond did his best to hide a chuckle.
Cold Blue cleared his voice. "The details about this not-dark but normal-colored lavender unicorn mare is that she has a lot more power than one might think. Plus, upon checking more information about her magic signature..." He leaned over toward the direction of Twilight.
"What about her magic signature?"
"It seems to match the masked figure that refers to himself as Indigo Frost. They might be connected."
"You are saying she might know who is really behind the mask."
"Maybe." Cold Blue tried his best to clarify his words. "She is certainly a piece to keep watch over."
"Fine, continue your watch. Also, keep an eye out for Rex. We don't want him to cause too much trouble."
"Is that a remark against Rex or the alicorn he works under?" Cold Blue stopped upon sensing several wendigo sculptures around him. Jumping high backward, he landed behind them. The crystal floated around him while Blood Diamond continued to talk.
"Our aunt has never been a bright mare. Either way, we must leave you back to your duties. We will meet with the leader of the unicorns soon enough. Hopefully, this Princess Platinum can be of use to us."
"Understood." Cold Blue lost no step in taking down the wendigo sculptures. All while keeping a close eye on Twilight Sparkle.
******
Eventually Twilight, Starlight, and Silver Pear found themselves almost finished. The numbers were dropping fast. Some of them considered it too fast.
However, without warning, the whistling that had summoned these wendigo sculptures returned. This time even louder than before. They covered their ears in distress but also tried their best to keep their guards up.
Despite their attempts, the sound was not the greatest danger as the snow on the ground swelled up. Struggling, they quickly found themselves gripped in place and separated.
Meanwhile, the whistling tore across the entire area, spreading out to the furthest reaches of the town, and shook everypony straight to the bone. Soon, though, the sound stopped, and the wendigoes halted their advance. The battle went incredibly silent, so much so that the sweat from their faces could be heard hitting the ground. Everything was quiet except for the Great Howling of this day.
******
On the other side of the town, Rex and Clover were heading toward the center. However, Rex stopped in place, and Clover quickly followed.
“What's wrong?” Clover questioned.
“The whistles, it stopped the dark magic of this spell.”
“Impossible.” Clover looked back and forth. “The wendigo sculptures are still standing.”
"Yes, but why..." Rex’s eyes widened. “Not standing still, waiting… waiting for a command.” He dropped his hand and rushed forward. “We have to hurry.”
******
Twilight felt every part of her body twist in agony. Her legs hurt the most as the snow twisted tighter. She looked over to Starlight and Silver Pear. Despite their distance, she smiled at the sight of their safety.
“Don’t smile yet,” an icy, bitter voice struck right through Twilight, making everything fade and be quickly replaced by fear. She looked over toward the altar, surprised to see herself far from it. The entire area around the altar had been stretched. She swung her head around and shivered at the sight of the massive crater over the entire area that had remade the entire place, all except the altar and the clock tower. Both, despite being at the center of the crater, were completely untouched.
"How did so much get displaced?" she questioned. Was this some form of magic? Her mind raced over any spell, but nothing came to form.
“Are you done?” The voice returned and again it made her heart jump. With no hesitation, her sight raced to the altar.
How did I not see him--” Her voice stopped once the figure upon the altar became clear to her. Striking through her whole being what this was, who this was. Instantly, she shook against her strongest guard at the sight of his bony smile.
It was a wendigo, this was completely true. But something deep within her told her this was a complete denial of the truth. One thing was sure, she couldn't ignore the familiarity and fear growing the longer she stared.
It had fur that was icy blue and sapphire-colored eyes with a long blonde mane flowing out of a large deer skull that he wore over the upper part of his face. His body was very thin and bony, yet muscular, hidden well under his very long leathery cobalt cape, covered in stitches edged with snow leopard fur. Pulling back his cloak revealed an underlining that was covered in long pure white feathers that have been combed down, almost giving the form of angel wings. Under it all, he wore a vest made from a black panther’s pelt with a silk indigo-colored backside over a green dress shirt with a cobalt tie. For his lowers he wore a pair of green leathery high water pants but no shoes.
Yet none of these details made Twilight back away in horror the most. Yes, they were all important, but none so more than the final.
What made her whole form wrack with fear was the fact that the sleeves had been cut short, leaving his wrists to his elbows completely exposed to the fur below… showing that one of his arms was pale white as if it had been replaced.
The white arm replaced the very arm… that... that Silver Pear had cut off two years ago.
“I see you finally spotted it.” He held up the pale white arm and traced the fingers of his hand over the scar. “It took me some time to find a replacement. Who would have thought randomly choosing that one day and one part of the forest for a quick, easy meal two years ago would accelerate my plans so completely.” He dropped his arms and walked forward until he reached the edge of the altar. “It was as if it was fate.”
“You… it can’t be.” Twilight’s dread pulled the other’s eyes to what she was seeing.
“Impossible. I sliced you through the chest. Silver pear took out your arm... that would kill anypony.” Twilight tried straightening her now loose stance but her legs felt like putty.
“You can’t kill what is already dead.”
Twilight was perplexed by his words.
“Have you forgotten my name already...” He lifted his head and scraped his claws lightly over his mask. "Indigo Frost."
“Fine, Indigo Frost, where is my mom?!” Silver Pear shouted.
Despite the past connection he had with Silver Pear, the wendigo gave little care to the earth pony and continued to feast at the sight of Twilight’s fear.
“Hey, answer me!” Hearing the annoyance again, Indigo Frost finally gestured his hand.
Twilight followed his suit, and her iris shrank at the sight. Being pulled to the platform was Granny Apple… and Crimson, both in chains; they were being brought by a rather large gray inugami with red highlights.
The inugami brought them to the center and then stopped. “That will be all, Bad Wolf. Now stand by for further orders.”
“But…”
“I said standby!”
Bad Wolf’s eyes went wide and his mouth trembled before backing away from the chains. His movement was rather slow as he seemed to watch Granny Apple extremely closely.
The inugami's actions confused Silver Pear at first, but he was at least happy to see his mother alive and well. With no wounds on her, nor on Crimson. His mind wanted to question whose blood was outside the tavern, but he was more worried about his mother’s well-being first. “Are you okay, mother?”
She looked at him and gave a pale stare before looking at Bad Wolf. Her mouth hung for a moment before looking back at her son and not saying a single word. This only brought more confusion to Silver Pear.
Twilight meanwhile had her mind completely on Crimson. "What was he doing here?"
“What is wrong, Twilight? Can't figure out the reason for these choices of hostages?” Indigo Frost interrupted her thoughts with his bitter words.
Was this a threat? If so, why was Crimson here? She didn’t even know him back when she had her encounter with this monster. “Fine, what do you want? Revenge!” Twilight dosed her weapons with magic.
“No, I’m after something better.” Indigo Frost’s grin grew bigger. "However, what I'm after involves you.” He pointed down to the altar they stood upon. “Do you know this place? The name of this altar.”
“I… I…”
“I thought not. This altar was designed by the first to hate wendigoes. When magic is here, especially dark magic, something happens to the user...”
“You want me to use dark magic here.”
“Soon, but not yet.” He turned to Crimson, "I need to claim something. First." He held out his hand, and the snowflakes rose from the ground and pulled him forward. "Though, I never considered you of all creatures would be the one to bring it right to me.”
Indigo Frost's eyes raced back to Twilight as he reached for the necklace on Crimson's neck. Gripping it tightly, he yanked hard, bashing Crimson's face into his knuckles. "Oh, yes, it is fate that led us to this moment."
"Crimson!" Twilight attempted to swing her arms but quickly found them being held down by snowflakes as well.
“You don’t know what this is, do you?” Indigo Frost ripped off the chain and held the turquoise pearl up high. “This is an alathar, one of nine artifacts that once belonged to a fallen god who lost his name long ago, simply known now as Madness of the Broken One."
"Enough!" Without warning, Rex and Clover landed on the altar.
"Ah, Rex, I see you arrived." Indigo Frost didn't take his face off Twilight once. Despite that, his snowflakes quickly surrounded Rex and Clover.
“Drop that now!”
"Do you want to hurt my hostages?" On that large ice spikes shot up around Crimson's and Granny Apple's throats.
"Please... "Twilight's voice could barely leave her shock-filled mouth. "Don't hurt them."
Indigo Frost loosened his grip and the ice spikes faded back to snowflakes. He even dropped Crimson down.
"Only if you let me finish." Indigo Frost pointed toward Twilight.
"Fine..." Twilight's face dropped.
Bringing up the turquoise pearl, he lamented his words so slowly. "This is the Void of Dreams. The heart of the hateful sirens, and once wielded by the pure Morpheus Morningstar himself.” His eyes turned to Rex. "This one would be most useful to you."
“What do you mean?” Rex question.
“It allows the wielder to bring their greatest dream to life. And what do you dream of most?”
Rex turned his face away. "I have no dreams."
"How about dying?” Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed at the fear this brought to Clover's face. "Or maybe you wish to bring someone back?"
Rex’s eyes widened at Indigo Frost's soft words. “What are you talking about? Why would I need anyone?!?!” He raised his hands and chains shot out from his shadow and flew toward Indigo Frost.
The wendigo used the snowflakes to raise Crimson into the line of fire. Instantly, the chains stopped in mid-air. “Now that's a lie. Had this been her, you would not hesitate to go right through and stab me.”
Rex pulled back his chains at those words. "Her...?"
“I guess you’re not as monstrous as the legends used to say.” He tilted his head, “Or maybe it’s because you replaced her so easily?” Indigo Frost gestured to Clover, “With a much younger model.”
"Enough!!" Rex’s eyes narrowed and went back in for the attack again. He increased the speed of his chains, yet they still couldn’t make their mark. All his chains bounced around, never once hitting Crimson or Indigo Frost.
“Stop, please!” Twilight pleaded louder.
“You heard the ever so beautiful mare.” The wendigo lowered and held his claws to Crimson’s throat.
Indigo Frost and Rex continued to talk. Starlight's mind was on Twilight and Crimson. Her thoughts were flowing like a river in the dream. Was this what the being was trying to warn her about?
Her eyes kept on Crimson the entire time, hoping it was all wrong. She tried her best to figure out a way to save him or maybe a way to get Twilight far from here at least. Despite all the time that had passed, she still couldn’t see an opening at all. She looked at Crimson’s face. his face was on Twilight, his eyes were on Starlight.
It seemed as if he was trying to gesture to her something important, but she couldn't gather what. Following his eyes downward, she came upon a dagger in his pocket. Her sight quickly raced back to Twilight. She was seeing the same thing. A plan was forming, but it needed one more thing.
Knotting her head, Starlight followed with her horn. She poured magic outward in a bright light that quickly filled the entire area. Twilight smiled. Rex caught on to the plan and dropped his chains into his shadows as they got bigger.
All seemed to have their plan on how everything was about to go down. And as the light got too bright to see, Crimson launched forward.
******
Cold Blue landed on a destroyed building at the far end of the altar. He looked on in silence as everything replayed for him.
"Looks like I was too late to witness the plan come to fruition." Turning his falcata downward, he charged it with maroon-colored magic. He stabbed it into the building and a shield shot outward. "I can't let this darkness escape."
Quickly, his sight fell upon Twilight once more. He saw every bit of emotion on her face as things moved too slowly for most to even process. He frowned at the sight of blood flowing out over the altar. "I... I'm sorry this had to happen to you."
******
The light quickly faded and victory seemed assured as smiles grew on Twilight and Crimson’s faces, followed by cheers from Silver Pear and confusion from Rex and Clover… However, all that came to a halt as blood splattered over the altar.
Twilight’s eye darted at the sight of Crimson’s hand floating through the wendigo's chest… almost like there was nothing there at all.
Indigo Frost leaned his head down to the trembling Crimson and licked at the sweat pouring down the unicorn's face. “I’m sorry. You couldn’t harm or even break me. For when it comes down to it. You can’t kill a ghost.” He pulled his pale arm back and Crimson’s eyes went blank. "But a ghost can certainly kill you."
Crimson’s body jolted with every pull, and Twilight’s eye widened more. Indigo Frost lifted the gently beating heart of Crimson from the body. Each thread-thin vein slowly popped off with each movement.
Indigo Frost held it up high to Twilight. “This is what I'm truly here for.” On that, he yanked hard, breaking each string of both Crimson's heart and Twilight's mind. "To see you all shatter!" He brought the heart to his mouth and bit down, chomping up and down in less than a few bites.
Twilight’s face went pale and her legs buckled. Her hand did little to hold her weapons up as they fell into the snow with an almost harder thud than Crimson’s body, as it too crashed to the ground at the same time. Her mouth fell open and tears pooled in her eyes.
Seeing the opening, Rex and Clover rushed forward with attacks. Indigo Frost jumped away from the corpse and summoned up an ice wall. He turned to Bad Wolf and spoke, "Time to leave.”
Hearing his words broke through the fear that had caked the beast's face the entire time. He walked over to Granny Apple and picked her up. Meanwhile, Rex and Clover broke through the ice wall and charged forward. They chased after Indigo Frost as he jumped up the clock tower. Silver Pear went after his mother.
Rex got to the top of the clock tower and shouted to the wendigo. "Why would you do that? Why do you see fit to bring this pain?"
Indigo Frost stopped and looked over at everything. "I wanted somewhere to show my might and power."
"You haven't any might. Only fear and hatred. And why here, of all places?"
“Because this is the center of everything. All my joys and all my hatreds are in this single place. This! Is! Where! It! All! Begins!!
******
Indigo Frost’s echoes beat down over the town’s roads and pathways. The sounds carried through the swirling the ruins of the older new buildings as they fell to the ground. Bouncing off the edges, and slowly back to the clock tower and the altar that stood before it.
Tears fell from the face of a lavender alicorn mare as she shivered in place. She wasn’t cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her, no matter what.
This lone mare gave little care to the echoes or to the ponies, griffins, and sirens that ran from it. Sure, she wanted to give some sort of reaction outside of her self, but her legs wouldn’t answer. All she could do was stare at the fresh corpse lying on the altar in front of her.
Her mind replayed over the events that led to this, yet the events had only happened seconds ago, everything about them was a complete shadow. She couldn't see everything in a better light, all she could pull forth was darkness.
Darkness...
Darkness...
Darkness...
No sliver of light came to her. No signs, no hope, no kindness, no laughter, no generosity, no honesty, no loyalty, no friendship...
Friendship…
Friend…
Free…
Her mind screamed for an answer as she finally felt her leg move. On their own, or out of some base instinct, her legs pulled her toward the corpse. Despite how much she wanted to know the reality of what she was seeing in front of her, her mind was now screaming at her to stop.
Don't look...
Don't look...
Don't look...
It's not real...
It's not real...
It's not real...
It's a shadow...
It's a shadow...
It's a shadow...
Finally, she found herself in front of the corpse. It was mere inches from her. The face of the dead, dark lavender unicorn stallion stared back with the blankest stare. She reached out and brought its forehead to her.
Her eyes widened, and her mind could no longer deny reality. The shadows faded, and the darkness lifted to show Crimson dead in Twilight's arms. In pure reaction, she squeezed tighter, wanting him to react, to give some sign that maybe this wasn't real, but it was very real, no matter how much she didn't want it to be.
“Oh by the gods, it’s an alicorn.” A voice so small, yet it broke through Twilight’s agony. She turned to see a small dark blue colt.
The colt reached out and placed his hand on her back. “Oh, lovely goddess, don’t weep!” The colt walked closer. “The good lord said when we die, we go to a better place?”
In the background, Starlight watched in total fear. Everything was playing out like the dream. This meant only one thing to her. Stop it now!
With no more hesitation, she rushed forward.
The colt attempted to calm Twilight’s pain but, like in the dream, he was halted by another voice, this one far older. “It’s an alicorn, a famed immortal!” The older one threw a stone.
Starlight quickly knocked the stone away as it flew. It landed on the ground, barely missing Twilight’s face.
“Like the immortals that brought this war to us!” another voice screamed out in rage.
Starlight landed between Twilight and the quickly growing crowd of anger. “No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t her fau--” Another stone flew, this time hitting her in the face.
“Move, mare. The witch must die!" A heavy stone punched Starlight in the stomach, pushing her to the ground.
"Get away from that colt!” Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight’s face. “You don’t deserve to be near him. You are practically the one responsible for all of this.”
The eyepatch fell to the ground.
Starlight reached out, yet all she could do was a twist as great shame wracked her whole body. Her eyes looked at the crowd, and her mind raced back to the dream.
Narrowing her eyes, she found the brown donkey standing in the crowd. Sorrow and fear covered his face. She reached out to him for answers, maybe even help, but she got one word and this didn't come from him...
"Failure..." A dark voice spoke from behind her... from Twilight.
“Get away from him!” More voices shouted to the alicorn.
“You are responsible for all of this!!” Another throw...
“Don’t you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!!” Another throw...
“You are as evil as that ghost!!” Another throw...
“Stop it!” Starlight attempted to get up, but with no warning at all, she was knocked away by a massive pulse of maroon-colored magic. As quickly as it began, it ended, the shouting stopped and the echoes of the stones ended. The colt backed away.
The lone lavender alicorn turned away from the corpse and faced the crowd as massive amounts of maroon smoke pushed forth from her mouth and eyes. At this moment, she seemed devoid of all emotions, swinging her head around like a random beast.
She lifted her head and screamed so loud. Mindless rapidness was gone in an instant. All things are replaced by pure rage. Over her face, the frostbitten scar, as if powered by this maroon magic, moved and to her body.
The surrounding ground shook and cracked. With one swift move, the altar ripped open to reveal a vast pit. The ground crumbled around it almost in fear, yet what Twilight stood upon was so still.
The maroon smoke got heavy and flowed toward the pit. It flooded out like a tidal wave as she twisted and growled. The gas flowed to the ground, moving across like sludge. As fast as the pit appeared, the gunk filled every crevice before shooting upward.
Turning solid and as thick as the hardest crystal, the maroon formed a giant hand. Gripping tightly to Crimson as it grew taller and wider. Many looked in horror as it quickly outstood the clock tower that had always shined overall. More confusion was brought as the remaining ground that could only shriek away was now bending upward around as if something was pulling each stone and pebble, creating massive gashes in all directions.
Watchers could only back away. Starlight herself tried reaching Twilight, but it was as if a mighty gravitational force was pushing her back with more power than she ever felt before. Out of nowhere birds nearby crashed to the ground, squirrels twisted and fell out of trees, and dogs and cats threw all their rage at the sight of the hand before quickly falling too, all these animals could do was show their anger and quickly die by an unknown force.
Finally, Twilight dropped her head and stopped screaming.
All continue to look in confusion. Horror had only faded to the sheer height of the mighty sculpture in front of them. Its shadow nearly covered the entire city. Many stared at it... except for Starlight.
Her eyes were on her teacher and the pain of her revelation. The dream came true. This is what the voice wanted to hide from her. She failed. She did her best, but it was all for naught. However, she wouldn't know the genuine horror of her hesitation until she finally heard Twilight speak.
"You want a monster...” Twilight's voice was... so cold. Devoid of all joy, or sorrow. All that could be heard was one absolute thing that brought a chill to everyone's core and drove all their attention back to her as she finally faced them.
"Twilight..." Starlight walked forward. A faint smile filled her mind upon feeling the mysterious field gone.
Twilight's form had changed completely. All her fur had turned hard, like the frostbitten eye, fading to the same color, pale, almost icy blue. Her form had grown in height yet shrunk in width. She was almost as boney as Indigo Frost. One thing was certain: at this moment, this lone mare standing at the center of everything was no longer Twilight.
"Monster!! A shattered monster!!" The mare's roars punched Starlight to the ground. Slowly, the mare approached the group.
Rapidly, the pale mare's head tilted left and right as her mane floated upward. Her eyes fell on the colt that had shown her kindness. With no warning or even any signs of hesitation, she rushed at the colt, pushing him to the ground. She pushed her hand into his throat and pressed down. "Well, do you want a shattered freak of nature?" The harder she pushed, the clear a smile formed on her lips as her horn pulsed a maroon color and her hand filled with magic. “I'll give you... the darkest spell... Number Ninty-nine... Darkness Shattering Moon Light!!”
The mare’s words were stopped and the spell faded with a distinct noise. It was soft yet also very sharp. She loosened her grip and scanned around, searching for the source, until her eyes fell on a dark blue siren right behind her with a strange dagger-like ocarina in his mouth.
For a second, Starlight through the ocarina's noise was the same as Indigo Frost's summoning spell, but this was different. Despite the instrument resembling a weapon, its sound gave no fear or rage.
Cold Blue stood strong, aiming his falcata right at her head. “Let the child go. Now!” The pale mare only growled at him. “I see. The brilliant mare I watched from afar is not even here anymore. There is only the..." His words stopped as he brought the strange instrument completely away from his mouth. “ as they said, a bastard, a killer, and a butcher. Behold the Pale Mare of legend."
With no fear, Cold Blue charged forward and tackled the pale mare off of the child. Pressing his falcata right between the center of her breastplate, he wrestled her far away from the group. Turning, he yelled to Starlight, "Omnipony get the child."
Starlight came to her senses with that word and ran over and picked the child up. She checked over and was glad to see no wounds at all. However, her thoughts were still in Twilight. "Okay, he's fine, now let go of my teacher--" she stopped at the sight of Cold Blue pulling back his falcata and aiming toward the pale mare's heart.
"No!" Starlight screamed forth as black and white magic quickly grabbed the weapon as pierced the armor. "Leave her." Starlight couldn't hold back her tears at this moment.
"Why?! Tell me!"
"Because she's not a monster!"
"Tell that to them." Cold Blue pointed out to the townsfolk as he pushed down harder. The hold weakened enough for him to now puncture the armor and skin.
"I..." Starlight's eyes fell on them. The very folks who had partied with her and Twilight in this very place not but yesterday. All were backed away in unheeded fear. "She's... my teacher... my friend."
Despite the roaring of the pale mare below him, Cold Blue couldn't help but understand Starlight's words. "... Fine." On that, he turned his falcata to its hilt and bashed it against the pale mare's head, knocking her out.
With that, the maroon magic faded around them. The scar shrank back into place and her fur, size, and body returned to normal. The true Twilight had returned.
Getting up, he walked over to Starlight. "She will live as long as you keep her away from this altar. When she wakes, she will be normal again." He tried rephrasing, "She will not remember this event ever happened."
Starlight let go of the child and let it run back to its mother. Taking in a deep breath, she walked back to Twilight, passing Cold Blue along the way. "Thank you--"
She was stopped when he placed his dagger-like ocarina to her throat. "Don't you dare thank me at all? She needs to die, not to save these weak souls but to save herself." His eyes pointed to the mother of the colt they saved, much to Starlight's shock. The mother's sight was filled with rage toward Twilight, and them as well. "They will never forget. They will never stop hating. This is the path of a monster and likes it or not, your teacher is now on this path."
"What should I do?"
"Take her far from this place. No matter what happens in the future, no matter whether it is filled with hope or darkness, never return here--" He pulled the dagger away and sliced a rock that had flown toward them in half. "Because next time I won't be here to save her from their... prejudice." On that final note, he dropped his weapons to his sides and ran off from sight. "You have until sundown before they show you who they truly are."
Starlight didn't know at all how to react to what he said or everything she saw today. The one thing she knew for sure was she had to get Twilight out of sight for now and at least far away from this area and the monolith now standing in the center of it all.
Picking Twilight up in magic, she ran off where she assumed her friends from the tavern were still. She hoped they could help her in at least some way.
Meanwhile, Silver Pear only stood still. His eyes were blank in utter confusion. He took Indigo Frost's arm all those years ago, so why did it seem like this whole attack was all directed toward Twilight? His mind wanted to worry about his mother's safety and who this Bad Wolf was, yet he couldn't deny the curiosity to it all. How did it all connect?
Suddenly his eyes came upon the small ass of a certain seafoam green unicorn as she ran toward the battle flying through the sky. He didn't know how to compute everything that happened today, but he knew this mare had to have answers.
******
Up in the sky, Indigo Frost flew over random buildings, letting his laughter echo over all that could hear him. Rex tried his best to keep up with the wendigo. He too wanted to question the reasons for this attack, but he was always brasher when in anger, and all of this pain, that was one thing he couldn't deny. Reaching up to his turban, he didn't hesitate any longer.
"No, Rex, not here!" Clover shouted.
"Yes, it has to be here." Rex tossed his turban at Clover and charged up magic in his curved blue horn. A maroon color flowed over it and lightly fuzzed at the top. Smoke tipped at his eyes and flowed down to his hands. Holding his fingers in a horn style, he swung them around his body fast in exactly thirty-two exes. "Dark Shadow Mix Spell Thirty-Two, Tentacles of the Kraken!"
Without warning, the ground shook and all the nearby shadows in a thirty-two-meter radius spasmed before charging toward to central points that dotted the area. The whole action made Indigo Frost stop in his tracks. Looking at each center, he was surprised to see what looked like tentacles rising from them.
"Thule would be so happy to see a spell similar to this." Indigo Frost readied himself. "Of course, a spell of that size would destroy the entire city. Why are you holding back?"
Rex's eyes widened and his mouth sneering with rage stopped his movements for only a moment but kept his fingers in the right form. Quickly swinging one hand at a time made each tentacle move. Indigo Frost jumped around, dodging all of them. However, as the seconds moved, the tentacles went faster. It was getting harder.
The umbrum increased the number of tentacles and multiplied the speed. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Clover made her way through the maze, hoping the plan would work. All while neither knew of Silver Pear following everything.
"I know you can't keep this up all day!" Indigo Frost questioned Rex's actions.
"Only long enough to get answers."
"Like..." Indigo Frost poised for Rex to question, but he knew all too well what each word would be.
"Why this place--"
"Come on, I answered this one. Give me something better."
"Fine, why that mare?"
"When I fought her two years ago, I found her so interesting. She will put friendship above her own life." The wendigo couldn't hold back his laughter. "Can you believe that? Friendship?!"
"Now I know!" Rex smirked.
"Know what?"
Rex's eyes fell to a glare. "That you could never be the Indigo Frost of legend. The great king of the wendigo would never mock such a thing."
"Who said I'm mocking it? I am Indigo Frost, and this is the path I walk now."
"Then this is where your path ends." Rex closed his fingers and smiled.
Indigo Frost's eyes widened at the sight of several strings now quickly flying toward him as the tentacles pulled back.
The strings wrapped tightly around Indigo Frost's body. They held down with so much force, much more than he could handle, as he didn't even fight once they were in place. He simply took a breath and landed on a building.
Rex landed in the same building and walked right to him. "Too easy. All I had to do was keep you distracted long enough for Clover to pull the string across every tentacle." After that, Clover jumped up to the same building.
"Hmm, it looks like she is useful for something." Indigo Frost leered at the seafoam unicorn.
"Plus, it kind of helps that others can see quick tactics as well." Silver Pear appeared seemingly out of nowhere and aimed his claymore at the wendigo's throat. Clover and Rex put up their guard at the random guest but kept their eyes on Indigo Frost the entire time.
"What are you doing here, earth pony?" Rex questioned.
"Don't worry, I want answers as much as you." Silver Pear walked closer and placed the tip of his weapon right against Indigo Frost's throat.
"Do think I can give answers that only others know the truth of--"
"Quit the wordplay." Clover pulled her side of the strings tighter.
"It's not wordplay, if anything it's very correct." Indigo Frost looked at Rex and leaned closer. "What you should ask is why didn't I escape sooner after seeing this trap twice."
The wendigo's words brought shock and realization to Rex's eyes, especially when he noticed that Indigo Frost was looking beyond him. "Shit--"
Out of nowhere, flames shot upward all around them, quickly consuming the strings. Indigo Frost ripped free as each string snapped and charged right at Rex, knocking them both off the building. He carried Rex off by the throat. Clover jumped backward off the building in search of the obvious ifrit helping the wendigo.
All three were gone before Silver Pear could even compute what happened.
******
Starlight continued to carry Twilight to safety. She didn't know what she was going to do or where she was going to go, only that she had to take the siren's words to heart. Even then there was somepony she was thinking of in the back of her mind that could be a strong possibility, but she wouldn't be sure until she had another conversation with him. Until then, she had to find a place to hide.
Combining all of this thought and movement filled her with much loss of breath and a large gaining of fear. She was almost panicking. She did not know what was about to happen, but out of nowhere, something fell from the sky, stopping her movement instantly.
Rex crashed into a building a few meters in front of her and Twilight. Indigo Frost was driving a massive ice stake through the umbrum's chest, impaling him into the wall. "What?! Rex!" Starlight jumped back and dropped Twilight to the ground.
"Well, this seems to be our end." Indigo Frost pushed the stake deeper into Rex as he struggled at him. "You don't realize the irony of fighting me." Indigo Frost reached over and tapped on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Tell that goat hello for me." On that, he jumped back at the sight of Rex's eyes struggling to stay open.
At a distance, Sage watched with intrigue. "So now I will see why Rex is so important to this plan."
Indigo Frost smiled at the sight of Rex's body going limp. Once he was sure, he turned to Starlight and Twilight. Particularly, his sight fell on Twilight and the faint glow from the scar he gave her. "I'm so glad she stabilized." On that, his body faded to distinctly red snowflakes. "Soon the Pale Mare will return." With that final word, he floated out of sight.
Once the wendigo left, Starlight didn't hesitate to run over to Rex. "No, no, no. You can't die here." She scanned him over with magic while her eyes flipped back and forth between him and Twilight. "If you die, then she..." She charged up her magic. "I can't let that happen--"
"You'll find that to be pointless," Starswirl moved her with magic. "Now away."
Starlight looked in confusion at the sound of an old wizard's words. "What are you talking about? If I don't heal him, he'll die--"
"Ah!!" Without warning, Rex jumped to attention and screamed out in agony. The Dark Alicorn Amulet shone forth a bright maroon light, followed by smoke.
Starlight was shocked to see that it was the same way the magic flowed out of Twilight before, only instead of it coming from the eyes, it was coming out of the amulet. It was far finer than Twilight's rigid smoke. The maroon smoke grabbed hold of the massive stake and pulled it free from Rex.
The umbrum fell to the ground and started coughing up maroon liquid as the smoke moved away. "Damn it," he screamed in between each splat of liquid.
Starlight's eyes widened at the sight of the smoke going to Rex's massive wound and sealing it up as if it was never there at all before returning to the amulet. "Impossible."
"No, very possible," the old wizard posed.
"Huh," Rex looked up and smiled, "Well, Starswirl, how did you know he wouldn't at least let me sleep a little longer."
"As you said yourself, this wendigo claims to be Indigo Frost. The king was the original owner of the amulet so whether this is the real wendigo or a fake posing as him he got the Dark Alicorn Amulet's attention. Therefore, I am certain the spirit inside will hold you in a tighter grip until it has answers." Starswirl walked closer and pointed to the very object they were both talking about as the maroon smoke fully reseeded.
"Great..." Rex huffed a deadpan as he got to his feet.
"Wait, you can't die!" Starlight could only point in shock.
"Quite the reverse." Starswirl turned to the unicorn. "You could say his life or death, in this case, has a chain over it."
"Yeah, Starswirl's words sum it up pretty well." Rex walked over to Starlight before stopping at the sight of Twilight. He didn't know why his eyes were brought over to her, only that there was a great familiarity on her face.
Starlight's eyes jumped again, and she pointed to the old wizard, "Wait, Starswirl?"
"Yes, I am Starswirl." He walked closer and looked her over. "Hmm, looks like that siren and Rex was right about you."
"Wait, siren?!" Rex jumped to guard, "When did Cold Blue get here?"
"He left after giving me a message. I wish you had told me as soon as possible."
"The omnipony? I only found out about her yesterday and the attack happened before I could get back to the ship."
"Now that's a lie since the attack started in the morning." Starswirl puffed cotton candy into Rex's mouth. "It seems you didn't notice the other detail. Luckily Cold Blue did."
"What do you mean?" Starlight questioned. "What detail--" She was stopped as both she and Twilight were scanned by a bubbly red, yellow, and black-colored magic.
"Of course, my spell worked!" Starswirl smiled in joy. "Or at least it will."
"What..." Rex pulled the cotton candy free from his mouth and threw it to the ground. "Are you talking about?"
"Rex, it seems we have new guests joining us on our journey." Starswirl turned away.
"Isn't taking on that siren filly and her sisters enough--"
"Shush." Starswirl laughed after poofing another cotton candy into Rex's mouth.
"Wait, what's going on here?" The voice of somepony caught them all off guard. Starlight quickly turned around to see Twilight slowly getting up.
"Teacher, don't rush yourself."
Twilight gestured Starlight away before fixing her stance and demanding again for answers. "Answer me now, lord of chaos!" She pointed right at Starswirl, making the old wizard stop in his tracks.
"Lord of Chaos? Huh? Oh, the future holds so many possibilities." Starswirl jumped for joy.
"What? Teacher, that Starswirl the Bearded not Disc--"
"I know what I said!" Twilight interrupted her student. "Which makes you," she pointed to Rex. "Rex Moba, Master of Shadowmancy... and my... and my ..." Before she could finish, she fell to the ground.
Starlight quickly rushed over to her. "Don't push yourself..." She stopped her words upon noticing Twilight was out cold again. "Damn it!"
"Calm down, Lovely." Silver Pear walked up finally. "She is simply out of breath."
"Rex..." Clover also showed up with no delay.
"Hmm, did you find the ifrit?" Rex questioned.
"No." She gripped his hand tightly. "But I sensed your..."
"Don't worry, I'm still here." He raised his hand to her mane.
"On that note, it's best that all of us head back to the ship." Starswirl gripped Twilight in his magic to help Starlight out. "Every single one."
"Wait, them too--" Rex stopped his words and jumped back from poofing cotton candy. "No more. Give me answers now!"
"Fine," Starswirl brought Twilight over to Rex. "Look into her face. Tell me who you see."
"I... I... I don't see anypony." Rex turned away. There was a fainting glint in his eyes. "Nothing at all."
"Okay, What do you see, Clover?" Starswirl brought the alicorn over to her.
Clover looked Twilight over and, at first, couldn't figure out what he meant. However, the longer she looked, the more her eyes widened. "No, there is no way."
"No way, but with time travel." Starlight walked over to them. She reached over and pulled at Rex's hand, bringing it to Twilight's face. "I never considered the possibility that you and she would ever meet, but she always considered it. Oh, how I hate when she is right?"
"What are you talking about? Rex pulled away. “Who are you?"
"Well, my name is Starlight Glimmer, and she is Twilight Sparkle." Starlight pointed right to Rex. "We are from the future and are--" Suddenly cotton candy puffed into her mouth.
"I think that will be enough spoilers for now. We are taking them with us and this is final." Starswirl lowered Twilight over Starlight's shoulder and then held out his hand, gesturing his fingers out away from everypony. Making a few symbols followed by a snap, a portal opened. "Chaos Spell Number One, Graceful Opening!"
On the other side was a pathway covered in a large amount of machinery that Starlight couldn't recognize. She knew she could trust her teacher and maybe even Starswirl if the legends were true, but seeing this powerful spell made her uneasy.
"We... need to leave..." Twilight's words barely spoke through her weakening mind.
"Fine, teach. Don't push yourself." Starlight tried to push her fear away and walked through the portal.
"I'm going too," Silver Pear commented.
"What?" Rex stepped in the earth pony's way. "Why would we need you--"
Silver Pear didn't hesitate to point his claymore at Rex's throat. "Because I might be useful to you."
"And how?" Clover knocked away the claymore with her staff.
"Well," Silver Pear leaned in close to the mare. "Little Missy, outside of the fact that wendigo took my mom, I know for a fact he isn't a ghost."
"What do you mean?" Starswirl posed.
"Sure, you can't kill a ghost, but you certainly can't wound one either." Silver Pear pulled back his claymore to his back and walked around Rex and Clover.
"You wounded him? When?!" Rex demanded.
"Not exactly wounded... I took his arm off." These ultimate words stopped all three of them.
Silver Pear walked through the portal with no more problems in his way. Starswirl could only laugh as he followed. Clover walked through, confused by everything that had happened. Meanwhile, Rex stood in place, seemingly not ready to leave. He was so distracted by Silver Pear’s words that he didn’t notice the brown spider crawling by and into the portal.
"Impossible," Rex spat once everypony was out of sight. "How could he?" He took a few steps to the portal before stopping at a sound. He turned to a building in the distance and flinched at nothing. "Or maybe this masked wendigo has more up his sleeve than it appears." In those last words, he walked through the portal.
After it vanished, back up on that very building, Sage pulled himself free from the fear of being spotted. He had witnessed everything from the shadows and even helped Indigo Frost and his allies in certain moments during this whole thing. Now that everything seemed to end, though, all he could think about was Rex's last words.
"I have to know... "
******
Thousands of miles away in the far north, beyond all reach of land, floated a mighty fortress. Inside a weak tan unicorn in a teal cloak, panic is his rush toward the center. He did his best to carry each scroll in his arms with care while making sure to not fall once.
Each scroll had an orange tip and was written on black cloth. it was very faint, there was a pinch of writing on the front of each one. They were all named.
Soon he came upon a sparkling red tower that stood higher than any other. Taking a deep he slowed his breath and his movement before entering. He was still in a panic, but he couldn’t let the one he was about to see observe that in him.
Passing through the doorway, he gulped at the sight of seemingly innumerous stairs. He straightened the scrolls and took his first step of many. After a much longer time, he finally reached the top.
Opening a final door, he spotted a tall orange unicorn stallion in black centipede-like armor with orange lines and a thin, long red mane that reached to the ground. Taking attention to not step on the mane, he got closer and presents the scrolls. “I brought what you asked for, oh great, Lord Red.”
“Well done, Clovis the Coward. I needed to compare other listed creatures.” His horn never glowed and yet, quickly unrolled every single one and floated them around his sight and the mirror in front of him.
At first, they seemed almost completely blank, but the same faint writing covered each one. The eyes of the orange unicorn glowed, and the writing lit up with bright light.
Clovis gasped at the sight of his master’s power and walked closer to the mirror. He noted an image being shown within the mirror. “Is that it--”
“I’m not sure what this claw might be, it is not made from normal magic.” The alicorn scanned through more scrolls, “No, I saw something before… The Broken One, he used to use these as markers.”
“The fallen Ideal himself.”
“Indeed…” He grimaced and increased his search. He looked over the scrolls until he came upon one with red writing. “Oh, this candidate. I believe he was the last descendant I saw with this power.”
“But Lord Red. That name.., Rex Moba.”
“I know. And it seems the scroll noted him as far from the spot where the claw rose forth.”
“That’s impossible. His magic has incredible range, yes, but to summon such a thing from that distance while fighting off those dangerous beasts at the same time seems far too out of his range.”
“Oh Clovis, you have too much doubt.” Lord Red couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t doubt your words, his potential.”
“But I never accused you of doubting me at all,” Lord Red remarked back.
“I… I…” Clovis fell backward at his master’s words. While Lord Red didn’t seem to have any open anger toward him, Clovis could sense deep within the offense. “I wasn’t doubting you, I swear!” He fell to his knees and begged.
“Calm yourself.” Lord Red’s mane lifted and padded Clovis on the head. Clovis couldn’t but smile at the kind gesture and did as he was told. “I noticed something else about this.” Lord Red waved his hand over the mirror and the picture seemed to change.
The claw was still there, but it was as if it was a different color now. Clovis's eyes widened, and he realized what his master suspected. “Unknown magic signature seems to match Rex and...”
"Exactly, this proof must never leave this room." He waved his hand over the mirror. "For now, I need you to head to the Unicorn Providence Capital. Meanwhile, I need to confirm this at the Giant Blue Hourglass."
******
Hours later, deep in a slowly darkening room, three souls were still bound to chairs. So much time had passed since Vanity's last words, and the food in front of them had long lost its fresh smell, their eyes had not left the sight of it.
Over in the far area of the room, a small crystal lay hidden from sight, yet in a big enough opening enough to see everything. It observed every detail and transmitted it to another location. On the other side of the feed was a room covered in nearly absolute darkness. For the moment, the only light was from the feed. It was too small to show much of anything and especially it couldn't reveal the one watching.
Without warning, the door flew open. Sage slowly stepped inside. "They told me you would head here next."
A pale white hand reached over and grasped into a bowl filled with eyeballs. "Yes, I am here."
"Watching them slowly turn on each other."
"Actually, no. While the sight of their growing hunger is a suitable backdrop, the genuine show is from outside." The pale hand pointed before dropping an eyeball into the sharp jaw.
It was at this moment that Sage realized... "You aren't wearing your mask?" He attempted to step closer. Opening the door had brought in more light. It still wasn't enough to show the full form of the being sitting in the room.
With the idea of the mask off, curiosity grew in Sage's mind on answers about who was leading this group. Who was using the name of a fallen king? However, under all of that was another curiosity. "Wait, what genuine show?"
"Step closer and I will tell you."
the room was chilly before, to Sage it now felt so much colder. Doing as he was told, he walked into the room and closer to the figure covered in shadows, following his pale gesturing hand.
"What is this genuine show? Tell me?"
"Don't you hear it? It's been playing all day." The hand stopped once Sage was close enough and reached back into the bowl and pulled out another eye. "Here, enjoy."
Sage was stopped in his thoughts by the eye placed in his hand. He couldn't deny that it was the same eye of his siren ally that he had betrayed to get this close to everything.
"Eat and mourn the Lamenta."
"The..." Sage's words fell short as he stared deep into the eyeball being placed in his hand. Yes, he had eaten this siren's arm days ago, but this was different. Sage's throat tightened and finally, in pure reaction, he turned away. Holding tightly to the eyeball, he moved his hand up to his throat and pretended to chew before hiding the eyeball in his sleeve.
"That is, mourn the sounds of his Lamanta." The pale hand moved away to an object sitting on a table near the chair.
Sage looked in shock to see the object was the mask of Indigo Frost. Now he knew for sure what his words next would be. "Lamanta, whose Lamanta?"
"Don't you hear him? He's mourning as he always does. Every Winter Solstice." The pale hand gripped tightly to the skull. "That's the answer you are searching for, right?"
"What?" Sage stopped at the sight of copper-red eyes that replaced the sapphire eyes. They were staring right through his soul. "You knew what I wanted?"
"Of course. You wish to know who I am and I won't lie. Everything I did today was actually to destroy the truth. Yet, in all of it, my father's mourning still echoed through it all."
"Wait... you mean the Great Howling."
"Yes, that sound that we all hear every Winter Solstice. It is the cry of the true Indigo Frost as he mourns for his beloved." The pale hand loosened its tight grip on the mask. "But, maybe now this howling will be a joyous call of hope for his son's victory."
"You're... his..."
"I was born on the day of my mother's death." The pale hand picked up the mask and brought it to his face. "Born on the day this all began and this has decided the fate of my mission."
"Which is?"
They both stopped at the realization. The Great Howling had stopped. It all came to its close with the setting of the Sun of this day. The shortest day of the year.
And as the wendigo observed… “Don’t worry, father.”, He lifted the skull, “As by the right of taking your name and wearing your skull,” He brought the skull up to his face. “I swore you would never need to mourn for my mother ever again. So said I, the son of Indigo Frost, the new frost over the land of lies. Here to shine a brightness on their malice.” He stepped up from his chair and walked over to the monitor. “Here to bring a torch to their hatred! Here to guide their souls through the river of sin!” Turning to the light and letting it finally shine upon him. “And with the truth in hand, all things will be a reality!! That every creature, no matter the species, race, age, rank, right or position is life, is and has always had a monster deep down inside them and my mission here is to bring that monster to the surface!!”
******
Years ago, longer than any could remember, a boat approached the barely standing ruins of a castle on an island in the middle of a semi-frozen ocean. Two ponies walked out of the boat and marveled at the remains.
“So this is where it happened?” the red stallion commented.
“Indeed. From what I heard about this place,” the blue stallion answered.
“Okay, let’s see if we can find any treasure.” The red stallion ran off.
“Don’t be in such a rush. We still have plenty of time before the actual salvage crew gets here.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Puffing slowly, he noted everything in sight. From the frozen and toppled watchtower to the remains of frozen corpses. “Shit, those sirens certainly gave it their all. Damn fools.”
“Jackpot!” the red stallion could hold back his shouting.
The blue stallion smirked at the sight of his friend swinging around a golden staff. Not really giving much care, he threw his cigarette to the ground and ran toward him. He should have been paying attention to the ground halfway there. He tripped and banged his leg against a broken door.
“Fuck!” The blue stallion grabbed his leg.
“What happened?” The red stallion ran back over.
“Don’t you ever see a damn thing?” He hissed in pain.
“Said the one who tripped--” the red stallion stopped at the sight of something catching his attention. “What the?”
“Did you find a golden crouch for my leg?”
“Look.” The red stallion reached over and dragged out a baby from under the rubble.
“Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know, it was laying here.” The red stallion stood up and looked closer at the baby. “Hey, do you think this is…”
“Possibly.” Annoyed that he wasn't getting any help, the blue stallion huffed and attempted to sit down. “Maybe the stories are true.”
“That queen was a whore.”
“Whether it was that or some twisted form of mind control, the proof is here right in your hands. That isn’t a siren and the mere fact you can hold it without your hands freezing proves it can’t be a true wendigo.”
“But it looks so much like one.” The red couldn’t hold back his laughter and he lightly rocked the baby up and down. “Child of a whore.”
“Whether or not she was one doesn’t matter. We are not here to decide. We are here to steal from this land. it's not like one could ever really love a monster, anyway.”
“Hmm, do you agree, little one?” The red stallion smiled at the baby. “Are you as much of a monster as your dad? The red stallion’s voice echoed with more laughter. “A monster! A freak of nature! You’re going to be as beastly as he was, aren’t you?!”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. A bastard, a killer, and a butcher.”
Twilight awakened on the airship but gave no alarm to Starlight for she knew this ship from one timeline she once traveled to. She was perfectly fine with this form of travel. It was very clear to Twilight that they couldn’t return to the city that had taken care of them for two years until they stopped Indigo Frost’s plan.
A full day passed before Starlight finally told Twilight what happened during her blackout. At first, Twilight didn’t give one sign of fear or loss. In the end, she accepted she made a mistake. Twilight knew using dark magic would have a price one day. She would deal with it and move on. Yet not once did Starlight see any tears from her teacher?
Days passed and a small rivalry formed between Rex and Silver Pear over the details of how a simple earth pony would able to wound what even being so powerful as Rex could not. Often they would get into fights.
The rest of the crew quickly adjusted to Twilight and Starlight. The two took up odd jobs while not training or studying.
Twilight was thrilled to have met Rex for the first time. But despite how long she watched his every move, she felt another familiarity about him, as if this wasn’t the first time she met him. In the end, she was simply glad to know him now. The greatest questioned that bugged her now, though, was who Clover was at this point in history. She was quite a shock to see how close Rex and Clover were. Even more so when she caught Clover watching the child on the ship more closely than Rex.
Speaking of the child, Twilight almost fell down laughing when she met Adagio for the first time, but tried not to spoil too much in her actions to not change the timeline.
And finally, the timeline itself. Seeing the obvious Twilight took upon herself to do her best to make sure that the events of Hearth’s Warming would be fully documented to even the smallest detail. She wanted to know as much as possible. Being a part of the events was merely a bonus.
Nearly ten days have passed, and they are soon to arrive in the capital of the Unicorn Providence. Hopes are high that things will get better over the horizon. However, none knows the dangers that await them in the first battle of the war.
Four Towers loom over and a battle of princesses lie just ahead.
The Pale Mare sat on a frostbitten throne of crystal and ice in silence waiting for an answer that she knew would never come. She had been looking back for hours, wanting with all her might to remember back to that day when things were better. Looking back through these events even with an outsider’s eyes wasn’t helping at all. She could see so much and understand even less with each passing second. It mattered not whether these events were her life or someone else it couldn’t give her the answers she was looking for.
“Why” She lamented and brought what appeared to be a dark blue almost glass to her face. She rubbed its coldness across her face hoping the touch would wake her mind to the answers she hoped were there and she simply couldn’t see.
“Why won’t--” She was stopped as a loud booming sound echoed through the walls around her. The pillars shook but the walls never faltered once. The noise returned again and made everything vibrate, making her lean into her knees.
“Why won’t they let me figure this out on my own?” She could almost weep but the tears wouldn’t form. “I just don’t know what to do now? I made a choice… the choice… but was it right?”
Sensing something, she turned toward her left. There was a window facing the north. Her eyes strained until they came upon the sight of an object that shined in the far distance. A tall crystal in the shape of a hand.
“Did I make the right choice?” She questioned louder as if she was getting angrier toward whoever she was talking to.
Reaching outward, the dark blue glass returned only for it to be shown to be none other than her right arm. Her entire right arm was a dark blue crystal limb. Reaching out higher to the window she pleaded, “Please, answer me, Crimson?!”
******
On the sunniest day thousand of miles, away and many years into the far off past a small town was going under construction. Once merely but ruins to all that looked upon it, now the new owners of the town wanted to see if they could bring it back to the glory it used to have.
At the front gate, buckets of paint stood on a stand waiting for more dips as a few unicorns went to work. Doing their best to make the place shine.
Two stallions and a small child approached the entrance.
One stallion, a brown one, took in a deep smell. “Is that wet paint?”
“Why, yes, it is?” A unicorn dropped and smiled. “We are just about to finish the final touches on the renewal.”
“What this place called?” The blue stallion standing beside the brown stallion asked.
“Gelum Voce Pia. We trying to rebuild it.” He turned looked at the sign. “This place was once abandoned, so much so that it was covered in wendigoes if you could believe it.”
“Really? Incredible. What was it before the place was invested?”
“A place of holy blessing from what I heard.”
“Hmm, interesting.” The brown stallion brought the child closer. “Did you hear that killer? You're the kind used to live here.”
The unicorn looked in confusion at his words. He wasn’t getting the obvious answer. At least not yet.
Without warning, a gust of wind hit the sign, knocking the paint bucket downward. The unicorn rushed over to catch it in his magic but stopped at the strangest sight of all.
The liquid of the paint was floating. Looking around, his eyes fell on the child as he waved his hand about. With each movement, the liquid became calmer. It was an incredible sight to see such a young child having so much control, but a closer look showed no magic being used at all, or at least none that could be clearly seen. Was this child truly this string or were there other forces at play here?
The child was so happy at the sight of the liquid that he actually laughed a few times before setting it back down in the bucket.
“Wow."
“I know, this little butcher is so strong already.” The brown stallion cheered.
“What his name?” The unicorn questioned.
“His name…” The brown stallion picked up and child and looked directly into his eyes. The sight of his red eyes, such a unique color of red, rarely seen anywhere else in the world. “His name is…”
******
“Lord Frost, Lord Frost,” a single voice woke the wendigo up from his slumber.
The icy beast slowly opened his red eyes and pushed on some glass. His eyes glowed for a moment and the liquid covering his body lowered with the sounds of tubes. The room was completely dark, yet he had no problems navigating his arm through the blackness. He reached over to the skull of his father and brought it over.
He placed the mask over his face and his red eyes filled with his father's magic, turning them sapphire blue. “You can enter now, my loyal priest.”
The door opened and shined a bright light into the room. It reveals the wendigo lying in a tank. The room itself was devoid of furnishes of any kind outside of the tank he slept in. There was a small rack where his clothes hung, a chair for him to sit and stand for the skull he wore.
“Morning has arrived.” Carnival Carnage slowly rolled in on his unicycle. “Thule has already left for his mission, Kray has sent word for our mission.”
“So that old alicorn has deciphered more of my father’s notes,” Indigo Frost sat and slowly exited the tank.
The wendigo was completely naked. In the light, one could see the massive amount of old lashes and tears that covered his entire body.
The mere sight of each wound always brought fear from his priest. "Do they... do they still hurt?!"
"Yes." Indigo Frost kept a cool face to his priest's questions. "Every time I step out of that chamber."
Lifting his hands upward caused all the liquid covering his body to move off of him easily and back into the tank's tubes. Once dry, he walked over to the clothes and put them back on once more. He was careful with each part, as all were made from the pelts and furs of his enemies.
Taking a deep breath, he snapped the pants together before finally turning to face the priest. “I will go see somepony personally before we search for the next alathar.”
“Are you sure? Are you sure that is wise?”
“Do you doubt me?” Indigo Frost walked closer.
“No, of course not, my great lord, my great lord.” Carnival lowered his head and prayed softly.
“Calm yourself.” Indigo Frost placed his hand on Carnival’s head. “I have everything planned out to the finest point. I simply wish to meet with another one of our allies for the next phase of the plan. There is something I must confirm before we step closer.” He walked over to the doorway.
Carnival stood still and thoughts traced over his mind. Finally, as his lord grabbed the door, he spun around and asked, “Does this have to do with that mare?”
“Do not worry, Twilight is not the focus of this current mission." Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed. “There is a promise that must be kept.”
******
Twenty years before the current time...
Legs kicked through the thickening puddles. The rain beat hard against his face as the lone white unicorn push through the weather. He was carrying something tight to his chest. So much panic and fear painted on his face far more than the rain as he wished to not drop it over, even loosen his grip on it.
The slick ground was far crueler to him than the rain. It flipped between, gripping tightly to his feet to quickly let go with no warning. He pushed on, not letting it hold him back.
Eventually, the rushing caught up with him as he smashed face-first into the mud. He screamed out to the stuff in his hand as he flew. The mud of the ground quickly punched his mouth shut. The sounds of cracking filled his heart with so much fear.
"No, no, no," He hit the ground with his fist multiple times before finally picking himself up to his knees. His eyes strained at the sight of the shattered glass. The rain was quickly diluting the viscous liquid, turning its slow movement into a quick drain.
Rushing over, he scratched at the liquid in vain. "Get back in there!" All he pulled out was more mud. Without warning, a sharp piece of glass stabbed into the hand. He quickly pulled back in pain, scraping at the bloody wound. "No, no, DAMN IT!!" he yanked the glass out and fell onto his elbow.
He turned back to the liquid, but it was too late. Despite his struggles, the stuff had fully drained away. "No..." His face dropped to the ground. "Now what will I do?" Tears poured forth. "I... I... I can't lose her."
The rain stopped without warning, yet the unicorn didn't seem to care. Even when snowflakes replaced the drops of rain, he refused to lift his head up. He simply stayed in place, hoping this despair would consume him. It was almost like selfishness was convincing him to stay in place to not see her disappointment.
"You can't lose her?" A voice spoke outward.
The white unicorn quickly lifted his head, only to jump at the sight of a wendigo standing a few meters away. "What? Stay back?" He reached for his sword.
"Stop," The wendigo held out his hand in a gesture of peace. "Answer my question, You can't lose her?"
"My..." The white unicorn stopped. His thoughts paused for a moment over this creature. For what reason could a wendigo want to know such an answer? Weren't they just wild beasts? Feasters of the intelligent, could one ever understand his pain?
"Answer me, please." The wendigo walked closer, but ever so slowly.
The white unicorn jumped back again and pulled out his sword.
"I... I see..." The wendigo stopped his advance and retreated his hand. "Looks like I was wrong. I thought you would differ from others."
It was at that moment the white unicorn realized the truth and dropped his sword. "No, it's not like that..." He attempted to stand up. "My... my daughter is very sick."
"And you wish not to lose her, right?" The wendigo walked closer and reached his hand out.
"Yes." The white unicorn was still hesitant at first, but soon took the wendigo's hand.
A yellow glow flowed over twists of wood. Slowly, the wood vibrated until the tree branch moved to one side. Another branch gripped in the same glow followed suit and another mirrored the same movement. Soon a pathway formed and two alicorns walked through it, followed by their choice number of guards.
Celestia huffed at her magical glow as she continued in what she already considered long ago as a fruitless search. Golden Williams, despite not being in a place of comfort as shown by the excessive sweat and caution in his movement, was curious about his surroundings and, above all, curious about the rumors of this forest.
They walked further before stopping at a stump. The sight of which made Celestia huff louder and drop her magical grip. "That's it, I'm blowing that stump up!" She charged up a spell.
"Now, now, now, just because this is our fifteenth time seeing that same stump doesn't mean you should lose your cool." Golden Williams quickly walked over and in front of her attack.
"You didn't jab your foot into the same stump five times in a row."
"That was yesterday and even then, you haven't done that once today."
"Doesn't mean it won't happen... again." She pushed him aside and walked further ahead.
"Okay, okay. No one besides you and Starswirl knows more about chaos theory. But that doesn't approve that every repeat will eventually lead to a crash."
"That is not how it works. It's recklessness and loss of patience combined with repeating events and occasional randomness--" Celestia stopped upon tripping over a random branch. "That leads to chaos."
"And pain. Fascinating."
"Indeed." She pushed herself up and finally took in a deep breath.
"At least you adapt quickly... Sometimes."
"Well, Starswirl has always been better at predicting chaotic moments." Celestia knocked off some leaves before turning back to the tree stump to sit down. "Really, I'm just wondering how long I have to be out here."
"Aunty said--"
"I know what she said, and I know the orders come from my father. But it has been two years since that light magic event and I have still yet to find the source. The most I have ever found was a massive trench in the ground where something might have once been."
"Yes, but that day was a wonderful find. Wasn't it?"
"How? There were no traces of magic. That much magic would have not faded away so quickly." Celestia laid her head down and let her mane fall around her face.
"Don't get too emo on me." Golden Williams walked over and leaned his elbows on her back.
"Hey, I'm not the emo!"
"Oh, that's right. Your sister is that. You're the preppy one."
"Now you are just being mean." She pushed him off and stood back up. "I'm not really annoyed. It's just that we have been out here for days and still found nothing."
"You weren't so annoyed for the first few days."
"Well, one, because you refused to follow Aunty's orders about talking to your father and joined me out here."
"I knew talking to father would be pointless now, anyway."
"And two, when I felt that." She pointed to the north.
"The bubbling of war?"
"No, that enormous source of dark magic. Don't tell me you didn't sense it."
"Actually, I noticed it when it first appeared. But it's dark magic, not light. Ergo, it serves no purpose pondering on it." Golden Williams turned away from it.
"No purpose. That source when it first shot out was easily ten times stronger than any other magical event I have ever experienced. All except for the one from the source I have been spending these days looking for."
"Yes, but again, it is dark magic, so it serves me no purpose." Golden Williams' horn glowed yellow before spinning a bold smoky blue. "This," he pointed to his horn. "Is what I desire. Not red."
"Well, I'm not a light magic user, nor am I part of that bloodline, so it serves better for me to check all forms."
"Hmm, you bring up a good quandary." Golden Williams stroked his goatee. "How to better serve both needs. Hmm..." His eyes narrowed and thoughts formed. "How about we split up teams?"
"Really?" Celestia jumped up and reached over for his hands, bringing them together between them. "Would you do that for me?"
"Of course."
"Goody." Celestia swung the hands up and down a few times before halting. "No, that's no good. Father's orders were for me to check the light source out, not you."
"Give no worry. He won't know."
"Really!" she cheered at his nodded before leaning over and giving him a few kisses on the cheek. "Thank you, thank you, cousin."
"Enough, enough. Anymore show of emotions and I might consider reattempting that old proposal from years ago." Golden Williams laughed aloud before quickly sneering as Celestia stepped on his foot.
"You will do no such thing."
"Of course, of course. You have eyes for another."
"Wait, is it that obvious." Celestia pulled away from him completely.
"Just get moving." Golden Williams couldn't hold back his laughter again before shewing her away.
"Oh, of course." She turned to her guards and nodded to them to take to the sky, and she pursued. "Thank you again."
"Don't worry, I've got this handle." He smiled at her leaving.
******
Nails tore forth and ripped at the meat on the plates. Bringing the flesh up to vicious teeth, the chunks were quickly shredded and swiftly swallowed. Jaws dripped with drool and juices moved with incredible voracious speed as each piece came near it. The claws at the same time did their best to keep it all moving without joining the meat inside the mouth and down to the stomach.
As this fury of motions happened on two sides, a lone figure in the center sat back in disgust. The rage was the only thing keeping this lone stallion from puking at the sight of it all. Instead, he tried to again search for any means of freedom from the surrounding room.
The tentacles that had been holding them for days had long left, but he was still stuck to his chair, unable to move. He was forced to either watch this horror or soon join in. He would rather concentrate his mind on other things like escaping and the chafing his legs had received for sitting still for so long.
He knew he couldn't give up. Sitting here all this time gave him plenty to think about and he was certain now of his capture's true plans. And he knew for certain, or at least he hoped with all his might, that this plan wasn't just to have him simply give into cannibalism.
In the end, he knew he would have to be patient and hold on to his will power for as long as possible.
On the other side of the room, a crystal hidden from all sight continued to watch his attempts with intrigue. The crystal images fed into a new room. It was certainly not the same room that had been watching them before.
This new room was a pale white room with much equipment akin to a doctor's office. There Vanity Claymore occasionally watched while working on some of Carnival Carnage's stitches. "Hmm, it seems Star Stone is still fighting it."
"Nearly ten days, nearly ten days isn't that bad for pushing one's limits," Carnival commented while lifting his arm up.
Vanity followed suit, fixing the stitches under the priest's armpit. "It will be ten full days in a few more hours, though I wish I could have given Lord Frost a better timetable for those three. Apparently, when comparing three different species, three different ages, three different health and two different genders, one can make mistakes."
"Mistakes aren't part of it." A door behind her opened and Sage stepped in. "Star Stone is one of the most stubborn beings I have ever know--" He stopped upon noticing that Vanity's tight pants were pointing right at the door. He hurried over to the monitor and far from the sight of her ass before continuing. "He will not falter easily."
"Well, maybe you can tell me more about 'that' later." Vanity winked at him, acknowledgment of his inadvertent stare. Luckily, the perverted priest in the room she was currently working on didn't catch on to the thought that crossed both ifrits' minds.
"Right..." Sage walked closer to the monitor and finally noted the obvious. "Where is Thule?"
"Oh, he is currently on the surface gathering up details since he is the only one that is unknown to the alicorns as being on Lord Frost's side and thus can hide in plain sight more easily."
“And, the Night Brothers have still yet to arrive?”
“Those two were born in luxury and then placed in harsh prisons. I’m sure those two are simply taking their time enjoying the sights. Besides, those are more of a surprise to a certain enemy rather than an extremely important part of the plan.”
“What about the inugami?”
“Oh, Bad Wolf and our hostage were sent ahead of us to the Earth Pony Conglomerate. Though I’m sure he will be back soon.”
"What about me?" Sage questioned. "No one even knows that the eight limbs are missing yet, so I shouldn't I have as much freedom as he does?"
Vanity placed down her tools and turned toward Sage. "What? Do you wish to go outside?"
"No, I was outside days ago?"
"Yes, but that was before you knew of Lord Frost's true identity." She slowly walked to him with each word.
"So just because I know he is half wendigo, I can't leave." Sage didn't even catch on to her movements.
"No, you see he has a plan special for you and you alone." She got right up next to his right side before leaping to his left side. Her eyes were completely away from him, as if she was looking for something. "I realize you are getting bored here, but your purpose will become clear soon. Until then." She reached over in front of him and grabbed at a shot that was lying on the monitor's table before walking back to Carnival. "I need to get Carnival ready for his next mission."
"Which is?"
"Oh, he needs to spread our great lord's word." She lifted the shot upward and harshly stabbed the needle tip right into Carnival's lower abdomen.
"I'm also meeting with Blue Bull." Carnival pulled in pain before jumping off the table and walking to a hanger and grabbed his clothes. Sage inadvertently noted the earth pony's naked body and noticed that despite the priest's very perverted nature, he had no lower features of any kind.
"Freaky, isn't it?" Vanity noted his confused stare. "I gave the same reaction when I found out." She leaned back onto her desk and laughed as Carnival exited.
"Right..." Sage swung his head back and forth to get the thought out of his head. Attempting to readjust the subject, he again questioned. "So everyone in this group, whatever our name is, has a purpose."
"Well, first off, we call ourselves the Nine Families. Though there are not nine of us yet. Lord Frost chose nine beings only for this group."
"So... he knew I would join."
"Of course, he can read anyone extremely well. That gives him the right to lead us." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bottle with a red lid. "He knows all our strengths and weaknesses." She glanced at the bottle before putting away it just as fast. "And for that reason, he has a purpose for all of us."
"Even for that mare, Twil... Twil..."
"Twilight, yes." Vanity's smile quickly vanished at that name. "Even she has a purpose in his plan."
"You mean he's not finished with her."
"Nope, he has much more for her."
"What about the rest of you?" Sage finally let his guard down a little and pushed himself away from the table and to the examining area. "I mean, I'm one of the best politicians out there, and if there is one thing I know is planning. A plan of this size would take far over nine."
"You don't even know the full plan yet you are bold enough to challenge such ideas." Vanity laughed and whispered to herself, "Now I almost see the real you."
"Wait, what?"
"Oh, nothing." She shrugged. "We are nine families. We are his most important pieces, but truthfully, I believe he has agents everywhere. And even though not the most loyal of Carnival knows the entire plan, we can still follow it with no hesitation."
"And why is that?"
"Because he promised to bring us from darkness and out to the light."
"That's paraphrasing."
"Isn't it always? No matter how he or Thule said it, it always has the same meaning."
"And that is...?"
"Ha, ha, ha. So you haven't figured it out yet." Vanity walked over and padded him on the back. "Don't worry, you will soon, once you let down that guard of yours completely."
******
Far away on another doctor's examining table, Twilight laid while a bright light covering most of her apparently naked body. "Are you sure about this?" Twilight questioned as the icy touch of Lady Cat's tools moved over her body.
"You wanted me to check you over and I am."
"She means do I have to be in here?" Starlight sat in the back of the room with a blindfold over her face. "I mean, yes, I can't see anything, but really, is there a point for me to be here while you examine my teacher."
"You know her better than we do so you can tell me which of these scars are the oldest and which are the newest, so I can ascertain the strange pain you have been reporting since you arrived on this ship." Lady Cat leaned over and poked Twilight's belly button. "Huh, you're an inner."
"I already know that--" Twilight stopped at some sharp pain from the movement.
"Did I find it?"
"No, you just hit an old wound."
"Huh, old..." She poked down deeper, only bringing out more annoyance at Twilight.
"Just stop it's not there." Twilight pulled free of her straps and sat up. "Look." She took Lady Cat's hand and brought it over to a unique spot. "This scar is the one that is hurting."
"Fine, fine, fine. I'll check out that spot." Lady Cat huffed.
Unbeknownst to Twilight, through a nearby mirror, Starswirl was watching from another room. "Intriguing. Every part of her is a fully realized adult alicorn, yet she's not even reached her late twenties yet. Most wouldn't reach such form until their forties or even fifties."
"So what is this? An effect of the time travel?" Clover questioned.
"Actually, that would explain less. My time spell would have stopped their aging until after they returned to their proper timeline. It wouldn’t explain why Twilight Sparkle is so young, in not only height but even in biology."
"Is this why you wanted to bring her aboard this airship?" Clover turned away from the viewing and looked toward the wall.
"I have many reasons. This being the first reason, the second was the fact she used dark magic so close to the old altar of Agonía and lived, and third being..."
"A reason you still won’t tell us." Clover inched at her throat.
“It's so fascinating,” Starswirl snapped his fingers and puffed a cup of chocolate milk into Clover's hand and a scroll into his other hand. “If Cold Blue’s words are to be believed, this mare nearly reached a second ascension when she unleashed all that dark magic near that altar.”
“Indeed, I was nearby and the blast nearly knocked me off my feet.”
Starswirl twisted his hand about the viewing, making it change color. "But out of everything I’ve learned from this mare, what I find most interesting though they are these scars." He pointed out to one after the other. "The wound on her neck seems to be the oldest. Possibly done by a crystal rope. Meanwhile, the one on her stomach seemed to be the most devastating. It appears to have been a heavy bashing, followed by a massive stab that went all their way through. Because of the sign of tachyon particles over these spots as well, show that each one of them clearly happened on her journey through time."
"Such a wound would have killed her if she wasn't an alicorn."
"And yet she's chosen to hide as a unicorn when in public." Starswirl zoomed into a scar on her eye. "Truly amazing."
"Kind of reminds me of when I first saw Rex's scars."
"Huh." Starswirl snapped his fingers again and a strange metal cap with lights appeared on his head. "That is an unusual parallel I need to think about. All these details have been booming through my head. Hmm, I might need to think of this more in private." He lifted his legs into the air and floated toward the door. "Close up when you're done."
"I'm done? You're the one who wanted to examine her."
"Yes, but you were the one complaining of her screeches of pain throughout the night." Starswirl exited the room.
"That because you put her room right next to mine!" she yelled back at him in annoyance. Clover couldn't hold back her huffed at Starswirl leaving and finally took a drink of her chocolate milk. She quickly pulled back at the fact it tasted more like banana rather than chocolate.
Back on the other side of the mirror, Lady Cat moved her sight in closer to the fresh scar in question, much to the heavy regret of Twilight since the batpony was now rubbing her big hands all over the scar... which was just above her cleavage.
The scar was certainly different from the others. It was the freshest, but it was also a different color. It shined a dark blue much like the scar over her eye, but deep in the center of the wound, a small maroon red could be seen in the shape of a perfect vertical slit.
"Did she find it yet, teacher?" Starlight questioned aloud.
"Yeah... Uhmftpu, she found it." Twilight tried to keep herself calm, especially since she hadn't really let anypony outside of her reach into that spot in years. Last time being a one-night stand with Rainbow Dash. "Oh, uh, uh okay. Stop!" she huffed in annoyance and blush before puffing to the far end of the table. "I think you've done enough." Twilight's horn glowed and brought her clothes over with magic.
"So does that mean I can take this blindfold off?"
"Not yet!" Lady Cat gave her own huff. "I need to know about a certain scar..."
"Which one." Starlight jumped up and reached for her blindfold and attempted to get free. "I can't see anything still!"
"The one between her d cup."
"Between her... between her... Wait, Teach, you never told me you were a D cup." Starlight couldn’t hold back her laughter.
"I never considered that detail as a needed subject of your training!" Twilight pulled up her pants and dress.
Lady Cat placed her hand over Twilight's mouth and stopped everything. "Just tell me if she ever received a scar around her cleavage area."
"Well..." Starlight stopped her struggles and thought about it. "There was that moment that dark blue siren was atop of her."
"Dark blue siren?!?!" Twilight pulled free and shouted aloud. "When did I have a dark blue siren on top of me?"
"While the dark magic was overloading you. He was the one who knocked you out."
"Oh..." Twilight stopped her fears. Finally, she got her shirt over her face. However, before she could get it over her chest, Lady Cat reached over again without warning.
"Wait, a dark blue siren?" The batpony questioned as she ran her hand along the scar in an up and down motion. "Oh, you must mean Cold Blue. Fredricson mentioned him a few times. Apparently, the siren is Rex's oldest rival."
"Cold Blue, huh? Celestia never mentioned him during her stories of Rex." Twilight quickly pulled away again and fixed her shirt over her upper body. Once she was sure she was fully clothed, her horn glowed and puffed away the blindfold from Starlight's skull.
"Oh, finally." Starlight gave a sigh of relief. "So, about that scar? Any reason a wound from his blade would cause such pain."
"Huh, unsure. It may very well be that the pain isn't from the scar, but being the focal point of the pain from a different source since all I can tell is that it's just a fresh scar." Lady Cat walked over to the sink to wash her hands.
"And that source might be..." Twilight gave a long pause, hoping for some answer.
"Not sure." Both Twilight and Starlight deadpanned to her answer. Lady Cat reached into her medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle with a red lid. "Here, take some painkillers for now." She poured out two. "This should be good for the week." She presented them to Twilight. "Just be careful, they can be addictive."
"Okay." Twilight took the pills and popped them down her throat. She stopped halfway at the sound of yelling.
"Now what?" Lady turned toward the door.
"Are you okay, teach?" Starlight padded Twilight's back, allowing her to swallow the pills.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Twilight exhaled heavily. "What is happening out there?"
"I don't know..." Starlight looked toward the door as Lady Cat exited. "Wait, Silver Pear?!" She jumped away at the sound of his voice.
Both of them ran out the door. Down they moved through metal hallways until they came to a large room with an arena in the center. Once they saw what was happening, their fears quickly faded.
Silver Pear was fighting Rex in the center of the arena. This had happened four times now since they arrived on the ship and it was clear this fight would be no different.
"They don't give up." Starlight leaned a bar.
"Well, we have always known Silver Pear to be pretty stubborn." Twilight smiled and took a seat. "Plus, I read in many books how Rex always stood forward in battle with the strongest will of any warrior."
"Strongest Will, huh?" Clover's voice peeked in their ears. "Is that how you know of Rex in this future you herald from or is he alive in your time too."
"Well, the truth is I don't think I've met him in person before now."
"You don't think. What do you mean by that?" Clover could only raise an eyebrow at the alicorn's words.
"I mean, this is the first time I've met him." Twilight leaned over and held her head up with her hands and seemed to hum. "But, it feels like I've always known him."
"Well, if it is indeed true, you have always known him." Starlight laughed. "I mean, he is your--" She was quickly stopped by some cotton candy appearing in her mouth.
Starswirl appeared out of nowhere and laughed at Starlight. “Clearly, you don't get the concept of spoilers."
"No, master. I want to know!" Clover moved closer.
"I'm sorry, but that is up to Twilight." Starswirl looked at Twilight and shook his head. Twilight replied with her own nod.
Getting no once more only brought anger to Clover. Especially at the sight of Starlight getting free and leaning over to Twilight's ear and whispering something. Clover filled her horn with magic and deep inside, her eardrums widened. For a moment, she could hear the whispering.
"Is the reason you won't tell them is that you think Clover might be..." Starlight stopped before she could finish as if Twilight knew what her words would be. Twilight only nodded and giggled heavily at what Clover could only tell was an incredible joy.
Clover leaned over to hear more by then. The signal went completely silent. She looked up at her horn and only became more confused at the sight of the glowing light still in place. She raised her hand up to her ears, hoping to get an answer, only to pull back at the touch of fluff.
Quickly feeling again, she found pink earmuffs covering her skull. Her eyes raced over to Starswirl before pulling them off. She huffed at the bunny ears on the top of them and threw them to the side.
She dropped the spell and watched the fight.
Silver Pear swung forward and Rex quickly ducked into his shadow and popped out of Silver Pear's own shadow behind him. The earth pony followed by flipping his claymore backward incredibly fast and blocked the attack and jumped. Silver Pear smiled as he spun back around and threw his claymore right at Rex. However, before he could even realize it, chains pulled his legs down and bashed his head into the hilt of his claymore, changing direction. Rex didn't need to duck again and simply smiled as the claymore barely missed by mere inches.
The claymore bounced over and nearly hit the crowd. Starlight jumped back, while Clover and Twilight kept their place with no sign of fear at all. The blade tip stabbed right into the ground between them.
"Careful!" Starlight shouted.
"Sorry, Lovely. Didn't see you there." Silver Pear waved at her with a bold grin before slamming into the ground.
"Looks like I win again." Rex stretched his arm toward the claymore and its shadow opened up and the weapon fell inside and pulled out through Silver Pear's shadow. "Next time, don't assume the reckless route. It only makes you lose quicker." He held out his hand to the earth pony as his chains released.
"Thanks for the tip." Silver Pear took the help and stood up. Placing his claymore back in his coat, he moved to dust himself off.
Rex retracted his chains completely and walked over to the group. "I think that will be it for today."
Starswirl placed his hands together and smiled. "Indeed, nighttime will be here soon."
"Speaking of which," Fredricson walked in, "We will arrive at the capital of the Unicorn Providence by tomorrow morning."
"Good," Rex walked over to the exit. "The sooner we talk to Princess Platinum, the better."
All of them took those words with a huff of annoyance, as some of them were actually enjoying the fight. They got up either way and made their way to the exit. All except for Silver Pear, who instead looked off to somewhere else.
"Silver Pear, you coming?" Starlight questioned as she was the last one out the door.
"Sure, if you will join me," He gave her an evil grin.
"NO!" she yelled. "I was just curious since it looked like your mind was somewhere else."
"Nah, it's okay. I'll get to bed in a minute." He quickly shewed her away.
"Okay..." She closed the door and left him completely alone.
With the room empty and the lights slowly dimming, Silver Pear could only sigh before whispering, "Good night, mom."
******
Miles away in the dimming evening sky, a small shine could be seen. The sky was clear enough that this glistening light was distinctly red. However, it was not the same red of the red snowflakes that Indigo Frost took the form of, instead the hue was more brown in tone, reddish like rust.
The rust-colored shine traced across the sky at incredible speeds before landing on the ground in front of four mighty towers. A closer look revealed the shine was coming from a massive orb. The orb was perfectly shaped into a spherical almost egg shape devoid of any imperfections at all. It was one solid color, somehow even keeping its hue despite the fading light.
Without warning, it opened up and yet still gave no sign of imperfection in this new movement. Stepping out was an all too familiar alicorn. Blood Diamond quickly popped his neck and adjusted his body upon exiting. "It seems we have arrived..." He stopped and mused. "That unicorn didn't show up to meet us. We would almost consider it an insult if we weren't supposedly at war." He stopped his words with a pause and looked around.
After a quick look, he pulled a crystal out of his pocket and smashed it on the ground. Smoke puffed up from the shattered remains and twisted into a swirl in the sky. Out of the swirl, Cold Blue landed.
"Thank you again, my Lord Blood Diamond, for this fast travel." Cold Blue noted with a bow.
"Well, I knew you would rather travel by teleport than the Celestial Orb." Blood Diamond turned around and waved his hand over the orb. The orb's door closed and the entire thing shrunk down to the size of a marble.
"Of course, but why use such travel, anyway. Your gems are far faster."
"A sign of respect. Respect of which the Princess of the unicorns doesn't seem to share." Blood Diamond twirled his hand, and the orb floated up to his hand and then to his pocket.
"How unfortunate..." Cold Blue rose and kept his hand to his guard. "Do you which for me to find her?"
"That won't be necessary." Blood Diamond held up his hand to his chin. "For now, follow us. We need to find a way into this clearly abandon monument." His horn glowed a green hue and the dust in front of him and his next steps were quickly brushed away.
"If your brother was here, he would certainly have fainted at this sight."
"Indeed, Golden Williams often had a weakness toward dirt and grime. A weakness we simply don't care for. But?"
"But?" Cold Blue was indeed questioning unneeded questions, but he knew his master always would rather have someone to talk to, or else he would begin talking to himself. Cold Blue, however, also took good care in each of his words, for though Blood Diamond was not as easily offended as Golden Williams, he did indeed have a temper.
"Rather, the fact this place has not had a good upkeep is a complete disrespect for all alicorns." Blood Diamond reached out his hands to the steps and even statues once they came into view. "This place was once the center of unicorn and alicorn relations."
"A meeting place?"
"A place of peace, now only caked in the dust of war." Blood Diamond dragged his fingers over the rails and pulled back. He gestured to Cold Blue.
Cold Blue pulled out his dagger-like ocarina and looked up at the sky. Playing a few notes loud and clear made clouds gather around them. The clouds darkened until the rain poured down over the entire area. The water quickly covered every single spot, soaking in thick amounts.
Blood Diamond frowned at the mud gathering around his boots. His eyes glowed, and a crystal rose from the ground and lifted him above the mud and water, and it drained past him. "More." He gave one word, and the music played louder. The water followed suit, pouring down harder over the land.
He looked up to the towers and smiled at the color slowly returning. However, something was missing. He raised up his hand and Cold Blue stopped playing. The rain quickly stopped, but the clouds stayed in place.
Blood Diamond brought his hand into the sleeve of his other arm. Pulling back fast, dark blue liquid poured forth into the air from each direction he swung to. The liquid flowed through the air, yet never touched the ground. "Crystal Spell Number Nine, Crystal Waves." He swung his arms about faster than his horn glowed brightly.
Shredding sounds followed...
******
The sounds echoed loud over the land in all directions. Many wondered what it meant, while some others didn't seem to care. One, in particular, was watching the source closely.
Upon a balcony far from the ground stood a mare that had eyes on the towers ever since she saw the orb flying through the sky toward the long-abandoned place. She could only frown at the sounds and the sight of that place. "So, it begins."
"Indeed." a shadowy figure appeared from nowhere. "Are you ready?"
The morning sun's light traced over the honeydews that soaked every blade of grass that laid thick over the near-flat plains around the capital of the Unicorn Providence. The city itself made this so more noticeable as it quickly reflected the light back with a much greater force than a drop of clarity around. The city shined with so many mirrors that covered nearly all the walls and even some roads. It was truly a sign of incredible beauty.
Twilight noted while looking out the window of the titan airship that this place would have been adored by her friends, like Rarity and Fluttershy. To her, the place seemed a bit too bright, but they would have loved it.
The Titan airship landed softly on the outskirts of the city.
"Take some notes, Starlight," she quickly commented, hoping her student was looking as well. "Starlight... " She, however, frowned at no answer and deadpanned upon turning around, noticing Starlight had already left to the front. "Huh, I guess a closer experience would be better than anything, but I still expect some notes." She walked to the exit as well.
As she passed, Twilight noticed Adagio also getting ready to leave. "What? Do you sense one of your sisters out there?"
"Won't know until I get out there."
"Don't be concerning yourself," Lady Cat walked up. "She is going to be spending the day with Fredricson and me."
"Oh, that sounds like fun." Twilight smiled and got to the door.
"And where are you off to?"
"Where else? I'm from the future. I want to meet the legendary unicorn herself." Twilight laughed as she left.
"Huh, your hopes are too high."
******
Outside the airship, Silver Pear and Fredricson were hauling out some empty boxes, while Rex and Clover were looking over the city with some scopes. Starlight was rolling in the grass. Truthfully, it had been so long since she saw and felt such fresh green.
"STARLIGHT!" Twilight's annoyance snapped the unicorn free from her happiness.
"Oh joy. Calm down. Teacher, I'm just enjoying something I haven't felt for two years."
"There was grass just outside the previous town we lived in."
"Yes, but that was always so rough, barely ever without snow covering and rarely, if ever, kept clean."
"Just get up. We have notes to take." Twilight puffed a notepad on Starlight's face.
"Really?!" Starlight huffed as she pulled the notepad off. "I'd rather do anything else."
"But, the research!"
"That of which has nothing to do with friendship as far as I can see." Starlight jumped up and puffed the notepad away.
"Fine, that how about you help Silver Pear with shopping?" Fredricson popped the idea forth while placing the last box down. "I would do it, but Lady has me taking the little one out for some childhood fun."
"Wait, me and Silver Pear." Starlight's eyes went wide.
"Yeah, won't it be fun, Lovely--” Silver Pear's hand was crushed in magic before it got within range of Starlight's rear.
"Uhh..." Starlight's eyes wandered back and forth between Twilight and serious unneeded notes and Silver Pear's slowly growing purple hand. "Fine, shopping would certainly be useful." She dropped her magic grip and walked over to Fredricson. "What do we need?"
"Everything is here on this list." Fredricson handed her a blue paper with writing.
"Okay, doesn't seem like much." Starlight quickly scanned over the blue paper before putting it in her pocket and turning away.
"Wait, take this with you." Fredricson handed her a package. "Don't open this at all under any circumstances until the right time."
"Okay?" Starlight raised an eyebrow to his words but took the bag just the same.
Fredricson gripped her hand tightly, and spoke with great tone, "I mean it, no opening it at all until the right time!" It was loud, but it was certainly discerning for the unicorn as she walked off.
"I... I guess I'm on my own." Twilight turned away. She wanted to have some fun with notes, but she often had to remember that plans can change extremely quickly. She herself was a prime example of that since if everything had gone to plan long ago for she wouldn't be trapped in this distant past.
However, things looked up as she saw Rex and Clover walked down to what seemed to be the central road of the city. "That's it!" She smiled into a poof.
Appearing right in front of them, she quickly made her claim known. "Can I join you two? If you two are going deep into the city and not somewhere..." Her words drifted as a random thought was quickly smashed into her mind for more important thoughts.
"Actually, we are going to see Princess Platinum herself."
"Really!!" Twilight jumped with joy. "What an incredible coincidence? I was just planning that very idea. I could go with you."
"No," Rex coldly walked off.
"Not a chance," Clover quickly followed behind Rex.
"What?" Twilight's mane went as flat as her joy. For a moment she was tapping into her inner Pinkmania Diane Pie and it certainly wasn't a pleasant sight. However, just as quickly as everything went flat, she jumped back to life and followed them, anyway. "Okay, but I'm going to see the princess either way and since I've never been to this city before now I'll just have to follow you, anyway."
"Great..." Rex deadpanned.
His reaction only brought greater joy from Twilight as she whispered under her breath, "We even deadpan to the same thing."
"What going on back there?" Clover popped some words out that quickly caught Twilight's attention.
"Nothing... It just I was getting hungry and wondering if we could stop for breakfast on the way." Twilight got to moving as fast as she could to catch up with them. "As a friend of mine always said, an excellent breakfast means an excellent day."
"And where did this friend get that phrase from?"
"She stated the letters T and V, but I never understood what she meant by that."
******
Deep underground, another hunger echoed forth from the stomach of a crystal pony and he pulled his face further and further away from the meat in front of him. Star Stone's willful determination was firm, but his own stomach was losing the fight. He was pushing back now with so much force that the back of the chair was digging into his flesh.
"Just do it already!" The griffin roared beside him.
"You gave up first. You don't have the right to lecture me?" Star Stone spat back.
"It's so simple and actually quite tasty once you finally do it." The changeling beside him swooned with delight.
"Never, never!" Star Stone shook harder in his chair.
Despite his words and rage, nothing would get through at all to what remained of his former allies. They had long finished their plates and had been fed three other meals afterword. They had long shown their weakness. The only thing that brought hope to Star Stone now was why Indigo Frost had still not arrived yet to make his demands, as his allies had promised.
Star Stone was waiting for that icy beast to walk through the door and shout never right to his face. His will would have to settle for the surrounding ones, even if most of their minds were long gone. The future satisfaction of giving his answer to Indigo Frost himself was the only thing keeping him going now.
Yet, deep inside his stomach was something matching the roars. This feared him greatly, but he couldn't give up... could he? Would Indigo Frost ever walk through that door?
Every day he stared at that door and all he would get was the occasional voice from one of Indigo Frost's allies, but not from him. The legendary him, a being that at the time Star Stone doubted even existed. But today, he knew this would be different? He had this feeling deep within him that the door would open today. He didn't know when, but he knew it would happen today.
Much to his luck, unbeknownst to him, there was someone on the other side of the door. This, someone, was hesitant to step in, yes, but he wasn't Indigo Frost. Instead, He was someone else entirely, and he watched the door just as closely, almost perfectly, mirroring the watch of the crystal pony on the other side.
In the end, the only thing stopping this war of wills was each other. Only time would tell which one would win.
******
Back in the city, Twilight quickly satiated her hunger with a salted biscuit. Rex was munching on some hay fries, and Clover was sipping on some coffee. The three walked through the central road, which gave a perfect view of most sights.
The buildings were a shine of light blues and reds while the roads were a bold contrast of black and grays. Fine eateries could be seen far and wide interchanged with even finer clothing shops. From the outside, each building seemed to be made of almost pure mirrors, perfectly reflecting all the faces that walked by them and other buildings that stood still across from them.
"Oh, the significant center of unicorn life, Geländehorn is far more beautiful than the history book could ever describe." Twilight gave one of her best star-struck faces.
"Hmm, I never considered it that beautiful..." Clover mused. "When I lived here I mean."
"Wait, were you born here?" Twilight practically jumped closer to hear more.
"No, this to be the last stop on trades," Rex quickly interrupted. However, the answer made things even more confusing for Twilight.
Twilight tried asking for more as to the reason for Rex's words, but she quickly felt a coldness from Clover that was much stronger than before, so she backtracked. "Nevermind that. Clover... Clover the Clever right?"
"Yeah, that is my nickname." Clover let down her guard only a little.
"I've read so much about you. From your spells to your knowledge, but one thing, especially now, has been bugging me. And how do I put this lightly?" Twilight reached into her pocket.
"Put what lightly--" Clover's words were stopped as Twilight floated a picture in front of her.
"This... it describes you as a... stallion..."
"Wait, what? A STALLION?!" Clover nearly crushed her drink. "Wait... why?"
"Hmm," Rex finally stepped closer. "It looks like because they were mistaking you for your brother."
"Brother?" Twilight pulled the picture back in confusion. "No, but you're wearing the same type of clothing in this picture. Plus, the history books never mention a brother."
"Clovis the Coward," Clover quickly answered in annoyance. She puffed the drink to the nearest trash can and crossed her arms over. "He is under the ownership of Lord Red."
"Ownership? Lord Red?" Twilight felt as if the name sounded familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she had heard it before.
"An ancient unicorn nearly as old as Starswirl and under the same freedom as Starswirl. The two stand above the rest for the unicorns and alicorns. Starswirl and Lord Red are often treated as if alicorns themselves."
"Huh, I guess that makes sense. I knew Starswirl was famous for the alicorns. I just didn't know if there were others of such rank and prestige."
"There used to be six others in the same rank, but they are long dead or..." Rex's eyes drifted over to the shadows for a moment before looking back forward. "To put it simply, Lord Red is the writer of most history books nowadays. It's no surprise Clovis would be placed in later books instead of you."
"I guess you're right. However, that is going to change." Clover hovered a quill out of her pocket, "Lord Red will hear from me, or so help me..."
"Enough you two. Twilight, if you wish to follow us, then keep the questions on the matter at hand. We need to get to Princess Platinum's castle."
"To stop the war, right?"
Rex sighed at her words as his only answer. At first, when this alicorn almost demanded to join them, he seemed annoyed at the idea, but then his mind wandered back to Starswirl's reasoning for bringing her onto the ship. Yes, she had powerful dark magic, but he seemed more curious about her face. Rex had considered a few possibilities, but each one was quickly stomped until now. Her curiosity, her reasoning, and even her face all seem so familiar, and truthfully talking to her had actually brought forth a smile, that of which very few beings could ever do to him.
Rex was curious to find out more about this Twilight Sparkle. However, he noticed Clover's uneasiness around her and wish not to push for anything that might set her off. Rex pushed his thoughts away and to the mission at hand.
******
On the other side of the city, Starlight tried to keep herself calm among the unicorns as she strolled out onto the road. The two had been walking around for two hours.
"Kind of strange, isn't it, Lovely?" Silver Pear spoke up beside her.
Starlight jumped slightly at his words, "Yeah, it certainly is..."
"This city always seemed so perfect when I, and mother used to come here. Crispy clean streets and quiet conformed citizens. It's not that Princess Platinum is a dictator, more that she can't stand chaos in any form in her sight."
Instantly Starlight's eyes fell, "Great? How are we going to get these supplies?"
"Well, what's on the list?"
She reached into her pocket and grabbed out the blue paper, and opened it up. "Hmm, get some books, eggs, bread, grain, hay."
"Sounds easy."
"Yeah, that part is, the other side of the paper isn't." Starlight flipped the paper over.
"Okay, let me hear it."
"Black sand, red starch, and blue grain. All of which is extremely illegal. Not to mention this..." She brought the paper closer to her eyes to get a better look. "El Llama from a place called Diamondback Gust." She scratched her head in confusion. "What is an El Llama? I mean, he can't expect us to go find a llama or something like that."
"Whatever it is, most of that stuff can be found in the Gross."
"Wait, what now?"
"The black market here."
"What?!" Starlight jumped slightly. "I thought the princess didn't like crime."
"No," Silver Pear waved his hand. "She just doesn't like the sight of it."
"What? Then where do I find it?" Starlight lowered her eyebrows in confusion.
"Just follow me, the Gross is this way, m'lady." Silver Pear bowed to her and pointed his arms to his left, and turned toward a nearby stairway that led underground.
After crossing a few floors underground, they came upon a far more different variant of the city above. This place was dirtier, covered in grease, and stank badly.
"So, this is the Gross. I can see where it gets its name."
The two walked through the underground market, taking in the sights and grabbing what they needed. There were many creatures hidden underneath this city. From batponies to griffins to even hippogriffs and jackalopes. Many of them were on the move, while others were just simply sightseeing. Starlight raised her eyebrow as she walked.
"What's wrong?" Silver questioned. "First time in a black market?"
"No, not really. When I was younger, I would sneak into these places all the time to get ingredients for dangerous spells and such.".
"Oh, my Lovely was once a criminal." Silver's arm raised up and padded her back.
Her head fell slightly, "Well, I wasn't always under the teaching of the Princess of Friendship."
Suddenly, Starlight's head shot right up as she felt the hand slowly lowering. She looked at Silver Pear with a glare, knowing all too well what he was up to. "Don't worry, Lovely. Mom had me memorize every part of the Unicorn's black market encase she needed to get some not exactly legal foods."
"Oh, really?" Starlight let a clever smile slip out as her horn glowed. Silver Pear's hand became enveloped in her magic. His eyes widened as he felt a hand now rubbing his ass. He smiled and turned to grab the hand. Thinking it was Starlight's hand, he kissed it lightly. Instantly he pulled back upon realizing that it was his own hand. He turned away from anypony and spat out as he waved his hand back and forth.
He slowly stopped as he heard Starlight's giggle. He spun around and found her standing by a shelf of books, acting as if she didn't see a thing. He quietly walked over as his eyebrows fell and he smiled.
"Are you two done yet?" Starlight chimed as she heard his footsteps stop behind her.
"Ha, ha, ha. Hilarious, Lovely."
"What?" Starlight giggled again. "I thought you and your hand would make a cute couple. After all, you two share similar tastes." She reached out and pulled out a book. She looked at its title and her eyes widened. "Really again?"
"What?" Silver walked to her side to see what she was looking at.
"Another new spell book published by this H. P. Bloodcraft."
"Well, yeah, he has written most of the spellbooks in the world."
"Most spell books of my days were written by many writers."
"Well, that is five thousand years from now. There are not as many creatures trying to learn magic in this time." Silver grabbed the book out of her hand.
"Coming from the earth pony." Starlight's eyebrows went flat and her arms crossed over.
"Hey, don't be racist. We earth ponies have magic as well." Silver Pear placed the book back up.
"Really?" Starlight turned and leaned onto the bookshelf. "Like what?"
"Well, aside from our incredible ever expanding strength," Silver Pear flexed the stuff in his hands.
"Right, right?" She turned away.
"Well, what's wrong with his writing, anyway?"
"My father always told me never to read from just a single source. But this timeline only seems to have one source of magic to gather from."
"Hmm, this is the first time you mention your father." Silver Pear smiled.
"Yeah, well, truth be told, Firelight was my foster father. I never knew my true father." Starlight pulled out another book. This time, it was a history book. "Firelight loved history. He used to write essays on it all the time. And he always found it best to find out what really happened while to look at every angle."
"Every angle, huh." Silver Pear's eyes wandered down to a certain angle he would rather look than any book.
"I mean it, Silver." Starlight's horn glowed and pulled the earth pony's eyes away from the sight of her rear. "This has me so confused about Indigo Frost."
"What do you mean?"
"All the angles, he killed Crimson, kidnapped your mother, has been gathering the alathar, wants revenge on Twilight. Some of these may be connected, but the ones that aren't are so vastly apart." Starlight flipped through the book so fast, but quickly came to a stop. She held her finger on a certain page before pushing into Silver Pear's sight. "And then there is this?"
"What?" Silver Pear looked over. It was a page on the alicorn families. "What about them? The alicorns have been around for a long time."
"That just it though. Ever since I got here it's been bugging why none of Firelight's books, even his oldest, never mention more than just two. Celestia and Luna are the only alicorns, as of note, in his old books, yet in this time they are everywhere."
"Huh," Silver Pear took the book from her and looked closer, and scratched his head in more confusion. "That is rather strange."
"For the longest time when I and my teacher first got here, I would try to get her to notice, but she doesn't." Starlight walked over to a counter and placed down some money. "Instead, she hides in her own notes and the training she gives me."
"You never told me any of this before. Why now?"
"Well, well, Crimson's death..."
"What about it?"
"Ten days have, and she hasn't shed a single tear. Not once..." Starlight took the stuff once it arrived and walked over to another counter. "Ten days and all she does is bug me on training, take more notes and now even kept a close eye on Rex. It is as if Crimson never meant a thing to her."
"Crimson meant a lot to her. He meant plenty to me and you too."
"Yes, but, but, but..." Starlight's magic faded, and she dropped the stuff. Silver Pear moved quickly to catch it all, but not quick enough to stop small tears from hitting the ground.
He placed down the stuff and rushed his finger over to stop more tears from falling from Starlight's eyes. "Why is she so cold? Is that what you are wondering?"
"She's not cold." Starlight pushed his hand away. "More like... she doesn't want to look..."
"She doesn't want to look back..."an unfamiliar voice spoke forth.
Silver Pear and Starlight's eyes raced over to their right and they saw Starswirl standing by, drinking some chocolate milk.
"What are you doing here?" Starlight slowly stood up.
"I was right, wasn't I? Twilight acts a lot like him."
"Who?" Silver Pear questioned.
"Her f--"
"No," her words stopped him.
"I see."
"I mean, not quite. Things are a bit more complicated than that. Twilight is not Rex's daughter. She is his des--" Starlight was stopped by a finger over her mouth.
"Don't, I love a good mystery. What you have given me is plenty of clues." Starswirl turned away. "As I don't want spoilers, make sure you don't give any to Rex... or Clover either."
"Okay..."Starlight tried to smile.
Starswirl noticed her concern out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his finger and cotton candy on a stick appeared in both of the pony's hands. "Eat up, have fun. The past is the past and, and the future is the future. Both of which are always out of reach. Even for a time traveler. Look only at the present."
"Alright." Starlight finally let go of her fear and smiled properly.
"Good. Speaking of the present. Why are you down here?" Starswirl turned back around with more curiosity. "No mystery this time, just curious."
"Fredricson sent us down here to get supplies. Most are illegal so there was little where else to check." Starlight held out the blue paper.
"Really," Starswirl's face lit up with a crooked smile that was completely unfamiliar to Starlight. "He gave you the blue paper... I'm assuming it came with a bag right."
"Yeah." Starlight pulled it away from the latch on her side.
"Oh, good. You haven't opened it yet." Starswirl stepped closer and tapped on the bag lightly. "Good, good, make sure you only open it at the absolute right time. No eventually. And make sure the item from Diamondback Gust is the very last item you get."
"Okay..." She pulled away slowly and even more confused than ever.
"I must be going. I have plenty of work to do." Starswirl puffed from sight rather quickly.
******
Noon arrived in quick succession. Rex, Clover, and Twilight finally arrived at the chinese style castle that stood at the very center of the city. It was a rather unusual contrast with the rest of the building, as it was the first one they found that was totally made of stone and completely devoid of any mirror or any reflective objects of any kind. The stones were of a fine grade certainly but seemed to be caked in dust, outside a few small clean spots around the massive doors and windows.
Twilight knocked on the door with confusion, yet still, cheer. After a moment passed with no answer, more confusion filled her mind. She knocked again, assuming that they simply didn't hear her the first time... Only for no answer at all.
"Hmm, are we sure anypony is even home?" Clover walked over and jabbed her bow staff into the door with enough force to tear the wood and yet no reaction.
Twilight was caught completely off guard by Clover's action. "Watch it--"
"Hold on," Rex held his hand out to both of them. Clover backed off, followed slowly by Twilight. Once they were clear, he held his hands together in a triangle shape. "Shadow Spell One, Tracer." On that, a single tail of shadow shot out of his own shadow and raced to the door. "Trace on." Rex's left eye went completely black. "Okay, I'm in."
"Oh, incredible!" Twilight quickly puffed a notepad into her hand and quill into the other. "An extra line of sight." She quickly took down all the details she could observe.
"What do you see?" Clover questioned.
"Hmm, three guards, possibly two more, that might have just left. Their footprints pepper the floor."
"Oh, it's that accurate--"
"Shush," Rex silenced Twilight. "The first three guards are clearly close enough to hear the knocks but not close enough to hear everything going on the other side.
"They are ignoring me huh," Twilight, and she turned right back to the door. Her horn quickly lit with magic. Before Rex could even react, she placed her hand onto the door and spoke, "Darkest Laughter!"
Without warning, the door vanished from sight.
"Well, there goes our simple way to enter," Rex deadpanned, as his eye reappeared.
Twilight's face went instantly sheepish, especially when the door crashed down behind them. "Okay... May have been wiser to channel Fluttershy than Pinkie Pie."
"Was that a dark magic spell based on one element of Harmony?" Clover questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"... Yes..."
"Next time use a small variant of that spell." Rex huffed as he passed by.
"... Right, I'll remember that." Twilight knew she moved completely backfired. She wanted to impress Rex with her use of dark magic, but this only showed lousy control.
The guards quickly closed in with spears ready. Rex quickly noted that despite their movement being quick, their stances were absolutely terrible. Something was certainly off, he could tell purely from these actions alone.
"Look, we simply wish to talk to Princess Platinum," Rex raised his hands up in surrender, bringing much shock to both Clover and Twilight. "We wish no harm. We are only here to ask for her help."
"..." The guards gritted their teeth before slowly dropping their weapons. "She is in the garden." One guard walked forward, "I will lead you."
"... well," Rex raised an eyebrow but followed the guard anyway.
"Cool," Clover followed.
"Okay, I guess things worked out after all." Twilight could only rub the back of her head in confusion. "I hope Starlight and Silver Pear have fewer problems than we are clearly going to have."
******
On the other side of the city, deep within Gross, the two reached their last stop. Starlight held up the blue paper once more to make sure and gave it another read.
"Diamondback Gust..."
"That's what the sign said," Silver Pear pointed out.
"Yeah... but there's nothing here." She threw her hands out to emphasize this. Indeed, there was nothing laid out, no one creature of any kind standing at the counter. In fact, the only thing in sight outside of the dust that caked everything was a bell.
"Could that be the El Llama?" Silver Pear pointed to the bell. It was rather strange. The bell looked to be almost brand new. A distinct cleanness was a very stark contrast with the rest of the stands' broken down look.
"Doubt it..." Starlight deadpanned.
"We should at least ring it. It would be rude to simply just stand here."
"I guess that's true--" Starlight rang the bell and exhale. "I hope this isn't anything stupid. I mean Fredricson does work for the future Dis--"
Without warning, the two fell through a trapdoor.
Moments later, they found their rears in a lot of pain as they attempted to get up. Starlight dusted herself off. "Ouch, that hurt a lot."
Silver Pear, meanwhile, stood absolutely frozen, staring out at something in the darkness.
Starlight was very confused by his silence and turned around, only to find that he still didn't move. She tapped his shoulder and instead of an answer; he backed away slowly.
Her eyebrow raised even higher, and she finally asked, "What is wrong with you, you damn perv?"
"Naga..." He softly whispered.
"Naga, what is that, some sort of sex joke?" Starlight gripped his shoulders and pushed at him.
"Giant snake..."
"Okay, now I know you are making a dick joke?" Starlight closed her eyes and huffed before finally turning around.
Suddenly, her ear flicked at the sounds of hissing. Convinced that Silver Pear was now in front of her making noise, she opened her eyes and yell, "Okay, I get it. The mares are always talking about your size. Well, frankly I... don't... give... a... shit..." She slowly stopped at the sight of a massive head of a snake at least three times her size staring back at her.
"Curse you, Dis--"
Before Starlight could finish, Silver Pear pulled her away, yelling even louder. "NAGA!!"
******
Deep underground, the hunger grew louder within Star Stone's stomach. The urges pulsed through his body, and yet he tried his hardest to fight it. Despite his headache begging him, his dry throat demanding him, and his eyes blurring everything, he refused each call by pushing himself further and further away from the plate. The chair was now tearing deep into his back.
He looked to his left and right. Sorrow filled his face at the sight of his former allies now leaning over, attempting to lick at the blood pouring from his back. He turned his head away from them and gritted his teeth.
"Please..." He begged. "Make this end." He lifted his head to the door. "I refuse to give in to your ways... You damn Wendigo!"
There was no answer...
"Face me! Look at me before I die!" Star Stone poured forth his last struggles.
Again, no answer...
"DAMN IT!!" Star Stone shredded his throat with one last roar before finally dropping his head.
A moment passed, and the door finally opened. Someone walked in and Star Stone could only smile. He thought in this one moment he had won. However, all that changed when he lifted his head up to see who actually walked in.
"Sage... Brimstone ..." Star Stone looked in shock to the ifrit as it stood in front of him.
"Lord Frost is not here at all. He never was."
"Lord... Frost..." Slowly, the connections moved in Star Stone's head. That Sage would refer to this Indigo Frost as Lord only brought forth rage in his mind. But what brought out more than anything was the fact that Indigo Frost was never there at all. All this time, he had only been sensing Sage and nothing else. This final realization made everything snap.
The confusion was completely gone...
The rage was completely gone...
The hope was completely gone...
Star Stone's eyes went completely blank. All the work he had done until now was for not, the beast was never there. Every ounce of everything that had kept him going was now gone and something finally climbed out...
...Hunger...
Without warning, Star Stone's body jolted erratically. Despite his mouth being once dry, it was now filled with foam and he roared outward with a voice that sent chills over everyone in the room. The others near him hissed at first before almost kneeling away from him, screeching in total fear.
It was like they were dogs bowing down to an alpha.
The alpha pushed forward, ripping his arms at his binding with so much force that his bones cracked aloud. Finally, the binding tore, and the alpha jumped forward. His legs weren't free, but that didn't matter as the tendons in his feet quickly split open.
Free, the alpha rushed forward and gripped Sage by the throat, and punched him hard into the ground. Sage struggled at the chips of bone sticking out of the hand that was now choking the life out of him. The alpha smiled at this and leaned down to Sage's face and growled before slowly opening his mouth...
"So... this is it?" Sage glared at the teeth, the breath, the blank eyes that only had his own face, no, his flesh, as the only thing within the mind of the monster hanging over him.
As the teeth closed in one last thing flew through Sage's mind that made everything completely clear. The last words his new lord told him before he left this day.
"Privilege, rights, name, friends and even family, it means nothing. When all things fall, that is what I plan to push this world to accept. In the end, nothing matters more compared to the urge to survive. Some ponies do it because it’s right, others do it because they have to.”
Sage's fears faded, and he smiled, speaking aloud the last words that were given, "But mostly they do it because deep down they are… all monsters.”
The Afternoon's light laid outside the city was soon cut up with icy winds and snowy clouds that gathered above. Yet no matter the size, not a single one got past the city's borders. Geländehorn was completely untouched by the weather, as it always was.
Yet far from here, across the plains and back into Gelum Voce Pia, things were much different. The snow fell here with no fear and quickly covered up the scars on the land and buildings that even after ten days had still yet to heal properly.
The snow traced over everything until, finally; it came upon a massive crystal claw standing out from a shattered altar. However, just before it could touch it, the snow instantly hit the ground. The winds carrying it hit the dirt as well. In fact, nothing could get within a full five meters of it, as shown. There was no snow, no grass, no forms of life around it or on it.
"It's bending gravity." A lone hooded figure walked to it with joy in her voice. She slowly lowered her hood to get a better look. It was none of than Celestia herself.
She got as close as she could before being stopped. She waved her hand over and over the border. "No, I was wrong, it not bending, it's simply distorting space." She poked and the border and the entirety bounced like a stone on water. "Incredible. Now, this is a much better find than some light magic source."
Celestia backed away as a frown crossed over her mouth. "But... Oh, I'm no good at dark magic studies. If only Luna was here, too. She used to date a dark magic user." Soon enough, her frown flipped. "I guess I could gather what data I can now and take it to Luna later for extra details. Any reason to keep me away from searching for that damn light magic source."
Without warning or any regard to anything around her, her horn glowed and puffed a massive tent around the border. Inside the tent were several tables covered in all matter of test tubes, glass bowls, and other forms of science. "Like Starswirl always said, 'Study Everything'." She pulled out a tool and walked back to the wall.
Soon lights flickered from the tent, followed by sounds of joy and annoyance. From a distance, she never realized she was being watched. A lone pegasus sipped his cider before turning away.
******
Meanwhile, just outside of Geländehorn, in a park with trees and plenty of grass. Adagio ran around and jumped, tossed and fell onto the soft blades of grass. Her face had never been so happy. It was such a wonderful sight to see for Fredricson. The little one had been so soppy before. She needed some rest and fun.
He leaned back in his chair and put a pipe in his mouth. "This be the life, aye Lady Cat."
"See, I told you this could be fun." She walked over and handed him a drink. Once he took the drink, she moved her hands to his shoulders and rubbed them.
"Oh, yes. Whatever it be, it is perfect as long as ye be right here with me." He pulled the pipe out and lifted his drink upward. He reached up and pulled her face down in a quick kiss.
"Oh, just me." Lady Cat purred back. "That might be the best insult to my sister yet."
"Yeah, me be glad to not have any work to do?"
"Speaking of work. What did you send Starlight and Silver Pear to do in the first place?"
"Aye, gave them the blue list--" He stopped as she jumped away from him.
"You did what?!"
"Calm down. It was Starswirl's orders."
"What are you talking about?" Lady Cat raced back over and pulled him out of the chair. "You and him both know how dangerous Diamondback Gust is!!"
"And as aye said. It is Starswirl you need to blame. He planned to test them since he barely had any data on them. He even told me he would follow them the entire time and even lie if they ever spot him."
"WHAT?!" Lady Cat's loud shriek was so unexpected that it even caught Adagio off guard. "Damn it, I hate that unicorn some times." She finally let go of Fredricson.
"Don't worry, they have the bag, therefore they will be fine." Fredricson placed the pipe back in his mouth but quickly became annoyed when he realized he never lit it. Pulling out a match, he swiped it across Lady Cat's leathery corset, then brought the flame over to his pipe and puffed a few times to get it working.
"Fine..." Lady Cat lowered her head and walked back to her chair.
"They'll be fine... Unless they opened the bag early..."
******
Deep underground Starswirl sneezed aloud, stuttering his laughter for a moment, "Oh, wow, I'm sneezing a lot today."He posed as he wiped his nose. "Somepony must talk about me." He reached over to some popcorn floating around him and laughed again before throwing some in his mouth.
His eyes moved around at incredible speed, keeping up with what he was watching extremely well. He was filled with joy, but also scanning every detail. He didn't want to miss anything. This plan was crazy, but it wasn't the first time he thought of something like this.
Down on the ground, Starlight and Silver Pear ran through several pillars as fast as they could. Behind them, the giant serpent quickly followed, twisting across the ground and through the pillars with ease despite being easily over thirty times bigger than each of them.
The serpent was so big and so long that no matter how far they ran from the place where they dropped; it didn't feel as if they were getting any further from his jaws.
"What are we going to do?!" Silver Pear screamed.
"Why are you asking me? You know more about these things than me?"
"I've only seen them in my mom's old hunting books!"
"You at least know their name! That's more than I know." Starlight barked back. She reached her hand out and channeled her magic. "We can't just keep running forever." In a poof, her gentlemare sword appeared in her hand.
"Fine!" Silver Pear thought back to the book, but the longer he thought, the more nothing came to mind. "I'm sorry. I guess will have to improvise."
"I was worried you were going to say that." Starlight closed her eyes and concentrated magic on her feet. With a good kick, she launched herself into the air and toward the naga.
The naga opened its jaws wide at this and smiled. Silver Pear jumped around and pulled out his claymore. Starlight leaned back as she fell closer to the teeth, but before the naga could get a chance, Silver Pear punched his hilt into its jaws, slamming them shut. Hearing the loud slam, Starlight's eyes shot open, and she finished her flip by landing feet first, perfectly on the forehead of the naga. She pulled her gentlemare sword back and pointed downward.
"Now this stops."
She dropped the tip down. However, just before it made an impact, a snapping sound filled the air as if somepony had snapped their fingers. The tip hit and, much to Starlight's shock, bent like rubber.
"What?" She pulled back and stabbed again. Just like before, the weapon bent like a rubber band. "No, no, no." She stabbed over and over and nothing.
"What's going on up there?" Silver Pear struggled as the chin of the naga pushed down on him.
"I don't know." Starlight turned her gentlemare sword upward and her eyes widened at the blade drooping in her hand. "What?!"
Before she could process anything, the naga pushed upward, sending her flying into a pillar. She coughed hard and fell onto the naga's body. The naga felt her hand knocked its body up, launching her in the air again. She was sent spinning through the air and toward the jaws once more.
"Silver Pear!!" she shouted as the jaws snapped shut.
"Starlight!!" Silver Pear shouted in rage. He charged forward and swung at the naga over and over. He was filled with such rage that he didn't even notice that his claymore was acting like rubber now as well.
"Give her back!" his voice was stopped halfway as a poofing sound filled his ears. He turned around to see smoke that looked a lot like cotton candy. Much to his shock, Starlight fell out of it, covered in slime. "Starlight!" He rushed over.
"Silver... Silver..." Her body twitched uncontrollably and her eyes glazed over.
"What is it, Lovely--" He was stopped in questioned as she slapped him.
"You asshole!!" She pushed herself away and coughed a few times.
"What?! I didn't touch your ass once?" Silver Pear threw his arms around, knocking the slime off his hands.
"Not you." Starlight wiped slime off her face and pointed upward. "HIM!!"
Silver Pear looked to where she was pointing and jumped back at the sight of Starswirl floating above them all. "How long has he been there?" He questioned.
"The whole time I'm sure!"
Starswirl stopped spinning the popcorn and looked down at them with her words. "So, what gave me away?"
"How about you puffed me out of there?" Starlight posed. She aimed her gentlemare sword and despite it still drooping, she pulsed magic out of it and shot it at Starswirl. The old wizard waved his hand and the attack bounce to the wall.
"Attacking me won't make this end."
"Yes, it will. Now end this illusion!!" she shot off another.
"I never said this was fake."
"What do you mean?" Starlight's eyes widened. "Of course it is. Why else would you tell Fredricson to give us that list?"
"While, yes, I planned all of this? This is very real!" Starswirl put on a serious face.
"You mean I just got eaten?"
"You mean, you are about to get eaten again?" Starswirl pointed over to the naga that was clearly still there.
Starlight's eyes widened, "Curse you, Dis--" She was stopped as her and Silver Pear were swallowed again.
"Hmm, Dis..." Starswirl stroked his beard. "Is that short for something?" He snapped his fingers, and a dictionary appeared in the swarm of popcorn. He opened and moved over to the D's. "Let's see D I S, Dis, Disability, Disable, Disabled, Disablement, Disabler, maybe, Disablism, Disabuse, oh certainly not that one. Hmm, Disaccharidase, Disaccharide, Disaccord, Disaccredit, Disaccredition, Disaccustom, Disadvantage." He flicked his finger, and the page turned.
******
On the other side of the capital, Rex, Clover, and Twilight walked silently through the hallways of the castle. Indeed, just as Rex described, much of it was covered in dust. There were certainly clean spots, but most of which were concentrated around important areas, like the dining room, stairs and quarters. And yet even those places had dust gathered around the edges of the walls and cracks.
"This place would give Rarity a heart attack," Twilight did her best not to sneer even as a crystal spider dropped from a string of web right in front of her.
Her eye narrowed on the creature, and she held her hand out. The crystal spider landed and Twilight brought it up to her face. "Can you tell me why this place looks so distorted?"
"Are you talking to that thing." Clover raised an eyebrow in confusion at Twilight's actions.
The crystal spider crawled off of Twilight's hand, making her deadpan. "Damn it, Fluttershy always made this look so easy."
"Flutter-who?"
"Nevermind..." Twilight waved the web off of her hand and attempted to catch up with Rex. Clover, seeing this, hastened to be in front of Twilight... and closer to Rex.
"Quiet, you two!" Rex's loud voice caught their attention. "I'm listening..."
"To what--" Twilight looked at Rex's head. Even though they were covered by his turban, she was surprised to see the bumps where his ears would twitch, as if listening.
"What do you hear Rex?"
"I'm not sure. Cast a hearing spell."
"Of course." Clover closed her eyes and her horn glowed. Inside her head, her eardrums widened. "There is... Nothing, absolutely nothing."
"Do you think it might be a magic dampener?" Twilight questioned. "I read they were first getting invented around this time."
"No," Clover quickly answered. "And what do you mean, invented recently? Rex's amulet is over five thousand years old."
"Amulet?" Twilight was confused since out of the ten days she knew Rex and even when she read books about him, she never knew he wielded an amulet. She jotted down a mental note on that question. For later, now a bigger question was this castle?
"Nevermind that!" Rex's annoyance was clear now. "... Twilight... Do you know any--"
"Sound amplifying spells! Sure I do." Twilight's horn glowed with magic and inside her ears did just the same as Clover's. "I learned this spell straight from Clover's private section of Canterlot's Library."
"Remind me to never tell my brother my sound spell..." Clover deadpanned.
"Sh..." Rex held his hand up and all three of them stopped despite the guards leading them, not giving any sign of a halt.
"I... I..." Twilight's eye went wide. "I can't hear anything."
"I knew it..." On that Rex's chains flew upward and wrapped around the throat of each guard.
"What are you doing?" Twilight rushed forward, but Clover quickly stopped her.
"I want answers now!" Rex demanded. "We have been walking for hours and not got anywhere near this garden..."
The guards refused to answer. They kept still and strong despite the hold over their throats.
"Ha!" Clover laughed at the guards and walked forward. "You don't know who this is?" She waved her hands around Rex as she walked. "This is Rex Moba, Warlock Knight of the Alicorns and master of shadowmancy. You know the rare power of shadow magic." She pulled out her bow staff and walked over, punching one guard in the gut, knocking his face forward. She quickly grabbed his mane and held his head down. Leaning in his ear, she quickly yelled, "That means he can use all shadows within this entire city. He knew where the garden was the whole time and only has been following you out of a show of respect." She leaned in closer to his ear and blew some air into it, making the guard twitch in fear.
Twilight was in complete shock to these actions. And yet the only thing that kept her in her place was the smile on Rex's face. She knew Rex was strong, but could he be this strong? She almost felt doubt in all the words, but she couldn't place it where.
After a moment of no answers, Clover kicked the guard between the legs and knocked him to the ground before walking off. "Fine, we will go the rest of the way on our own."
Clover walked past Twilight. She kept moving for about ten feet more back the way they came and hit the wall hard with her bow staff in specific spots that seemed almost at random. Without warning, the wall opened, revealing a new pathway, dusty like the others, yes, but clearly a more traveled route.
"This way you two." On Clover's cue, Rex let loose a small laugh before bashing the guards into the wall and out cold.
"Wait, what? WHAT WAS THAT?!" Twilight's jaw dropped.
"That was a bluff." Rex walked past her.
Clover laughed harder as Rex entered the new hallway and walked back over to Twilight. She closed the alicorn's jaw and laid her elbow over her head. "Yeah, Rex's shadowmancy isn't anywhere near that strong. I just needed to get close enough to do a mind scan. Scarying them with such a simply lie made their most recent thoughts on the garden pop into their head. After which it was easy to find the garden."
"Wait, so Rex knew they were leading us in circles!" Twilight knocked the arm away.
"I doubt he did at first. He was getting annoyed at how much time we were wasting." Clover laughed harder and ran to catch up with Rex.
"Wait..." Twilight ran over to the turn to the new hallway and asked, "Does that mean there was no magic dampen--"
"Actually, looks like you were right... At least about one thing." Clover threw a large star-shaped crystal right in Twilight. Luckily, the alicorn ducked in time to dodge. Seeing that she missed, Clover huffed in annoyance and whispered under her breath, "For somepony with only one good eye, she certainly has good depth perception."
******
Underground, deep inside the belly of the beastly serpent, Starlight and Silver Pear struggled. They didn't know what to think about all of this. The inside of the naga stank and was covered in slime. The colors were dark or pink.
"What is this?" Starlight lit her horn with light. "Some sort of test? Or a twisted joke?"
"You tell me. You know more about this wizard than I do." Silver Pear posed.
"Not really. Before I met my teacher, I only knew him as a great wizard. She was the one that was such a big fan of his work."
"She certainly didn't act like that on the airship. Since she was constantly watching Rex and Clover." Silver Pear pushed at his shoulder to stand up in the small, moving walls.
"Oh, More like self preservation rather than idolization."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'll explain later. Speaking of preservation." Starlight's horn glowed brighter. She held her hand and Silver Pear moved out of the way. Magic from her horn flowed over her hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Well, either we die or I test out a spell I'm been working on."
"Working on?"
"Not really working on? More like I've seen it in dreams ever since I saw some mass murderers use it."
"Mass Murderers?" Silver Pear raised an eyebrow at that.
"I'll explain later... I hope..." She held her hand out and open. The magic slowly condensed in her palm. "I really hope this doesn't backfire. Great Hand!" She shouted her spell but stopped halfway as pain-filled her palm. "Damn it, Great Hand of--"
The magic stopped, and a stick grew out of her palm. A paper was attached that said the word 'bang'.
"Is it supposed to do that?" Silver Pear questioned.
"What?" Starlight pulled back and removed the stick off and looked at the paper. "No, it was just supposed to be a giant 'fuck you' beam!" She looked the paper over before throwing it into the stomach acid below them.
Silver Pear picked it up and read the paper. "You... truly... are... hopeless."
"I am not!" Starlight shouted at him.
"No, the paper, it's saying more." Silver Pear brought the paper over to her face. "Look."
"What?" Starlight stopped and grabbed the paper as the words from before slowly faded. Soon, extra words replaced them. She quickly read aloud. "I know you have only three hours left before the acid eats you alive, but taking a chance on a spell that could have vaporized your arm is not the best use of your time."
"Wait, we only have three hours left!"
Starlight waved the paperback and forth, "Huh, I've never seen message paper up close before. Always thought this kind of spell was a legend--" She stopped as the writing faded again and new writing took its place. "Hmm, if you want out of there, I suggest you put your heads together and think. I wouldn't put anyone in danger unless they already had a way out."
"What does that mean?" Silver Pear questioned.
"Hold on, there is more..." Starlight waited as the new message came through. "Also does the word Disassociation sound at all familiar to you."
"Disassociation? What does that have to do with this?"
Starlight facepalmed, "He's just taking guesses on his name in the future."
"How do you know that?"
"Because this message paper was made from the paper of a dictionary." Starlight crumbled up the paper. "Teach always loves reading those before going to bed, so I know the paper pretty well."
"Huh, you know what Twilight sleeps with?" Silver Pear's eyebrows rolled around.
"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter and help me think." Starlight threw the paper at him and searched her pockets. "No, nothing here." She stared at Silver Pear, annoyed.
"What? Oh, right?" Silver Pear checked his own pockets, but again, nothing.
"Well, he didn't sneak it on us." Starlight placed her hand on her chin and pondered aloud. "Maybe it was something we bought." She turned around and raced her hands over Silver Pear.
"Hey? Right HERE!" He by stopped by a punch to the gut.
"Do you ever get your mind out of the gutter?" She pulled back with the list in hand and looked everything over. "No, no, no, no." She went over every item on the list and either it wouldn't help or be way too small of an amount to be useful.
She waved the paper back and forth, hoping for some invisible ink or another kind of hidden message to be revealed, but no. "Damn it!"
"Maybe the items we have can have some sort of effect on this naga."
"What are you saying?" She questioned him, "You know more about this naga than I do."
"Well, mom used to hunt the smaller ones."
"Really? They come in smaller sizes?"
"Yeah, some as small as your hand. Their size is determined by their age and wisdom."
"Wisdom?! This thing ate us." Starlight attempted to throw her arms out to emphasize this, but the wall was now leaning inward. "Plus, you were the first one to run from it."
"Yeah, I know, but that was because it showed anger to us."
"Anger, it roared at us only after you ran from it."
"You wouldn't understand. It's a hunter kind of sense that told me it was angry long before it roared."
"Hunter sense, well what does this hunter sense tell you now?"
Silver Pear stopped at her words and leaned against one side of the fleshy wall while Starlight pushed against the other. Thoughts swarmed his head.
"Shit," Starlight pushed harder. "I'm thinking Starswirl meant three minutes."
"Wait, he said we already have what we need on us."
"Yes, and--"
Without warning, Silver Pear reached over to Starlight. "Don't you fucking dare?!" she screamed as his hands went over her sides. The walls pushed closer, knocking Starlight into Silver Pear's arms. "No, no, no!!" she struggled, "I am not dying while you attempt to have sex with me!!"
"I'm not." He placed his hand over her mouth. His other hand continued to move around her, despite her fighting. The walls pushed forward, knocking their stomachs against each other and her chest into his face, making her squirm even more.
Finally, he pulled out what he was searching for. The package that Fredricson gave them. Going on the pure gut feeling, he tore open the bag only to find nothing in the bag at all.
"What?" Silver Pear pushed his face away from the chest and pulled his arms back in confusion before receiving a swift kick between the legs.
"Thank you for not taking my virginity!"
Silver Pear pulled back in pain. "I'm sorry, I thought--" His eyes blinked a few times before his thoughts changed gears. "Wait, you're a virgin--" Again he was stopped, but this time not by Starlight.
Out of nowhere, liquid rushed over them and pushed them upward. Within seconds, they were puked up and out on.
******
Roaring echoed back and forth through the base of Indigo Frost. The teeth of the monster edged closer to Sage's throat, yet the blank stare in the beast's eyes was the only thing Sage could see. At first, he found exhilaration upon realizing the truth. Then again, if the beast killed him now, it would matter not.
Luckily, help arrived with a slam to the monster's head, knocking its jaws clear from 'Sage. Sage finally snapped out of his fear and exhilaration at seeing Vanity standing over him. She quickly helped him to his feet before turning her attention to the monster.
"Back, back, back," she swung flames around. The monster finally yielded... for the moment.
"Uh, thank you," Sage finally exhaled heavily.
Vanity smiled, but with her free hand punched him hard in the gut.
"Uhg, what was that for?"
"There is a reason we watched them from a camera!" she screamed at him. "A reason this room was locked behind a safe door!"
"I'm, I'm sorry." Sage stood up better and leaned toward the doorway's corner. "I just got curious..."
"Well, next time you get curious, bring some flames." She held up the flame to the other monsters, and they pushed away from it in fear. "You see intense cold or heat is a good barrier."
Suddenly, without warning, the lead monster charged forward again, aiming straight toward the lowered guard of Vanity.
Vanity turned almost too slow to stop it. However, that mattered not as giant green tentacles flew into the room and grabbed the monster, throwing him across the walls before beating him against the table.
Upon seeing this, Vanity quickly took a bow. Sage, meanwhile, turned toward the doorway and was completely puzzled by the sight of a swirling vortex floating in the air, of which the tentacles were flowing out of.
The tentacles beat the monster around several times. Each hit crushed several bones. After a few moments, the monster was pulled into the vortex. Screams and crunching sounds followed.
After a moment of silence, the monster walked back out, only now he looked and acted very different. His skin was now covered in wrinkles and he was so much calmer. Despite all of this, one thing was instantly more noticeable than any other.
"That smell," Sage pulled back at that all familiar pungent odor. "Thule?"
"I'm sorry we could not stop him, Thule."
The monster raised his hands to his face and stretched the skin back so drastically before finally talking... with Thule's voice. "Do not worry. I needed a new one, anyway. The other one was rotting a bit too much for my liking." He removed his hands from his face and down to the neck, giving loud popping before finally stopping. "He could have served a better place, but this will do fine." Thule turned to Sage and gave a smile, at which point he noticed the teeth had fallen out of place. A swift punch to the jaw fixed on that. Once everything seemed right, he spoke to the ifrit stallion. "I assume you know your place now."
“Yes, I know my place now…” Sage laughed aloud. “I know why he chose us all. All nine members. Because we are all alphas.”
“Indeed, you finally see it. You are his proof. That even the highest of elites can become monsters.”
“To pollute even the head of the world with the ideals of the monster that are our will.” Vanity stood up finally and place her hand over her head in a salute.
Thule walked over to the other monsters and placed his hands over their heads. The monsters twisted and screamed before abruptly standing still. He released his hands and brought them down to the binds. Their binds were unhooked. Sage and Vanity jumped back as the monsters, walking on all fours, slowly exited the room. "These two know their place now as well, so they are free... to follow our command."
"Of course," Vanity smiled. Even though she was loyal to the cause, Sage could see a bit of faint fear in her eyes at the sight of each monster as they passed through the door.
"Yes, but what is their place... now?"
"Their job now will be to go to other elites and bring them here for more knowledge. To gather packs of their own and wait, being ready for the last phase of the plan."
"We're that close..."
"No, but Frost has been planning this for a long time. It's best to think ahead." Thule walked up to both of them. "Speaking of thinking ahead, he has a mission for you two."
"What is it?" Vanity questioned with a little a glee.
"You will know soon enough, but we need your brother's ashes first." Thule's last words brought a chill through Vanity's whole body.
******
A distinct chill covered Twilight's mind, especially as the three walked through a graveyard to reach the garden. Rex and Clover were so eerily quiet about the whole thing. Clover kept her attention to the front while Rex did everything he seemingly could to never look at the graves, especially the names.
Each grave was of the same shape and stood in a range of heights from just barely up to the kneecaps to taller than an alicorn. They were kept incredibly clean. It was quite surprising since the rest of the castle was so empty and covered in dust. All of them were chilling to see, but that they were what stood between the entrance and the garden really said a lot. And yet there was clearly so much more care for these than anything in the castle.
At the end of the graveyard, a tall statue of a unicorn in fancy royal armor. Rex stopped at the sight of it and slowly bowed. Clover was even slower to her actions, but followed suit. Twilight gave no reaction at first and only stared in confusion before asking what they were doing.
"We are showing respect to the former ruler of the unicorns," Rex answered her with a slight harshness in her words.
Twilight's sight went wide, and she quickly dropped to one knee. "This is Sir Sereal Platinum? Sorry, the books only say so little about him. The biggest thing being his death."
"Well, the day of his death, the alicorns lost a truly loyal soldier, and the unicorns lost a great ruler." Rex stood up and walked away.
Clover gave no words to add and only frowned at the word 'great'. She stood up too, but walked away much faster.
Twilight looked up at the statue and smile, grabbing out a notepad. "Note to self, get a picture to go later."
"Look," Clover speaking brought Twilight attention away from the statue to see the garden just a few meters away.
Twilight walked ahead, only to stop in her tracks at the sight of what lay at the center of the garden. An extensive area for fighting, and a battle going on with rather a young female unicorn mare fighting with all her might.
The alicorn slowly approached the sight of it all.
The unicorn moved fast. Throwing the much heavier opponent to the ground. Taking his arm and swiftly breaking it. Quickly smashing the other hand with her foot until he dropped the weapon. Seeing the opponent down, the unicorn mare reached into her back pocket and pulled out two knives, swinging them right at the opponent's throat.
"Enough, Mira!" The attack stopped mere centimeters from the skin at those words. A strange lizard walked forward from the side of the arena and spoke with less anger, "I believe you have won."
"Have I Dim?" She turned the knives away. Smashing the opponent's face into the ground and out cold.
"Incredible--" Twilight's words were stopped instantly as without warning the unicorn mare threw her knife at high speeds right for her throat.
Rex's chains caught it just as it came within centimeters of her neck. Twilight fell to the ground with pure shock and gripped at her neck, itching at an old scar as familiarity twisted through her mind.
Rex threw the knife back into the arena. "Twilight, this is Princess Platinum. Ruler of the unicorns."
Though chill was completely gone, now the only thing outside of sheer confusion in Twilight's mind was absolute fear.
On the shores of a harbor looking out to the Celestial Sea, alone airship slowly approached. Pegasi gathered at the edge to greet the ship's arrival. They were a bit surprised it could even fly with the state it was in; The sides were covered in massive claw marks. The sails were blackened as if once ablaze. And the anchor was nothing but a cut rope now.
"It must have been attacked by the griffins. Those bastards." A white pegasus got closer.
"Sand Sky, I think it is actually a griffin airship?" A grey pegasus beside him spoke up. He pointed out to the wing and beak designs over the front.
"Impossible. We are at war with those griffins?" Sand Sky scratched his chin and reached out for the rope to pull it in. "Why would they land here?"
"Do you think they want to attack this dock?"
"Not with those damages." Sand Sky tied down the rope and walked over to the other rope that hung from the door. It was also torn, but differently. While the other rope showed signs of a knife, the rope over the door looked as if it had been ripped. This was puzzling since if this was a griffin airship, then the rope wouldn't have ripped so easily. The griffins prided themselves on making the finest ropes in all the land. After all, the same rope had to not only hold an airship in place but also even their cities. Such a rope like this would be hard enough for the cut, but to flat out break was unheard of.
Hesitantly, he reached for the door's rope and gave a hard pull. The rope held strong above the tear, only adding more confusion. He looked up at the door as it creaked loudly and folded outward. "Though get a weapon ready just in case."
"Sure." The pegasus behind him pulled out a knife and stood ready as the door slowly descended.
"Welcome to Hikina Port--"
However, as they caught sight of what lay inside, their weapons dropped to the ground as body after body poured out of the doorway like a flood.
"What... What is this?" Sand Sky could barely speak. Behind him, the other pegasus had even less strength bolting into a full-on dash at the sight. "Saw Tooth--" He attempted to call upon his friend but was stopped at the sounds of crushing behind him.
Sand Sky slowly turned around to see his friend's skull getting crushed by a hippogriff's hand. From the angle this hippogriff was standing, it appeared as if he had jumped from the airship.
"Yo, stallion. You should look above." The hippogriff spat into rap.
At the sight of his friend falling dead, Sand Sky unconsciously moved backward, not even realizing he was backing into the bodies until he was stopped by crashing into the chest of someone who clearly wasn't dead.
"Yo, maybe my warning shouldn't have been for you, fool." The hippogriff spat at Sand Sky.
"Stop with your poor attempts to be cool, Sting." A voice spoke up from behind Sand Sky. The voice was rough and echoed as if speaking through a tube.
The pegasus knew there was someone behind him but he was too afraid to move, even as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Now tell me, how far is the nearest port to the Alicorn's Floating Citadel?" The one behind him spoke again.
"I... I... I... don't know..."
"Of course he doesn't know, Fiend," Sting yelled out.
"Hmm," The hand gripped tighter to the pegasus's shoulder. "Maybe he's just too scared to speak."
With that, a strange feeling slowly filled every part of Sand Sky's body. Starting from his shoulder and slowly making its way over everything. With each inch it traveled, it became more and more clear this wasn't fear or even the darkest forms of dread, but as if something was slowly being sucked from his body.
Without warning, his body jolted, and his jaw clenched open. His flesh sank into place and finally, this strange feeling was instantly replaced by something he knew all too well, absolute agony.
He fell from the hand, but the pain wouldn't stop. It now had no source, as if his whole body was being attacked over and over and over. He struggled and twisted as his skin pulled tighter to his body. Screaming was all he could direct toward his attackers, as they simply smiled at him.
More dock workers ran toward the noise only for them to fall as well, racking with the same feeling from before, only to pursue Sand Sky in his screams.
Sting walked over to his brother and grabbed his hand. The power... the souls they were sucking out of these pegasi were slowly feeding into an orb as the center of the glove that Fiend wore.
"Oh, how delicious? These shall prove quite useful in our journey to attack the alicorns directly."
"It's all part of the plan," Sting laughed.
"What better way to call out our return."
"Then, that old teacher of ours won't dare be able to ignore us."
******
In Gelum Voce Pia, loud noises continued to echo from the tent that surrounded the mighty crystal hand at the center of town. Inside, Celestia was hard at work with several experiments.
"Test number forty-five," she magically wrote on a notepad beside her. She floated over a bag of sand to the barrier. Opening it along the edge, she drifted it around the barrier. The sand didn't fall, rather it leak out in a trail along the barrier following the bag, leaving a ring around the area. "It's like I thought space is being bent, and yet in no discernable direction. But why?" She placed down the notepad and placed a finger on her chin. Possibilities raced through her at incredible speeds before she finally came to the only conclusion. "Hmm, maybe the spell wasn't refined."
"Well, she made it in a burst of the moment."
"Yeah, maybe--" she stopped as she noticed the other voice. Celestia quickly turned around, only to see a dark blue pegasus with a cup of cider in his hand.
"I see you noticed me finally."
"I'm sorry." Celestia took a step back and properly faced him. "I get too much into my work.”
"You know, you remind me a lot of the one who created that." He took a drink of his cider.
"Wait, you know who made this?" Celestia's eyes lit up.
"Of course," He waved his hand to the exit. "Just follow me and we will talk about her over some drinks."
"I'm sorry... but I don't drink."
"You," The pegasus's eyes went wide. "A fine lass like yourself must have drunk plenty of times." He tilted his head to her.
Celestia brushed off the comment and laughed. "Well, it's not that I haven't drunk. I just prefer not to."
"Well," he stopped halfway to get another drink. "I guess you don't want to learn about the one who made that."
"What?" Celestia placed her hand to her chest and leaned back in insult. "I want to know--"
"Thenfollowusandfindout!" A green blur ran into the tent around Celestia.
"Hermes?!" The pegasus facepalmed in confusion.
The green blur ran toward the pegasus and around him several times before being stopped by a large steel color arm that had reached into the tent. A buffalo followed the hand.
"Thank you, Red Steel." The pegasus dropped his hand and looked to Celestia, who was not only confused now but on her guard because of the multiple intrusions. "I'm sorry, let's start over."
"Oh... okay. My name is Celestia, Princess of the Day."
"Oh, another alicorn, huh? I've already introduced Hermes and Red Steel." The pegasus pointed at each of them before pointing to himself. "And my name is Rainbow Dartz."
"Another alicorn? You mean to tell me an alicorn made this?" Celestia took their names with kindness and walked forward. She was now extremely interested in finding this important detail. She held her hand out to them as an offer of trust.
"Yes, her name is Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dartz took the hand and shook tightly. The four walked out of the tent and to the nearest bar.
******
Back under the unicorn capital, Starlight and Silver Pear were quite in a predicament. They had escaped the naga's stomach through his puking and now darkness covered their eyes as the bile moved around.
Neither one opening their eyes out of fear. Neither one realized what position they were in until Starlight felt a large bump hit against her gut. She opened her eyes only to see her chest was still stuffed in Silver Pear's face and her legs were laid wide over his loins. She deadpanned once her mind answered quickly what was bumping against her gut.
With a swift kick to the legs, she pushed herself upward and took a few steps back before attempting to remove the slime from her body. She looked to Silver Pear and his appearance rather large bump for about two seconds before pulling back in disgust. "No, no, no, that would have been too dis--"
"Disturbing!" Starswirl appeared behind her.
"Yes..." She turned around and stopped at the sight of the dictionary in his hand. A frown flooded her face, and she placed her hand over the book. Without warning, it burst into flames before freezing solid and shattering to dust.
"I'll take that as a no for my future name?" Starswirl gave a small frown. "Either..." Within a second, though, this sadness was gone as he flew around them with towels to clean them off as he hopped in the air with joy. "You did it, you did it, you did it!"
"What?" Silver Pear could barely compute what happened, as he was still reacting to the kick.
"You opened the package!!" Starswirl cheered louder. "You succeed in your mission!!" He flew up to the naga and bowed, "Thank you, Diamondback Gust, for your work."
The naga twisted back and forth in revilement. "... Of course, old friend."
"Wait, mission?!" Starlight's eyes flared red. "So you attempted to kill us?!"
"No," Starswirl waved his hands at them. "This was a test, a test of duty, honor, even friendship."
"How did any of this deal with friendship?" Silver Pear finally picked himself up.
"Now, I can see why your only friend in the future is the bum that lives outside the city and talks to her animal friends." Starlight accidentally slipped into words.
"Oh, really?" Starswirl pulled out a notebook and took down every word before Starlight could stop herself. "Is this friend nice and kind?"
"--" Starlight forced her mouth shut upon realizing what she just said.
"Hmm," Starswirl twirled in the air until he was upside down and floated right up to Starlight. He looked deeply into her eyes before putting down more notes. "You truly are a strange mare. You also think this bum outside of town is hot?"
"No! I didn't say that?!" Starlight screamed aloud.
"No, you thought it." He pointed his quill at her.
"Well..." Starlight's eyes waved back and forth before she finally answered. "As far as my spying went, everyone in that town has the hots for Flutter--” She grabbed her mouth shut again.
"Okay, okay, Lovely." Silver Pear walked over and pushed Starlight aside before Starswirl could prop more into her mind.
"Either way, I think I have enough data to finally start trusting you two." Starswirl snapped his fingers. The notepad and the ashes of the dictionary floated together before vanishing.
"Wait, this is also a test of trust!" Starlight's rage was now at a burning point.
"Of course, I need to trust my newest student."
"New..." Starlight's rage faded at that word and she repeated herself, "Newest students."
"Newest student," Starswirl pointed to her alone in his correction. He then puffed over to Silver Pear and shook his hand. "Sorry, I put you through so much pain for her sake."
"No problem at all..." He spoke with uncertainty. "But I'm the one who opened the bag."
Starswirl stopped shaking the hand as his eyes went wide. "Wait, you did it?" He was completely in shock. He put this whole thing into action to test Starlight, and Silver Pear was the one who completed the deed. "Impossible."
"As much as I don't want to admit it now. He actually saved us both." Starlight placed her hand over her eyes to wipe away the images from inside, where he reached all around her to save the day. In the back of her mind, she screamed, "That is the last time I tie something around my hips while around that pervert!"
"Well, this is unexpected." Starswirl puffed over to the naga and sat on his head. Puzzling poured through the old wizard's brain until, finally, an idea came to form. "Tell me, Diamondback Gust, did you notice any strange taste during your meal?"
"Well, outside of the sweet taste of heat sweat--"
"I was not in heat!" Starlight shouted in the background.
"There was also the taste of..." The naga stopped for a moment and flicked his tongue twice. He peered over to Silver Pear. He licked his tongue over Silver Pear softly before pulling back. "Hmm, he tastes just like an inugami."
"An inu— what now?"
"An inugami is a type of wolf spirit." Starswirl puffed up a new book. "Much like the wolf that kidnapped your mother."
"What?" Silver Pear's eyes went wide.
"Yes, when Rex told me that an inugami was seen during the battle, I did a bit of research just in case." Starswirl flipped through the book incredibly fast. "I found that the bar your family own, the Wolf's Apple, was once connected to a series of sighting and rapes committed by an inugami nearly two hundred years ago."
"Rapes..." Silver Pear's voice went shallow.
Starswirl slammed the book to bring the earth pony's attention back to him. "You don't need to take that last part too seriously as I believe the inugami from two hundred years ago and the one who took your mother were separate beings, but connected." He puffed in front of Silver Pear and handed him the book. "I didn't know what I should do with this information since in the end, it led to no answers about Indigo Frost or why he has an inugami under his command. So I closed the literal book on it and thought nothing more of it." He walked right up to Silver spear's ear and spoke softer, so Starlight couldn't hear the last part. "But considering you have the same taste as an inugami and at least two inugami are directly connected to you really brings things into perspective."
Silver Pear attempted to question, but Starswirl floated away and turned to the naga. The old wizard gave the enormous snake a bow. He floated his popcorn back over to his hands and opened a portal. "Enough of curiousness, we must meet up with the others."
"Right..." Starlight turned her head away from him.
"Also, it would be helpful for you to know that Princess Platinum has a young naga under her employ." Starswirl brought some popcorn to his mouth and munched away.
"Great..." Starlight deadpanned as the three of them entered the portal.
******
Back in the center of Geländehorn, within the magnificent castle, in the garden, they had searched so long that Twilight was nearly out of breath. She heard Rex's words, but it took a few moments for it all to soak in. Standing just a few meters from her, staring back at her with determination and an icy glare was the princess that had or at least would soon lead the unicorns through the events of Hearth's Warming. Twilight knew she might get to meet some figures from this event in history, but meeting this one up close was far more than she bargained for.
"Unicorn, answer me!" Princess Platinum pointed right at Twilight. Twilight looked in confusion, almost forgetting she was in disguise to hide her alicornship so the princess wouldn't realize the obvious.
"I'm sorry," Twilight picked herself off the ground. "Right, you want to know why we are here. We are here to stop the--"
Rex waved his hand in front of Twilight. "You need not ask her. Our true purpose doesn't align with hers."
"Interesting." Princess Platinum turned her hand away from Twilight and to the referee. "Dim, towel."
On that, the referee walked forward from the shadows. Much to Rex's surprise, the referee was a naga at a young age... well, young age for a naga. The naga was black, with green frills and a broadsword at his side. He was built differently than most naga he has seen before as this one still had both his arms and legs. If he didn't know better, he was have mistaken the beast for a dragon, but it's much longer tail and lack of wings proved that to be wrong.
The naga handed the princess the towel and smiled, "You did well, but we can't fight with dead soldiers."
"A weak soldier is no more useful than a dead one." She grabbed the towel and cleaned it off.
"As my ally was saying, we are here on an important mission." Clover took this moment to walk forward. "We are searching for an important artifact."
Twilight was caught completely off guard by Clover's words. She originally assumed that Rex interrupted her earlier because she had overstepped beforehand.
"An artifact. What sort of artifact?"
"An alathar." Rex followed slowly behind Clover. "Nine special objects that hold incredible power. According to our notes, the crystal ponies left one with your family."
"Hmm, that could help me in the coming war." Princess Platinum gave a bold grin. "However, if you are searching for something like that, I'm afraid it's out of both our reaches."
"What do you mean?" Clover was surprised.
"Though my family never spoke of an object known as an alathar, they spoke of sealing something away in the Four Towers of Faith."
"And that problem how?"
"It's currently under the control of the alicorn, Blood Diamond."
Hearing that name sent a chill through Rex's whole body, so much so that he actually backed up a few steps. "Why would Topaz Silk send him?"
Twilight looked at Rex and then at Clover. She was so confused. She thought the mission was to stop the war. She knew Indigo Frost was after these alathar, but she saw the greater threat as being the war, especially if it brought forth problems for the events that would soon approach.
"I see you heard of him." Princess Platinum exited the arena and walked to them slowly. "I heard he slaughtered an entire army of zebras a few weeks ago. That he is considered the most to be a most loyal and most vicious of the alicorns. So sternly strong in his work, he won't falter once in his mission until it is complete." Finally, she arrived in front of the three of them and looked at each of them over. "I see great strength in all of you, yet it's clear neither of you would dare face him. Even if it is for this item, that of which I doubt he even knows is there."
"I will!" Twilight spoke up without a single hesitation.
This cold and strong statement brought curiosity to the Princess as she raced straight to Twilight and looked deep into her face. At this range, Twilight could finally get a good look at the unicorn princess.
Princess Platinum wore a silver short dress and cloth untwisted armor over her b cup. Her cape was just as bold of a royal purple as the history books always said. However, her mane was red, not blue, and tied tightly behind her head. In her hand, a rapier with a hilt covered in scales. She was both elegant and fearsome all at the same time.
Being this close, she stood just barely shorter than Twilight. It was far more clear she was younger than the books always said. In fact, the princess was younger than Twilight. Easily just barely reaching adult age, yet her face was filled with so much rage. Her eyes filled with an age that far exceeds her appearance.
It was like looking it a mirror for Twilight. Both of them, despite their young ages, had clearly seen far more bloodshed than one ever should. Both had lived such harsher lives far too early. Yet there was a separation where Twilight hadn't given up hope. There was no hope in this princess’s glare.
Princess Platinum smirked as if she was seeing the same thing Twilight seeing, but maybe seeing even more than even Twilight was catching onto. She jumped back and pulled up her rapier. She placed the tip right against Twilight, moving it right up to the eyepatch. Despite how close it got, Twilight didn't flinch once. She didn't want to insult herself or her allies.
"Fine, you will go if you can beat me in Todeskampf."
Twilight was completely taken aback by the princess's words. She did not know at all what Todeskampf even was. But it was clear there was a danger as shown when the naga stamped them.
"Dim, what are you doing?"
"Princess Mira Platinum, I cannot allow such a battle!"
The princess's eyes went wide at his words and, in particular, the use of certain words. "Well, Dimitri Dawn Dusk," she took a stepped forward and leaned right into his face, speaking forth his full name back as he did hers. "She thinks she can face Blood Diamond herself. Let see her prove it."
"I accept. Twilight's words brought a shock to them all. "Only if..." Though her actions up till now were strong, she didn't know how to place these next words to make them have the most impact and hopefully sway the princess to the idea.
"Well, what?" Princess Platinum's words tore through Twilight's attempts to buy time.
"I accept if you surrender this war and attempt to talk to the alicorns about bringing peace."
Silence fell overall. Rex stood in the back with disappointment. He believed peace was a pointless endeavor simply trying would put themselves behind Indigo Frost in the search of the alathar. The alathars took far higher importance and he couldn't let this upstart get in the way any longer. Exhaling heavily, he walked forward to mend this and get back to the genuine danger at hand.
However, Princess Platinum pulled back in utter laughter. This action sent confusion everywhere, including through the naga. It actually took a few moments before she could finally answer. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It just I've never heard of such an absurd demand."
"It's... not that bad, Rarit--" Twilight quickly stopped herself.
"No, it's bad, terrible. But an offer I can't really ignore." Princess Platinum put her rapier up and held out her hand. "We will battle."
Twilight took the hand and shook it, before quickly pulling back. "Wait, as in battle now."
"No, tomorrow morning. It's getting late and I'm getting hungry." Princess Platinum pulled her arms back and stretched into a pop. "Plus, I tore string in dress during my last bout."
"Nothing changes," Twilight laughed. Her wording confused all of them, to which she waved the wording away with a burst of shyness laughter. "Nevermind, we will fight in this Todeskampf tomorrow."
"You're fighting in a death battle!" The sound of a popcorn bag falling to the ground brought their attention to Starswirl, who was standing a few feet away with Starlight and Silver Pear, surrounded by a slowly vanishing portal.
Twilight's eyes went wide. "Wait, what?!"
"Indeed, and the kind that can't be undone once accepted." Princess Platinum gave her the biggest smile yet before clapping her hands. Out of nowhere, guards appeared and surrounded all of them. "Now, my guards will take you three to some quarters. We will all have dinner in an hour. As for the rest, they will quickly leave, or be executed."
Twilight's shoulders fell and her sigh followed with it. A frown made things more obvious. "What did I just do?"
"Sounds like you just fucked history harder than Silver Pear does a tree," Starlight deadpanned.
"Hey, I only did that once," He barked back. "And I was really--" He was stopped, and the guards pushed him, Starlight and Starswirl, to the nearest exit.
******
Deep within the north tower of the Four Towers of Faith, Blood Diamond sat on a throne he forged with crystal. He watched as several mini gem figures floated through the room dancing to his entertainment. They weren't sentient like the sculptures that Indigo Frost could create, rather these moved as if on strings, following his eyes over the room.
The room itself was slowly cleaned of all dust by each twist and turn the gems made. It was darkened by the dust, but clearing things up showed a white marble floor with sapphire pillars and sturdy wooden tables. In the center was a ball of pure crystal hanging from the ceiling. Small crystal shards hanged from it. Though some pieces were missing, Blood Diamond's spell quickly made sure each piece was replaced.
"This is truly an insult to our father." He raised his hands finally and gestured to the two towers closest to his sight. He turned his head over to his right and smiled. "You can show yourself, Stygian."
Out of the darkness beside him, a tall white unicorn with a shortcut blue mane draped in shadows like a cloak walked forward. "You called upon me."
"Yes, what do you think of this insult?"
Stygian looked over it all with confusion. "I assumed you called me to deal with Rex."
"Answer the question." Blood Diamond glared at him. "You, yourself, are a unicorn. Only you could understand such reasons."
"I haven't been a true unicorn for a long time." His hand reached out from the cloak and showed weak and wrinkled flesh. "But I remember my kind to be a prideful race."
"Good answer." Blood Diamond pulled back his hand and stood up.
"Is this why am I truly here? To answer questions about my kind?"
"You were once a unicorn, therefore you can help us better understand these mortals and why they would seek war with us."
"Yes, they would seek war?" Stygian raised an eyebrow at that. "But, your father was the one who made the declaration." He turned back around, "Am I right?"
"Actually, we do not believe that King Emerald Teal would make such a weak claim."
"True, he would rather wipe out the entire species without a single warning."
"Indeed, hence the reason you are here." Blood Diamond walked over to the window. "I want you to spy on them without Rex noticing you."
"Why not send Cold Blue. You trust him more than you trust me."
Blood Diamond turned away from the window and frowned. "Actually, he seems distracted lately."
"Cold Blue distracted, that is a first."
"He doesn't want me to notice, but there are times as if he's not here."
"Fine, I will go explore." On that, Stygian faded back into the shadows and out of sight.
******
Hidden deep inside the castle in a room chosen for her, Twilight could do nothing but hyperventilate and shake back and forth on the bed. Her mind raced at every possibility that could happen tomorrow.
Clover and Rex stood outside her room, waiting for an answer. They both knew she screwed up, but how badly depended solely on her next actions.
"She has been at this for an hour." Rex huffed in annoyance.
"Fine, I'll go in." Clover tired of waiting. She turned to the door and entered the room.
Twilight refused to move from her spot, and barely even noticed Clover as she stepped over to the bed. Taking a seat on the far end, Clover reached over slowly until Twilight finally noticed her.
Twilight's eye traced over Clover's actions before slowing her breath. "What are you doing in here?"
"Checking on you." Clover retracted her hand. "Rex isn't the best for these types of talks." She looked downward at her reasons. "Truthfully, he's never been good with children."
"Huh, just sis years younger than me and yet to him." Clover's legs crossed and her hands came together. "Either way, you need to stop pouting like a child."
"I'm not, I'm... calculating!" Twilight threw her arms about.
"Wow, you and he are too similar," Clover whispered under her breath. "Damn Starswirl..."
"What?" Twilight questioned the lowering of her voice.
"I mean, what is there to worry about?" Clover turned to her with a smile. "So what? If you lose, we will just have Rex teleport you out of there. It's not the first time he disobeyed the laws of a kingdom."
"Losing to her is not my fear." Twilight fell back into the wall. "I mean, what if I kill her?"
"Wow, vain much..." Clover whispered. "I guess Starswirl was wrong."
"He was wrong about what?" Twilight questioned, revealing that she could hear all her words.
"Wait, how much did you hear?" Clover's eyes went wide.
"Clover, you realize I watched you do a sound spell-like twice." Twilight gave a sheepish smile.
"Why would you need that spell on now?" Clover raised a hand to her, inadvertently waving her finger back and forth.
Twilight let go of her sheepishness and laughed at the sight Clover was giving.
"Wait, why are you laughing at me?" Clover practically roared.
"It's nothing, you just reminded me of someone." Twilight sat up and gave another much small laugh before reaching over and hugging Clover tightly. "I knew I was right about you."
"Right about what?" Clover was even more confused than ever now, but returned the hug anyway. "Look, just try your best and if things go terribly wrong, we will pull you out of there."
"Thank you..." Twilight worded that last word with her mouth but luckily caught herself from saying it aloud. Though this little meeting amplified the possibility, there was always the chance she could be wrong. Either way, she was happy enough to know more about her favorite idol in history, and more if her assumptions were completely right.
******
The dining room was warm with the light of candles and the steam of finely cook kelp dressed around rice, cucumbers and avocado slices. In the center were both sides of sushi and thinly slice fried chicken with some worcester sauce for dipping.
Twilight strolled around it and took in all the smells. It was truly the most please plate of food she had seen in years.
Everything was placed on a small table with five chairs around it. She certainly noticed how small the table was and that another table would have been far more suited. In the back, a much larger table caught her eye. It laid on its side, completely covered in dust from lack of use. She walked to it, but was stopped by Clover.
Clover gave her a discerning nod and guided her to a chair right near the front of the small table, just in time as Princess Platinum walked in.
The princess wore a large bottom dress that drastically went against everything else that she wore before. It was so loud and proud. Seeing this almost put Twilight's still biting nervousness at ease. There was a familiarity with this and it calmed her greatly.
Following behind Princess Platinum was her loyal guard, Dimitri Dusk. He hurried to the table and pulled out two chairs. Princess Platinum took a seat next to Twilight and Dimitri took a seat next to the princess. Clover and Rex took the two remaining seats.
The table stayed quiet and still for a good three minutes once everyone was seated. However, in Twilight, this still only amplified her fear. Her sight wondered over them. Rex stayed quiet and stared off into space as if there were far more important stuff on his mind. This was no surprise to her since her little move went completely against his own plan. Clover was the complete opposite, she kept an attend look, making sure everything was completely clean around her, it was completely against everything Twilight had learned about the mare.
Clover's actions made Twilight remember back to her words and that maybe indeed Clover would be just as nervous if not more, even though her life wasn't the one on the line.
"Now, we eat..." Princess Platinum spoke up before Twilight could gauge her reasoning for being so silent at a dinner she demanded. Even though she was sitting right next to Twilight, Twilight had neglected to scan her attitude until it was too late.
All she could do now was watch the food pass by. Princess Platinum went for the sushi and dipped it into the sauce. Bringing to her mouth, she chewed softly and swallowed before Dimitri followed her action. Twilight pushed through the nervousness with the food and went in after them. She, however, didn't realize that Clover waited until last to grab her pieces.
The meal moved by rather slowly at first before speeding up. Though there was movement, there were still no words being spoken outside of Princess Platinum's first line. Instead, both the princess and her loyal guard stayed quiet and continue to eat.
Despite Twilight's fears at first, the meal was very peaceful. And did much to calm her mind about the oncoming battle tomorrow?
******
Miles away in another city altogether in a bar surrounded by cider, things couldn't be more the opposite. Loud clapping and clashing of cups and laughter echoed back and forth as Rainbow Dartz pushed down more and more drinks.
Celestia was quite surprised by this pegasus's endurance. Meanwhile, Hermes ran around serving drinks and jumping around, getting out what energy he had built up. Everything seemed so fun, but it had been over an hour and these creatures had yet to tell Celestia very much about this Twilight Sparkle. She was happy purely because they were happy, but also hiding her annoyance at their lack of foresight.
Seeing that this drinking was getting her nowhere and fearing that Golden Williams would walk up and find her in this place, she attempted to mend things. She knew if he found her in such a place, she would not hear the end.
With a quick move of magic, she vanished the cider from their cups and placed down her cup rather calmly.
Rainbow Dartz took a few sips of the empty cup before noticing. "Damn, empty already? Of course, this place is nothing compared to the Wolf's Apple."
"And that place?" Celestia poised, hoping to get more out instead of just more drinking.
"That was the place where Twilight lived."
"Really?" Celestia's eyes lit up. "Where is this Wolf's Apple?"
"It was destroyed the same day that Twilight left, a little over ten days ago." His answer caught Celestia completely off guard. She looked back to the thoughts she had when she first arrived in this town, the ruin buildings being slowly rebuilt.
Even the simplest of minds could see this town had survived a hellish event. However, she didn't think for a minute that it was connected to the one responsible for the crystal hand in the center.
"I'm assuming she made that on the same day she left?" Celestia questioned to see if there was any possibility of her assumptions.
"Yes, she made that on that day and vanished."
"So she caused the prob--"
A loud slam interrupted. She looked to her left to see the sound had come from Red Steel. Though he hadn't said a word, the anger in his eyes showed she made the wrong assumptions with her last move.
"No, she didn't." Rainbow Dartz affirmed it. "She left after a wendigo named Indigo Frost destroyed everything."
"A wendigo..." Celestia fell back in her seat. She had heard the rumors about this Indigo Frost, but she didn't believe them until now. She could see the pain in their eyes toward that name.
"He destroyed everything..." Hermes stopped out of nowhere and sat down beside them. He had never been so calm until now. "I saw it all too, Twilight and her student, the powerful Starlight Glimmer, fought their way to the beast." He stopped as his hands shook. Red Steel gripped his hands to calm away his tears.
Celestia was now even more surprised. She had assumed these were just a bunch of drunks, and while that assumption certainly wasn't wrong; it was wrong to assume that they were only like this today because they were drunks.
Just by looking at them, the mere mentions of this Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer had brought forth much sorrow in remembrance of these friends. It made her smile at the fact such friendship could exist in the world.
Celestia's ideas on friendship from theirs, but she felt a kinship in their mourning for their lost friends. Taking a deep breath, she lit her horn and refilled their cups with cider.
"I can see they meant a lot to you. I can understand if you wish to take your time explaining things to me. For now, let's just enjoy this drink." Celestia raised her cup to them and they did the same.
"Here, here!" They all cheered as one and went back to drinking. Their drinking continued for much later on and into the night.
In the background, unbeknownst to Celestia and the others, whispers and stares followed her every movement. Eyes of rage and hatred watched her from the shadows.
******
On the docks of Hikina, Luna’s airship landed. She had just barely returned from Griffinstone. Her face was covered in annoyance, as her mission was a complete failure. The reports of the explosion were weak and the site of the reports barely had a piece of evidence to gather, as nearly everything was gone. It was clear there was an explosion, but nothing else. The griffins themselves were on the complete defensive, trying to make her leave the entire time. She didn’t know if it was because of the explosion or the war they currently had with the pegasi. Either way, she was on her last stop before heading home, so she docked long enough to get some last supplies and head home.
However, upon exiting, she found the docks incredibly quiet and extremely empty. She was surprised by the sheer lack of anypony working. Even though it was evening, this place should have been at least somewhat packed.
What was even weirder was the appearance of everything. Stuff was lying out in the open as if everypony abruptly left. There was an eerie silence, so quiet that one could hear a mouse chewing on wood. If there were any mice.
“Fan out, something is very wrong here.” She held up her hand and swung outward, and her guards exited the ship and walked over to the dock.
The soldiers checked all the boxes and all the areas. Luna moved back to the airship and leaned against it. She hoped there would be some answers soon, as she didn’t want to stay here any longer.
She remembered back to Blood Diamond’s words. No other creature could ever make her so angry. Blood Diamond always knew what buttons to press, even if he was speaking through his soldiers.
“His soldiers…” Hearing the word made her mind wandered back to his most loyal and each time her mind fell on his former and best, Rex Moba. She looked up and spoke Rex’s name softly. “I wonder how close Rex and Clover are getting now.”
“Princess Luna.” One of her soldiers ran back over and bowed.
“Damn it,” she screamed as the images faded from her mind. “You know not to bother me when I’m lost in thought.” She raised her hand to strike him down, but stopped halfway when she finally caught up with herself.
“I’m sorry, Princess of the Night.” He adjusted his words, hoping to adjust any punishment he expected from her.
“Nevermind,” she exhaled heavily. “What have you found?”
“It’s better if I show you.”
“Fine, lead the way.” She straightened herself and placed her hands on her wave swords by her side. She knew from the dread in his eyes something was truly wrong.
The Sun reached its lowest point over Gelum Voce Pia. Celestia was so distracted by the fun the rest of the group was having, she hadn't even noticed.
"That's another ten points," Hermes remarked as he ripped out the dart and ran past another dart, flying nearly as fast as him. He stopped by and dropped off the dart by Rainbow Dartz before marking the points on a board they had nearby. Finally, running back over to repeat the process.
"See, this is my talent." Rainbow Dartz took another sip of his cider before throwing another dart.
"I don't think being completely drunk while throwing darts counts as a talent," Celestia commented.
"It is when I still have perfect aim, despite seeing two boards." Rainbow Dartz failed to realize his next shot was about to stab Hermes in the hand.
"What were the points on that one?" Rainbow Dartz questioned Hermes' silence.
"I don't know, the dart just vanished." Hermes's face was covered in confusion as he saw it vanish just mere centimeters from his feathers.
"Are you saying I missed?"
"No, your aim was too perfect." Celestia twirled the dart in her fingers.
Rainbow Dartz didn't question it and instead huffed in annoyance when he heard Red Steel laughing toward the trick. He turned away and looked toward the window, seeing the Sun getting low. "Huh, I guess it's getting late."
Hermes rushed by to a stop and tapped him on the shoulder. "Actually, the Sun has been completely still for ten whole minutes. It's quite weird."
A loud spit take stopped all of them. They turned to see Celestia with the reddest face. "No, no, no father will be furious with me." She jumped up and rushed outside.
Celestia rushed to the opening in the center of town where she had her tent. She stopped there and took a breath before looking around. To the left, right, front and back, she kept a close eye out of only to jump at the sight of them following her.
"What's wrong?" Hermes questioned.
"No, no, no, go back to the bar. I need to do this alone." Celestia attempted to push them away with her magic.
"Why? What are you doing?" Rainbow Dartz questioned. "You better not be leaving as she did."
Celestia dropped her magic at his words, but still held a defensive stance. "You can't see this."
Red Steel walked forward and stopped right in front of her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled before bowing. This action caught the other two completely off guard. Red Steel turned to the others and, without ever needing to say a word, sat down and they followed.
Celestia looked at each of them. Though the others were listening to the voiceless words of this buffalo, she was still uneasy about this. However, the buffalo gave her a nod, and she finally gave in. "Fine."
She turned toward the Sun and lit her horn brightly with yellow magic. In the sky, the Sun glowed with the same color. She moved her horn downward, and the Sun followed suit.
The three gasped at her actions and power. Under her breath, she whispered, "This is my power, but is it as well as your Twilight Sparkle?" her eyes fell upon the towering crystal hand in front of them and smiled. "Just what gave you such power?"
In the distance, more figures watched them. The sight of her moving the Sun with such ease was both shocking and so scary to these figures. Rage only grew more in their eyes.
******
The Sun's light waned over the unicorn capital, gracing its mirror walls with purple and orange light that shined back and forth through each building, making each one shine brighter. This acted perfectly as a nightly light for the city, even as the sun faded from sight.
Lady Cat carried Adagio to the Titan Airship. The little siren had such a great day, best shown by her poor attempts to fight off a heavy yawn.
"Calm down, little one," Fredricson commented as he opened the airship. "You can have more fun tomorrow."
"Fun? It would be fun if my sisters were here," Adagio puffed.
"I'm certain we will find them soon, honey." Lady Cat walked through the opening and to Adagio's room. She carefully placed the filly on to the bed and pulled the covers over her before brushing her mane to the side. "For now, you need to get some sleep."
"No, no, no," Adagio struggled, "I want a story first, then. Grandpa always told us a story."
"Eye, but you didn't ask for one yesterday, or the day before that." Fredricson adjusted the covers. "Why would ye want one now?"
"Because it would make me feel closer to my siblings," the little filly was quick to explain.
"Fine, I know of a tale. Be a credible tale indeed." He waved his finger at Adagio before poking her in the nose. "About a once mighty lord named Sir Sereal Platinum and the love he had for his daughter."
******
Deep within the castle, Twilight yawned and stretched as she walked to the room she had been given. She mentally facepalmed herself for her earlier ignorance. Previously, she had been so busy being worried about this day's actions that she didn't even try to study the room she had been given. She took a mental note to remember to grab out a notepad in the morning.
She was glad that the princess allowed her to go to her room with no guards following her. She figured that the food must have calmed her down. However, the todeskampf couldn't be undone even in the princess's happiest of moods.
Twilight just had to get past two more turns and her room would be in sight. Soon, though, she came upon a fork in the path. She looked both ways before going down the right way. However, she was stopped at the sound of splashing.
She walked back and looked through the left way. At first, she saw nothing, until another splashing sound made her narrow her eyes. She saw another turn in the distance and smoke coming from it.
Curiosity twisting her arm, she took the left turn all the way to the new turn. She saw this one led to an opening to two more turns and a door in the center. She noted the smoke was coming from the door. She lifted her nose and took in the smoke.
It wasn't fire or ash, instead; it emanated from daisies and daffodils. She walked closer and took in a deeper smell. Next was the smell of soap and candles. She jumped back at a voice from behind the door.
"We shouldn't be doing this... again."
She grasped as it, sounded so familiar. She walked right up to the wall and lit her horn with magic. Using an altar vision spell, she slowly peeked through the wall. It was an enormous bathroom. Inside was the naga, Dim Dusk, sitting down.
She figured it was his voice she heard, but to whom he was talking to only perplexed her. However, it took her a long minute to realize that he only had a towel covering his very naked body. But this wasn't what made her eyes grow wider.
The splashing sound returned and out of the rather large tub of thick bubbles was a very naked Princess Platinum.
"Please, join me," Princess Platinum pulled at his arm.
"No... Mira, you need to be ready for the battle tomorrow."
“What? I can’t have some fun with my loyal guardian, first.” Princess Platinum almost purred. The mare pulled the naga closer.
Twilight jumped and covered her mouth to hide her gasping at the sight of the princess locking a deep kiss with the naga.
“The battle could be dangerous.” The naga pulled back. “You should be resting.”
"Dangerous," Mira laughed at his words. "You forget yourself." She pointed her hand at him as if she was holding her rapier. "I am the ruler of this land. I can't simply hide from danger."
"Yes but," He was stopped as she leaned down placing her breast against his chest. The mare took one arm around the back of his neck, locking him in another kiss.
“Yes, really, I should be relaxing.” She traced her fingers through his back frills. "But would that ever stop this reckless streak?"
Dim Dusk pulled back again and looked to a small window. “No, it would never.”
Twilight knew even from this maze of a castle that window could only face the garden. Was something stopping him? She questioned. Liting her horn a darker, more maroon color, she looked at his head. She saw thoughts bubble into an old memory. She sat down and calmed her mind to listen.
A new spell charged out from her horn. The world around Twilight slowed so that though the memory only lasted a moment for Dim, it was longer for her, so she could perfectly grasp what was happening in his thoughts.
******
The naga's mind moved back many years ago to a much younger version of himself. Twilight watching this all narrowed her sight on him. In this time, he was no younger than ten years. This shocked her, for he was fully clothed in armor and even already had a few battle scars.
The young naga stood in front of a door in silence. His hand had been attempting to reach for the knob, but hesitation grip tightly to his arm.
"There he is again." A small whisper passed as two nurses walked by. "Still unable to face his master."
"What do you expect?" the other nurse spoke softer. "After putting her in such dangers, how can he face her now?"
Their words stung through his chest, making his reach feel even harder. It was like his hand was as heavy as a massive lead pipe. Moments passed as he gritted his teeth, more shameful words passed by from others.
"He should just give up."
"There is no way his master could ever look at him the same way."
"He should just leave."
"He is as worthless as the previous guardian."
Each line piecer his pride like a knife before twisting multiple times with each successive line. Finally, he dropped his hand and turned away from the door. Hearing the sighs of relief only brought more shame.
"Stop Dimitri." A voice broke through the fog of doubt.
He turned to see a white unicorn stallion clad in royal armor and a snowy white cloak. He quickly bowed at the sight of him. "I'm sorry, Sir Sereal Platinum."
Twilight's sight of the memory nearly loosened at the sight of Sereal as this stallion perfectly matched the statue in the garden. Not even a wrinkle was out of place. It was as if the statue had been carved just days after or before this event.
"Raise yourself." The lord waved his hand over him. "You need to stop comparing yourself to your father."
"But I failed again."
"He failed many times in protecting me, my father, and my grandfather and his father. Your family has been protecting mine ever since my ancestor saved your clan from the evil tentacles of Thule." Sereal turned toward the door. "It's not your fault, you first charged turned out to be as much of a defiance as her mother." He opened the door with no hesitation. "Come on, I'm sure my little girl misses you."
"..." His fist tightened, but he relented none the less. "Fine."
Inside, a little Mira Platinum laid resting on a bed. Three different IVs hooked up to her. These led to three different pouches. One, red obvious to be blood, another clear, more obvious to be water, the third, which was nearly empty, was maroon and far thicker.
Twilight was perplexed as this maroon liquid looked to be the same hue as the liquid Starlight told her she had been puking during the transformation she nearly achieved not but eleven days ago.
Sereal looked at this maroon one, and a sad frown crept through his smile for only a moment. "Don't worry dear, Dr. Pr. Halo's allies provided me with more." He reached into his cloak and pulled out another one. He placed it beside a stack of full ones ready to be used.
Dim looked at the stack and finally gave a small chuckle. "You were right to always keep the extra bashes on standby."
"There, see." Sereal looked at Dim and patted him on the head. "I knew you could smile at things."
"Yeah..." Dim looked to Mira, and the sadness returned.
Twilight was as the princess, looked far different from her modern self. Mira was so frail, her fur was barely hanging on. Over her arms, black lines traced. This was certainly a unique disease that Twilight was completely unfamiliar with. What made things even stranger was the fact that the modern version had no signs of ever having this sickness.
"She is only five..." Dim attempted to look away.
"Yes, yet even at this age this disease won't dare kick her down."
Dim looked to his lord, hoping those words would bring more hope. However, Sereal only kept his eyes on his daughter. The lord's smile was the only hope in sight, as deep within his eyes was far more sadness than Dim could ever compute. Dim turned away and gritted his teeth again. "If only I hadn't let her go outside."
"Don't you dare!" Sereal's voice raised only once. It was the first Dim ever heard it raised. Which is why it wasn't surprising that the naga jumped back in fear.
"I won't always be around." Sereal's voice softened once more than he took a seat. He took his daughter's hand and gripped it tightly. "So, don't you dare stop spoiling her? Give her everything she desires, no matter what it might be. She needs so much of it."
"Of course, my lord." Dim lowered his head and took a seat. The two sat quietly and listened to the heart monitor.
Twilight turned away from the memory as it faded. She opened her eyes and time resumed in the real world.
******
Only nanoseconds had passed for everyone else. Twilight took a deep breath and weakened her horn's power back to alter sight and continued to watch them.
"What we have... what we are..." Dim attempted to speak.
“That’s never stopped you before.” Mira's free hand reached down to his towel. "Please..." Her hand reached into the towel and Dim's face jerked forward. The princess bit at his lips before removing his towel and motion her arm back and forth. He jerked once more. She broke the kiss and hummed with delight. "Spoil me!" With that, she pulled him into the tub and they were both consumed by the bubbles.
Twilight dropped her magic and turned away from the wall, perfectly fine to leave them to their privacy. She walked back to the fork and took the right turn this time.
She got about halfway before crashing into Starlight. The two tumbled away from each other. Twilight blinked a few times before raising her hand up to Starlight and pointing at her in an annoyed motion. "What are you doing here?"
"Shush, shush," Starlight attempted to gain control of the situation. "I'm here to help--" However, Starlight was quickly silenced by the magical grasp of Twilight.
"Don't shush me. I am your teacher." Twilight pointed upward in a commanding pose. "A student is to listen, not silence. I never did such a thing with Celestia."
Starlight gave a deadpan to Twilight's accidental jump into ultra teacher mode and let her speak her mind for a moment before pulling off the magic and grabbed her mouth shut. "Okay, enough boasting, Ms. Best Student." Starlight turned over to look behind them and then in front of them to ensure no one heard them. "I have just been spying around, like you. Gathering notes as any excellent student would." She floated a notepad over.
Twilight silently cheered before puffing them into her room. The two landed in the room. Twilight didn't hesitate to give a normal cheer for Starlight once they were safe. "I'm so proud of you."
"It's nothing, really." Starlight attempted to shrug it off. "Besides... you might be dead tomorrow. I need to think ahead." The unicorn mentally slapped herself for that last comment.
"Good thinking Starlight." Twilight padded her on the shoulder.
"What?" Again Starlight was dumbfounded. "That's all you have to say about..." She raised her hands to emphasize, "My attempts to stop your impending fate?"
"And thank you for that. Now let me see those notes." Twilight didn't bat an eye at those words and looked over the notes.
Again, Starlight was at a loss for words. Her teacher was showing no sign of fear at all. "Are you sure there is nothing else you need to say?"
"Hmm," Twilight continued to read as if she didn't hear a word. "Three meters by four meters arena... And you even covered the depth of the arena's indent in the ground. Six centimeters..."
"Yes, I've handled a few magical battles of this caliber before." Starlight's own boasting was showing now.
"But this is useless in understanding Mira."
"Mira?"
"Princess Mira Vermillion Platinum, two-hundred-twenty-fourth heir of the Platinum regime. A regime which was put in place by H. P. Bloodcraft after he deemed the first Platinum to be a worthy opponent in battle."
"And where did you learn all of that?" Starlight sarcastically asked.
"I read all that before we first landed."
Starlight facepalmed herself for real this time before grabbing Twilight by the shoulders. "How is that more useful than battle tactics against a mare who wants to kill you tomorrow!" She shook her teacher a few times, hoping the distress would finally get to her.
"That's just it. None of this stuff will help me understand why she won't kill me."
Starlight's eyes went wide and for a moment her mind flashed back to her spying days and her failed attempts to get information out of a certain pink pony. "Stop channeling your inner Pinkie Pie and listen, the princess of the unicorns is going to kill you."
"No, I know she won't." Twilight snapped at the Pinkie Pie remark and gave a more determined look.
Seeing the honesty and hints of Applejack in Twilight's sole working eye made the unicorn finally relent and let go of the alicorn. "Fine, what makes you think this?"
Twilight sat back and took a deep breath. Even though deep within her she was very certain about this, she still needed extra confirmation so they could confront her actual fears about tomorrow. "We need to mind-meld."
"Wait, what?" Starlight was completely dumbfounded by this answer more than any other. "Why?”
"Just trust me, I need a confirmation." Twilight placed her hand on Starlight's forehead and connected their minds through magic.
In the shared mindscape, an image of a giant vulture appeared. "Realta told me that my previous incarnation existed in this timeline. That one of the biggest things I need to learn about while here was about her, Twilily." Twilight's voice echoed. "Though I've come to understand that she might not even be born yet and my true mission is to simply learn from her parents."
"Obviously, though I'm not even sure if Rex and Clover are her parents. Heck, I'm not even sure if they are banging yet." Starlight's words made Twilight's face flush red. "But what does that have to do with Princess Platinum?"
"It all falls on something that happened where my part of the journey began..." A memory formed in the mindscape and Twilight and Starlight entered it.
******
Twilight and Starlight found themselves surrounded by forest, standing on a path familiar but not. Starlight walked over to the trees and though this wasn't from her own memories, the image was so perfect that she could even smell the scent of each leave as they fell.
"Wait, this is the Smokey Mountains, just south of the Unicorn plains." Starlight noted. "I knew you took notes of everything, but..." She found herself lost in the fresh smells and even the sounds of the memories.
"You didn't think I could remember all that stuff," Twilight answered her. She also looked at the land, but her face wasn't filled with happiness upon seeing this memory again. "After being away from everything I love for so long, all I can do is rely on memories."
"I..." Starlight was surprised by these words. "I'm sorry that my mess up took you so far from this."
Twilight dropped the sadness and laughed. "No, this isn't a happy memory like the ones I often dream about. This is just the perfect memory needed to give me the answers I'm looking for."
"Oh," Starlight's ears lowered.
"The proof is in the smell. You think you are smelling the pleasant scent the original place had." Twilight pointed over to a small shine in the tree. Starlight narrowed her eyes on the shine and was shocked to find it was a bottle filled with liquid. "Several of them cover each tree. They were placed here to hide the stink just beyond this land."
"What? Why?"
"Because this timeline isn't our home, but in fact, something far worse. In this timeline, this mountain range was ruled over by a mighty warrior that lived in a giant facade. Determined to keep all evils outside this land far from her sight." Twilight turned to the entrances and spotted a group walking toward them. "As you will soon see."
"Okay." Starlight followed Twilight to the side of the road as the group got closer.
Starlight was truly surprised by Twilight's actions. She was glad that her teacher was finally opening up, even if it was a little. Their venture through timelines had moved so fast before they arrived in this timeline. Though they had spent the most time in the current one, Starlight still only knew so much about the full adventure due to them being split apart during the former parts in other timelines. Twilight never once told her about the other adventures she had gone through before they found each other again.
Starlight's racing thoughts stopped at the sight of the group. Comprising a version of Rainbow Dash with a metal wing, Soarin in a wheelchair, Discord who looked far older than he used to and a past-Twilight, who was wearing the same clothes from their first confrontation just before being separated by the time portal.
The four walked down the path until stopping right in the same spot Starlight and Twilight had landed in. The Past-Twilight looked around, appearing to smell the air. She looked to where her future self and Starlight were hiding, but couldn't see them, instead she noted the bottles of liquid the smell was coming from.
"See. I note everything."
Starlight deadpanned at her teacher's word. "I can see that."
Soon the group passed them and kept going forward. Starlight and Twilight left the woods to follow the group. After a few turns, though, it was clear they were moving toward the mountains, or rather toward the inner parts of the mountain.
Starlight leaned over and asked, "Are you going to tell me why we are here yet?"
"You will see soon enough."
"Why not just tell me--" Starlight stopped at the sight of several crystals shooting out of the ground all around them. On pure instinct, she jumped out of the way.
Twilight stood still and let the crystal phase right through her. Starlight slapped herself upon remembering this was a memory. Therefore, it would affect either of them. She stopped jumping back and moved forward to catch up with Twilight and she watched her past self attempt to fight all the crystal.
The crystals moved like branches, grabbing anything they could get ahold of. Starlight tried not to laugh at the Past-Twilight's poor attempts to dodge and fight back. Discord slivering across the ground broke a few crystals before lifting Past-Twilight above the crystal.
Rainbow Dash took to the sky, flying over and grabbing Soarin lifting him up. He pressed a button on his wheelchair and blades shot out of the wheels. The two flew around, knocking the crystals back.
"Wait, why aren't you using magic?"
"There was no usable magic in this world that I knew of." Twilight answered. "The ruler of this timeline had the entirety of Equestria magic proofed. It's what forced me later to take up weaponry."
"Oh, I've always wondered about that." Starlight watched battle go on longer. The more she watch the more things became clear why Twilight was always wanting to push Starlight's knowledge of the sword.
"This is the timeline I first found myself in after falling through the time hole you opened up. In this timeline Equestria was in ruins and each of my friends was leading separate rebel cells against the evil Nightmare Midnight."
"Nightmare... Midnight." Starlight wanted to question more about this unknown pony, but stopped when she saw the win in her teacher's eye. The fear, and most of all, the hatred. Starlight wondered if this being was connected to something else Twilight hadn't even realized yet. Starlight could ask more to prove her own theories and could follow this memory in helping Twilight, hoping something else could give her answers about Twilight's dark transformation.
Loud noises coming from a cave just ahead of the group caught the attention of the memory travelers. Out of the cave, several large diamond dogs ran out and slowly surrounded the group. Their weapons raised and ready to join in.
Discord dropped Past-Twilight to the ground and raised his hands in surrender. Rainbow Dash and Soarin, seeing the pointlessness of the fight, chose the same route.
The diamond dogs lowered their weapons. The ones nearest to the front moved out of the way. Out of the caved walked a unicorn in a white ever flowing dress. Starlight was shocked to see it was the same style as the dress that Princess Platinum had worn to the dinner she had with Twilight and the others. She had yet to tell Twilight that she had been spying on them since hearing of the death battle and watched the whole dinner go down. Did Twilight know this though? Is this why she was showing her this?
Her Teacher raised up her hand and pointed to the mare as the memory came to a halt. "Tell me, who does that look like?"
"I'm not sure." Starlight couldn't see the mare's face, for it was covered in a veil. In fact, all the mare's flesh was hidden from sight.
The unknown mare waved over her army of diamond dogs. “So it seems, dearie, you want your death now,” the mare spoke directly to Past-Twilight.
Starlight looked at her teacher as the sound of her breathing slowed. She searched her face for answers as all Twilight did was stay silent.
"I..." Past-Twilight attempted to speak, but confusion clouded her words.
Starlight jumped back at the scattered sounds of voices. However, she calmed upon realizing the voices were Past-Twilight's thoughts. Starlight could sense so much fear toward this mare, but this still wasn't giving her any hints about who this mare was.
Past-Twilight pushed her thoughts away and asked, “Rarity, I need to talk to Spike.”
Starlight's eyes went wide. This mare was Rarity. This thin, frail mare hidden behind an enormous dress and veil was Rarity.
Suddenly, the giant dragon flew out of the cave and surrounded them. “And what is it you want with me?”
Starlight's eyes went wider at the sight of the giant beast. How could this be Spike? Seeing both these beings in this timeline was a sheer wreck to the senses. She remembered back to her old spying days of watching Twilight and her friends from the shadows, hoping to defeat them. She remembers that version of Rarity well. "This can't be..." she spoke her thoughts aloud. "Rarity is a preppy bitch that loves showing off. Spike is a tiny dweeb with a crush."
Twilight laughed and froze the memory. "Really, you spied on us for months and that was your assumption? No wonder you are terrible at note taking."
Starlight crossed her arms in annoyance and huffed. "And I assume you knew them far better even when not around them."
"Well, I am their friend."
"And friends keep secrets." Starlight threw up her arms. "I bet you didn't even know Spike and Rarity shared their first kiss during the time I watched all your friends."
"That's my point." Twilight turned around to her. "I was their closest friend and even I didn't know they were dating let alone kissing."
"More of a pity kiss. Starlight shrugged. "I highly doubt they were dating in that moment."
"It's a shame you think that." On that cue, the memory resumed.
The Past-Twilight took a gulp and spoke up. “Spike and Rarity, this may come as a shock to you, but I'm not the Twilight you knew. They looked curiously. “I’m from a different timeline.”
“Oh, really?” Rarity summoned a chair made of crystal and sat upon it. “Prove it dear. Tell me something about me you would know and not something our Twilight would know.”
“Fine,” said Past-Twilight, as she gave another gulp. “I know you design your dresses.”
Rarity giggled. “Alright then now,” she stopped and looked at Spike. “Now tell me something about Spike that our Twilight wouldn’t know.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “Rarity, in my timeline, Spike had a major crush on you.” Laughter cut her off and tore loudly over the area.
"Well, of course they laughed at you." Starlight couldn't help but smirk, "I laughed my ass off when I saw that kiss."
"Keep watching."
“What?” Past-Twilight's jaw dropped. “Will somepony please tell me what’s going on here?” When no answer came Past-Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash and the others. They didn’t have a clue what was going on, either.
Finally, they stopped laughing and Rarity spoke. “Alright dear, enough jokes. Tell me, why are you here?”
In those words, the memory slowed. Starlight looked to her teacher and saw fear growing on her face the closer Past-Twilight came to speaking. Twilight reached for her throat. Starlight narrowed her eyes on an old wound, a wound that Twilight would never tell her about.
“Spike... I... want... to.. know... who... hatched... you?” The Past-Twilight spoke, making Twilight grit her teeth and let the scene play at full speed.
Instant silence fell over them all. Starlight looked over to the giant Spike, curious what his answer was and why Twilight would ask such a thing.
Upon hearing Past-Twilight’s question, Spike instantly froze and shrank to his normal height. He ran and stood by Rarity. Spike’s face was covered in absolute terror.
“Spike?” Past-Twilight said shakily.
Suddenly a strange looking crystal shot up from the ground and wrapped around Past-Twilight’s throat. The rope choked tightly to her neck. The three others looked on in shock.
“Rarity, stop this now!!” shouted Rainbow Dash.
“How dare you!” Rarity shouted as she got off her chair. “How dare you ask my beloved Spikey Wikey that question!!” Rage consumed her voice.
Past-Twilight was shocked by those words. The words started repeating and got louder and louder as the memory faded.
Starlight jumped at the sight of Twilight falling to the ground. Catching her teacher, she questioned, "Why did she try to kill you like that?"
"Not try." Twilight pushed her out of the way and waved her hand over the place where the memory was. The memory played through Rarity's words and Past-Twilight's choking over and over. "She succeed in killing..." Twilight twisted in pain as if she was feeling each choke. "Killing the old me."
Starlight pulled her over and slapped her over and over. "Stop it, stop torturing yourself." She stopped as dark magic pulsed from Twilight's horn. The two separated, and Starlight threw down her arms in defeat. "Do you even care?"
"I... I..." Twilight waved her head back and forth, letting the dark magic subside. The memories stopped and Twilight sat up and leaned against nothingness. "I'm sorry, but my answers for understanding Mira are right here. If you won't help, I'll look on my own."
"What answers!"
"That Rarity is Mira!!" Twilight finally spoke the truth.
"What?" Starlight pulled back. "Why would you think such a thing?"
"In that timeline, I was told by a stallion known simply as 'F' the truth of time travel. Truth is, things must always repeat. In that timeline, a mare that acted very similar to Mira wanted to kill me. She loved an enormous serpent that could alter his size just like how Mira loves Dim."
"Your point is based on their fetishes--" Starlight was silenced by Twilight's magic.
"Both Mira and that Rarity lived harsh and dangerous lives to protect their lands. And though it wasn't always clear, so did the present Rarity. The Rarity from our time..."
Starlight pushed free of the magic and spoke up in defiance, "I thought you knew your friends well. How could present-Rarity ever have any similarities to a tyrant and a crimeboss?"
"Because all three of them would do whatever it took to defend the ones they loved."
"How?"
"How?!" Twilight answered back in shock as images played around them. Each one, she quickly explained before letting them pass. "Manehattan, she nearly broke her mind almost letting us treat her like a slave." Another image flew by. "During the dragon migration she fought off three enraged dragons to protect Spike." Another image played. "You recall those diamond dogs, in our home timeline three diamond dogs nearly raped Rarity and she still fought them off, putting her life and even her body on the line to protect her friends. What I find most ironic was that in the alternate timeline, one of those same diamond dogs was her second in command. And was even named as the godfather of her future children."
Starlight fell back as more images played of all the good deeds and dangerous actions played through the mindscape. More and more played until finally Starlight broke the connection to the mindscape.
******
The two woke back up in the real world. Starlight jumped away and demanded answers. "Why show me all of this?"
"Because Rarity is Mira, Spike is Dim. They are the pre carnations of them, just like the yet to be born Twilily is the pre carnation of me. Which is why I'm not afraid of dying to her tomorrow."
Starlight's eyes went wide as she finally realized why Twilight was showing her all of this. "You are afraid that you might be forced to kill Mira tomorrow."
"Yes, for a reincarnation to be born the pre carnation must die."
"But, history states--"
"History is wrong!!" Twilight shouted in a rage. "History never said there was a war between the alicorns and the mortals they protected. History never spoke a single wendigo claiming to be king."
Hearing Twilight's words and actions made everything clear to Starlight. She knew she couldn't stop her teacher now. "Fine, just be careful. Please, teacher." On that, Starlight turned away and vanished in a teleport.
******
Deep in the darkest parts of the castle, two guards walked down a dusty hallway before stopping at a wall. The two looked both ways and made absolutely sure no one was watching. The two approached the wall and placed one hand on it.
The shadows of their flames flickered for a moment, making them stop. They looked around once more. The words of Clover about Rex's shadows still very clear in their heads.
The shadows did indeed flicker, so they blasted them with magic. Nothing happened, so they returned to their work. They placed one hand on the wall again and calmly spoke, "For the prominent leader of old." In those words, the wall opened to reveal a new pathway.
The two walked through with a bit more concern than before. Deep in their hearts, they knew they shouldn't be there. They stopped at the sight of a tall picture coming into the light.
They brought their torches to two tall candles that stood beside the picture and lit them. The picture became completely clear at this. It was of a unicorn mare. She was in bridal attire and wore a small crown that looked just like the one Princess Platinum wore.
"We are sorry," On of them spoke as they both lowered their heads. "She continues her recklessness."
"Dim continues to only humor her weakness," the other spoke. "All because of his own weakness to her."
They stopped their complaint and prayed for answers. The room went almost silent.
However, after an hour, it was quickly becoming more noticeable that in this quietness, footsteps could be heard. They kept praying and hope the footsteps would go the other direction, but they didn't.
Instead, the guards' eyes opened at the sounds of the steps getting louder. It was as if the footsteps were right behind them.
On instinct, the one that spoke up first turned around with his weapon in hand. It was at the ready, but not too high in case it was the princess, as he wished to not insult her even if he and the other guard were going behind her back.
He stopped at the sight of nothing. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Maybe he was just on edge. His eyes went wide a second later at the sound of crashing beside him. He slowly turned to see his ally now lying dead on the ground. Black blades were impaled in through his chest. They were coming from the ground, from the shadows.
He moved closer and the black blades twisted like tentacles before pulling back out of the body and into the shadows as if they were never there. He held up his weapon and pointed to the shadows, and shouted. "You will not insult us again, Rex--" He was stopped as another blade stabbed through his head.
"Is my student getting that good?" A familiar voice spoke up that didn't belong to Rex at all. Out of the shadow behind the dead guard, a white unicorn head with a blue mane slowly pulled out.
It was none other than Stygian himself. His head reached out more than the black blade pulled back. His shadowy cloak followed his movement, clinging to his flesh like a web.
He looked at the picture they were practically worshiping and smiled. "Hello, Lady Mass Hysteria." He stopped as something caught his eye. He walked closer and looked over her arms. "Black lines, there was no decease mention in the record of your death. Interesting." On that, he fell back into the shadows.
******
Back at the Hikina Port, Luna found what the guards wanted to show her. She didn't expect to walk among a field of corpses peppering the ground just outside the dock. She covered her mouth as she walked, but it was more for the smell rather than the shock, as these bodies were just barely decaying.
The bodies showed no sign of fatal wounds. At most, they had broken bones and cut flesh as if they tried their best to fight back. Yet there wasn't any sign of the attackers anywhere outside of the trail they left in their wake.
Luna stopped at the sight of a pegasus mare hugging close to something. She walked over to get a better looked. The mare was holding a filly barely old enough to walk. It too was dead. Her eyes went wide and the fear finally claimed her at the sight of even children dead.
"Princess." The soldiers ran over as she fell to a knee.
"I'm fine," she pushed them away. She stopped at something on the filly. She reached over and pulled the child free before throwing the corpse to the side in utter fear.
"Why--" the soldiers wanted to question but were stopped by the same thing she saw. They pulled back before puking at the sight of it.
The filly's chest had been ripped open and spread out like extra wings laid against her little real wings. On her stomach was an all too familiar symbol of a knife through a bull's head.
Luna backed up and looked over the field once more. "Check every filly in this field.”
"But..."
"I said do it, now!" Luna screamed. She turned away from them and looked up at the sky. Under her breath she spoke, "Please tell me those were just old fairy tales, Teacher."
"Is that what he calls us?" Poor attempts to rap spat outward.
Her eyes went wide. Without warning, each of the soldiers fell down screaming in agony. Remembering back to the old tales, she channeled forth a spell into her horn and blasted it outward in a wave that stopped their pain.
"Damn, Sting. You gave away too much too soon." Another voice spoke up, this one far harsher.
Luna looked in all directions but couldn't see anypony beside her soldiers. She looked up at the sky and shouted. "Where are you Night Brothers?!"
"We’re here, look. Just make sure you are spooked." Sting spat.
"Please, don't." Fiend silenced his brother. "Listen, Princess of the night. Since you hold a very similar title to ourselves, we will give you an ultimatum instead of killing you."
"Fine," Luna wanted to fight them head-on, but she still did not know where they were and if the old tales were true, fighting them blindly would only give them a better chance to still her soul. And an alicorn's soul would only make them far stronger than a mortal soul.
"Tell us where our former teacher is. We will also show the same kindness to any other of his students."
"..." She bit her limp. She knew what they wanted, revenge. She couldn't let that happen. Instead, she closed her eyes and channel forth some magic. She knew she couldn't beat them without knowing where they were, however, there was a way she could find them. Originally, she agreed to listen to their words, hoping to reach a truce with them. But what they wanted was far too much of a price.
Deep within her mind, an image of Rex formed. He looked at her with shame for himself. The voice of Stygian yelling against her screamed in her head. She channeled more magic, and the image of Starswirl formed. The old wizard gave a smile. She channeled far more magic and her horn filled with maroon gas.
"Soldiers, be ready." She knew doing this spell with little experience would leave her wide open to attack.
Up in the sky, the moon moved upward before filling with the same maroon red color. The surrounding shadows moved and flowed. Among the corpses, the shadows moved more erratically. Over at the west end, the shadows stopped before shooting out spikes.
Fiend and Sting jumped out of that spot, caught completely off guard.
"Now--" Luna stopped and fell to the ground as the magic became too much.
The soldiers blasted out magic from their horns, hitting the two hippogriffs head-on. The two matched that power with their souls they absorbed. The battle was strong and violent, but all fifteen soldiers could do was hold the soul stealers in place.
Luna attempted to stand back up. The memories of old yelling at her. "Damn it, I know that could have killed me, but..."
"Let me take over and I will kill them where they stand." A familiar voice spoke in her head. Her eyes twitched and changed form.
"No, I can handle them on my own!" She screamed. Fighting herself to stand, Luna looked to hippogriffs and channel forth some alicorn magic. Blasting it outward, she combined it with her soldiers and it was finally enough to send the Night brothers flying off a few hundred meters.
The soldiers' cheers were short-lived as Luna fell back to the ground once again. "Princess." They rushed over to her.
"No..." She barely spoke. "We have to warn... them."
"Yes, but our mission is your safety." They picked her up in magic and marched back to the airship.
Up in the sky, the marron color on the Moon quickly faded from sight. However, this move had indeed been noticed by the few that were still awake.
******
The Moon's light poured slowly over the Four Towers of Faith. Blood Diamond looked out at the maroon light and smiled. "So our ex-wife attempted some dark magic." His eyes fell over the city just beyond the tower. "Not bad for her first time in over five thousand years."
He reached for the light. Opening his palm wide. In the center, flesh peeled and out a crystal flowed. It grabbed pieces of the maroon color before returning to the flesh. "Using Stygian's spells without his permission and mixing them with dark magic. Are you determined to insult him and everything else your mother stood for?" He turned away and sneered, his eyes glowed a neon green and his voice changed, "Your mother, the first to command the shadows and the night."
Blood Diamond stopped at the sight of his reflection in one of the many crystals floating around him. The reflection showed his eyes altering. However, that wasn't what made him angrier than he could see his own shadow being traced out by the shadow spell.
Though the spell was miles away, it showed perfectly even his true shadow outward. The true self he preferred to keep hidden, a shadow filled with holes. "Her mother was a good pony, far better than your mother." His reflection spoke back to him.
"And yet she doesn't hesitate to insult her." Blood Diamond answered mirror before waving it away. The magic in his eyes dissipated and he walked back to his throne.
The maroon color on the Moon faded, and the prince sighed a relief. "Finally, you relent Luna." He spoke far softer. "You should know by now how much I despise the truth." His voice had returned to normal levels. However, the royal we had dropped. "Truth showed me once that you could never love me more than these mortals. This hurt me most of all because showed my fears to be true, that no one loves my kind."
He held up his hand and crystal flowed over his sight, giving him a magnified look at the city. "Luna, you loved these mortals more than you could ever love us. If anyone should hate them more, it is us, but now, here we stand as their only chance." He twirled his fingers and the image magnified even closer. "We wonder if they will make the right choice with this chance." Twisting again, the image got close enough to see the last of the unicorns going home to sleep. It was so close that it was like he was walking alongside them. "Will they take it and save their race trusting in alicorn like myself, or fail as Rex failed you and her?"
******
Back on titan airship, Fredricson threw up his arms and with a loud voice continued his story, "The winds were so strong they nearly tore off the sails."
Adagio pulled her covers in fear. "Oh, no..."
"But Sir Sereal rushed himself in the ship's wheel, holding the thing in place. He pushed with all his might to keep the sails in." Fredricson posed the same way as the story. "He looked over to H. P. Halo and shouted--"
Speaking to copy the prestige of the prominent leader, "Hold it together. How much closer?!"
Speaking next in a soft a monotone voice that Lady Cat nearly mistook for her own nephew Mon's voice, "We are almost there, the good doctor spoke while pushing against the mainsail."
Fredricson threw his arms around in the motion often used to turn the wheel. "Yet the winds were only the beginning and lightning and thunder shouted outward."
"Please tell me they are going to make it." Adagio jumped up. Luckily, Lady Cat could catch her. "Mira needs that medicine."
"Which is why they pushed harder." Fredricson lowered his arms and moved them like waves. "The water kicked, the wind punched, and the lightning twisted all around. But out of the shadows, a voice called out from the afar." Fredricson jumped and held his hand over his brow.
Speaking in a deeper voice. "Over here, you are almost there." Returning to his original voice, he finished describing what they saw. "Out of the clouds, an icy airship bowed down to their height. Out of its front stood a tall dark lavender unicorn named Cea Crimson Fro--"
A loud alarm shot out, interrupting the story. Fredricson pulled back out of his characters and looked over at the green light. "Wait a minute."
Lady Cat looked over as well. Her eyes went wide and pulled Adagio under the covers. "I guess we will have to finish that story later."
"But I want to know what happens next!" Adagio attempted to struggle, but Lady Cat pushed the ends under her.
"Arg, I be sorry about this." Fredricson dotted her on the nose. "But we need to check something. Get some sleep for now."
The two walked out of the room and left her to sleep. They made certain to lock the door behind them.
Morning arrived quickly with the bright yet bleak light of the Sun. Such a sight meant only one thing. The day of the battle had arrived. And yet there was already a raucous going on the outskirts of the city.
A minor explosion rocked the Titan Airship. The blast tore a hole in the side. Luckily, the ship was already on the ground.
Within the explosion, Fredricson ran, shouting, "Where are you?! Ye be a blasted coward and an intruder." Below him, Lady Cat pulled a lever and extinguishers blew out the fires before they could spread.
Fredricson chased the figure behind the explosion. They had been chasing it all night. Despite their speed and the size of the airship, it could navigate the airship's large interior with minor problem and still keep a cold distance from them. But things had gone far enough. He knew this was the very end of the Titan Airship. There was nowhere more for this figure to run.
"Setting an explosion is a poor plan." Fredricson smiled as he cornered the intruder. Still surrounded by smoke, though, he couldn't get a good look at the face, only that it was a short pony possibly wearing some sort of tan brown fur coat. In the end, he had to stop this enemy, as the possibility was very clear this was an attack by Indigo Frost. "This is as far as you can go."
"Actually, everything went according to plan. The engines will be out for a while."
Fredricson was stopped by the voice of the intruder, so small and yet so familiar. "Who are you?" he aimed his cutlass forward. "No more hiding.
"A better question is how it took your systems a full hour to realize I was on this ship." The figure finally stepped forward, revealing its fleshy cloak.
Fredricson's eyes went wide to see a siren filly wrapped in a light tan fur coat hide cloak. However, it wasn't just she was wearing such a thing, but that it was covered in the same tattoos and wounds that once belong to his son. The filly was wearing the flesh of his son, Mon.
"How? Where?" Fredricson could barely compute what he was seeing before him. His guard was now wide open, and the filly rushed forward, stabbing him right in the thigh with a dagger and jumping over him in the same motion toward the exit.
Feeling pain shoot through his body brought him back to reality. He turned around and threw his cutlass before landing on the ground. The weapon missed because of a duck but was enough to cut off the hood of the intruder, revealing it was indeed a filly with purple ponytails. Fredricson slapped his hand hard on his leg and pulled out the knife. He attempted to chase after her, only for both his legs to go numb, knocking him to the ground again.
He reached for the wound only to realize her perfect movement and aim had sliced his chest without him sense it at first and hit an artery in his leg. Removing the knife had caused his legs to go numb from the shock, and blood was now pouring too fast for his body to keep up.
He could hear footsteps making their way to him and he hoped they were Lady Cat as everything around him went black.
******
Dawn's light tore through a beautiful teal bedroom with pearl white pillars and a purple bed. The beams reached slowly over the eyelids of a sleeping naga. His eyes opened, and he looked over to see a lovely princess lying beside him.
Seeing the naked form of her alongside his own made him want to turn away. Even after being together for four years now, he was still not used to waking up beside her. However, he couldn't keep his eyes off her for long. Tentatively, he looked down her back. He noted every curve and muscle. Finally, he came upon two massive scars near the center of her back. Though they had happened many years ago, the images still hadn't faded, nor did the burn marks.
Too much time passed, and he forced himself to look away completely. He got up from the blanket and looked at his armor. He grabbed each piece and placed them on quietly to ensure he didn't wake her.
He looked back at her and pulled the cover closer to ensure she wouldn't get cold. His eyes raised to his weapon beside the door. A mighty axe stood against the wall. Near it, a rapier only half of its size laid on a mirror standing at the ready as well.
Seeing the weapons made him remember what was to happen today. He sneered at the bright light from the window. Though the sun had barely risen, it was far easier to see here than anywhere else in the city because of the mirroring directions of the buildings beyond here.
He walked to the window and studied the view. He could see many buildings, include the Four Towers of Faith. From here it appeared Blood Diamond had not left his spot yet. Dim turned away from this and narrowed his sight downward where the garden stood. Just like always, it could be seen from nearly anywhere within the inner working of the castle. The princess had the castle built this way to ensure the sight of her father's honor would weigh upon all. But none more did it weigh on than him.
A single shadow cut the sunlight for a moment. His eyes narrowed at some clouds that had gotten through the mirror buildings. "Possible rain on this day. Is this your way of mocking me? Rain used to bring her such joy because it meant that you were always nearby, but now she only sees hatred in them."
Seeing the clouds creep closer and closer made his mind flashback to a memory he wished never happened.
******
A younger Dim traveled across a mud-soaked path as the rain beat down on everything. He held the umbrella over at a sound that differed from the rain. The sounds of loud splashing.
He stopped and his eyes caught sight of a little unicorn filly kneeling at a statue. She was hitting her fist into the ground over and over, not giving any care to the splashes of mud gathering on her lovely pearl white dress.
Dim breathed heavily and stepped closer. He held the umbrella over her and attempted to speak. His mouth moved, but no words came out.
"Why are you here?" the filly questioned.
"This... is the third time this week. You shouldn't be out here Princess Paltin--"
"My name is Mira!" she screamed out before hitting the ground so hard that blood poured into the puddle her hand was in.
Dim looked away and attempted to adjust his stance down to her height. Instead, she scooted away from him." Yes... but you must accept your title--"
"I don't want that title!" She stood up and refused to look at him, instead glaring at the statue, the figure of her father. "Make him take it back." She pointed to it.
"I..."
"I said, make him take it back!"
"I can't." Dim refused to look at the statue.
"He said you were the bravest." She raised her hand. "That you are the strongest." She punched at the statue's base. "He told me you were the best!"
"I am--"
"Then, make him take it back!!" she screamed louder as she took another swing.
"I..."
"I said, make him take it back!!" She swung again, this time harder.
"I..." Dim's face fell.
"Make him take it back!!"
"I..."
No matter how many times she demanded, Dim couldn't finish his words. He remembered his leader's words so clearly now as they were back then. "Love her, spoil her. She needs so much of it." He finally articulated.
"Shut up!" She finally turned around. "You don't deserve to talk like him!" She punched at Dim. "You don't care about him or me!!" She struck harder. "I hate you!!"
Dim's face fell to her words and he let her punch him over and over. It was so much better than her rage toward her father because at least than his honor wouldn't be shamed. The echoes of each hit getting louder than any raindrop could ever be until the flashback ended.
******
In the present, Dim now walked down the hallway. His weapon was in hand, and he was walking toward the room that had been given to Twilight. He wondered if his legs had moved on instinct. "Maybe I could?" he questioned. "Then she wouldn't need to..." He stopped himself at the sight of Twilight standing at the far end of the hallway.
Her approach was slow, each step making the grip on his axe tighter. Did she know he thought? Did she already realize what his instincts had led him to? He didn't know what to think or do as she got up right to him.
However, she stopped just within range and brought her singular working eye up to his height. His axe swung forward. With all his strength, he stopped the attack. Twilight didn't even flinch. He was right; she knew what he was planning.
Twilight smiled at him as the grip released. "Thank you for proving me right about you as well."
Her words confused him, but he answered all the same. "You knew I had come down here to kill you and you knew I wouldn't go through with it?"
"I knew you would do whatever it took to protect her." Twilight pushed the axe aside and walked ahead of him by two steps before stopping. "But you also knew that killing me would only make her worst."
"What are you talking about?" Dim saw his chance. This lining could help him scan Twilight of any dangers. "How much do you know?"
"Somehow so much and yet so little." she couldn't hide her laugh. Her answer only confused him even more.
"What do you mean? What is your group's true purpose?"
"Oh, that's simple, they want an alathar. Meanwhile, all I want is to end a war..." Twilight kept her face hidden. "Before things get inescapably worse."
"Worse?" Seeing her leave, he walked with her, hoping to get as many answers as he could get. He hadn't realized that Twilight was after her own. The two talked until they reached their destination.
The late morning air was deathly calm, crisp with strife. Twilight and Dim Dusk arrived at the graveyard. Making their way to the arena, they spotted the princess kneeling at the statue of her father.
Twilight looked to the graves and to the statue before finally setting her sight on the naga. "Why are all these graves in this garden?" she questioned.
Dim Dusk waited until they passed Mira to answer. Softly he spoke, "These are the soldiers that were found alongside the lord when he died."
"When did he..." She stopped herself. She felt as if she was asking too much, especially when she saw the tenseness in his shoulders grow with each word of her last question. "I'm sorry."
The two entered the arena and Dim led Twilight to her spot. There, he finally caved. "She was only five years old."
Hearing those words made her sight go wide. Now everything made perfect sense. She looked back to that leap through his memories she had last night before, looking back up at the statue. It was just as she thought. Sir Sereal died mere months, possibly even days after that memory.
Now she knew more than ever the stakes of this battle. She looked forward and reached for her kopises. Gripping tightly to the hilts, she moved her sole working eye over the princess and waited for her to finish.
That wouldn't be long, as Princess Platinum was already rising from the ground. The unicorn mare turned to her side and entered the arena. Magic already buzzing from her horn.
Dim Dusk pulled out a white cloth and took a deep breath. Speaking far harshly, he pronounced, "When this cloth hit the ground, the magic can start firing. And the battle will not end until either this arena is flooded with blood or this cloth is soaked red. Die or withdrawal, that is the choice. Either way, blood will be spilled on this day." With that, the cloth was dropped.
Both mares watched the cloth move through the calm air as best as they could while also keeping sight of the opponent. The closer it got to the ground, the tighter their stance became. Everything slowed down around them to this moment. It was as if that cloth was the only thing that matter, as if it was the only thing moving in the entire world.
The cloth softly pressed onto the ground. Despite this, the two charged in at full force.
Mira blasted first with a rapid-fire of small magical beams. Twilight moved with her left kopises to slice through them while dipping to her right, slicing out a small crescent moon shaped blast wave. Mira jumped clean over it and into a flipped, dropping her rapier downward to an impale. Twilight barely knocked the attack out of the way with her left kopis by using the forcing of the flip combined with the kopis blocking to launch her to side.
However, with that move, Twilight had been pushed to be the right place to stand above the white cloth. It was still dry outside of some dust being kicked up from their attacks. That wouldn't last as Mira quickly jumped forward into a stabbing motion, chancing Twilight off guard and cutting her hand.
Just a small amount of blood splashed out, but some of it indeed landed on the cloth. Twilight barely jumped back and blasted out some magic at Mira to knock up some wind to move the cloth out of the way.
Now it was stained with two drops. Just two wasn't enough to end the battle, but it was shaving it far too close for Twilight. She charged up some magic and prepared for Mira's next attack.
Mira returned to her previous stance and smiled. "For your first time at this, you are certainly putting up a better fight than I hoped."
"Really, you expected disappointment." Under her breath, Twilight continued, "You are exactly like her." She charged forward, her kopis filled with magic. Slicing out a horizontal crescent and then a vertical crescent. The two attack far faster than the previous ones and Mira couldn't jump out of this time she pointed her rapier forward and filled it with her own magic, thrusting it made quick work of the attack, but she was quick to realize it was a decoy as Twilight rushed forward from behind the blasts and as it the broke she pushed on the rapier.
Twilight, remembering from previous fights that the rapier was a terrible weapon for clashing. Seeing her ground faltering, Mira continued to fill her rapier with magic.
Twilight smirked and pushed back with the same, "You always underestimate every battle. Expecting the worst out of everypony."
Despite the badly proportioned clash, the stance stayed longer than either of them expected as magic shocked out from the battle. Dim Dusk himself kept a firm stance. In the background, the onlookers couldn't help but be shocked by all of this.
Above all, on a nearby roof, Starlight was shocked to see just how much her teacher could send off under the right conditions. It wasn't the strongest she had seen her, but it was far beyond their training bouts. "I had my doubts, but she may actually win this, right Silver Pear?"
"Yeah, yeah," he barely answered her, as his mind was elsewhere. Pondering on the words that Starswirl told him.
"No, this battle is far from over.” Rex was quick to correct the young student. Clover and himself were watching as well and getting ready to step in if needed.
The truth pulled out quickly as screams brought Starlight to attention. She returned her sight to the battle just in time to see blood splatter out from Twilight's armor.
Twilight grabbed her side and filled the armor with magic. Luckily, the wounds were skin deep. She looked to the ground where the attack came from and saw white crystal reseeding back into the ground. "Crystal magic too..."
"Yes," Mira claimed her own smirk, "A little inheritance from my mother." She charged forward with another thrust, this time a rapid-fire of thrust, each one laced with white crystals now tapering the edges of the rapier.
Twilight dodged and knocked most of the attacks, but quickly a few slices got in, cutting her arms and her legs, skin deep. The thin form of the rapier made it very easy to work through armor. However, Twilight quickly noted that with the rapier altered with crystals, the weapon was far better at knocking back attacks and penetrating. She couldn't get enough room to make her own counters, yet the rapier was still thin enough to cut through her defenses with only minor difficulty. She had to think quickly before the princess gained the full offensive.
Mira, meanwhile, quickly noticed herself that something was off with Twilight's own attacks. Despite how hard she was pushing, she could sense that Twilight was holding back. Angered by this, she pushed her own ever harder and even changed things up with horizontal and vertical attacks, pushing Twilight back into another clash.
"Damn it, fight me!" Mira screamed.
"I am!" Twilight pushed back.
"Then stop holding back," The princess's boldness continued with a hard punch to Twilight's gut, breaking the clash and giving an opening wide enough for Mira to stab downward.
Twilight twisted in pain as her foot was stabbed through. She swiped with her right kopis and Mira ripped out her rapier and blocked the attack. Seeing this, Twilight swiped with the left kopis and Mira used her fist to grab the blade. The princess's hand bled out, but it was enough to stop Twilight's second attack.
"Stop holding back!" The princess filled her horn with magic.
Twilight tried her best to struggle, but things were too well locked in place. She was utterly confused. She heard every word that the princess had said, but they made no sense to her. She was already fighting at full strength. The only thing she had been holding back on her dark magic usage.
Twilight's eyes widened. Could Mira actually tell by the magic usage Twilight was relying on? She waved her head back and forth in disagreement. There was no way she could sense such a thing. As far as Twilight knew, Mira only had access to unicorn magic. However, the princess did just show she had at least some knowledge of crystal magic. "Maybe?" She closed her eye and formed a new plan of attack.
Once she was ready, Twilight pulled back her head and rushed her horn forward. Catching the bold princess off guard with no magic at all in her horn, simply using it as a battle ram.
The attack broke Twilight free and left a massive dent in Mira's armor. Seeing her own opening, she brought in her arms and charged her kopis with far more magic.
Starlight, watching this all go down, gasped at the sight of maroon magic forming over the rim of the blades. "No teacher. Don't!"
In Twilight's mind, she commented one last time on her theory, now knowing it to be true more than ever. "Rarity would often break down into outbursts when she wouldn't get things her way. Yes, you are Rarity..." No longer would she be unsure about this. It was certain to her now more than ever how this battle was going to go. She ran forward and swung outward and spoke aloud, "Double Crescent Moon!!"
Rex glared at the double crescent waves of darkness before falling into his shadow. Much to Starlight's shock, he vanished from sight. Clover followed through the shadow as both of them appeared near the arena, just out of sight. Starlight attempted to follow, but the shadow faded and the pathway with it.
Far above her sitting on a cloud, Cold Blue himself watched. He had been given orders to learn as much about Rex's allies while they were in the city and though he had kept a quiet tap through sound magic on all of them, he couldn't hide the fact he kept the biggest watch over Twilight.
He had been intrigued by her ever since he first saw her. However, it wasn't until her dark transformation twelve days ago did he long to get a closer look, particularly inside her mind. Though he was thousands of years older than he was, even worse at telepathic magic than she was at telekinetic.
He had been Rex's rival for many millennia and always kept up with him in battle. And could only read him at a surface level. This brought an intrigue as the only ones that could break this barrier were dark magic users, with him being the exclusive that couldn't. Because of this, Cold Blue would monitor all dark magic users around Rex. Twilight with her prowess in dark magic was the only one that not only brought an annoyance from Rex but also a rage.
Within himself, Cold Blue could also sense a growth purely from watching her as well. However, he's couldn't quite place what this growth was or why.
Back on the ground, the battle was getting bloody and brutal quickly. Twilight jump upward as blood poured from her leg, barely dodging a thrust that nearly went throughout her leg. She flipped in the air, using the waves of her wings hidden from sight. She landed, throwing some magic to slice at Mira's back.
Seeing this, Mira sidestepped and turned to punch the hilt of her rapier into Twilight's gut, sending her into a roll. Twilight blast dark magic out randomly to catch Mira off guard.
The rapid-fire made Mira toss a shield of crystal. However, at the strength of the attack, she knew this wouldn't hold for long.
Twilight came to a landing by stabbing one of her kopis's deep into the ground. She looked at Mira's shield and aimed her hand out at it. "Dark Embrace!" A giant maroon hand-stretched on her hand on the shield.
Seeing the attack, Mira sent up several crystal pillars. The giant hand slipped pasted each one and wrapped around her shield. It pushed down tightly, cracking it with ease. Though, Mira smiled and aimed her rapier toward Twilight. She bent her legs and kicked her feet down, launching herself and rapier through the shield, stabbing the giant hand.
Twilight winced as blood poured from her hand. However, Mira kept going until her rapier was tearing through Twilight's proper hand. Punching through the tip went right for her chest. Twilight barely stopped the attack as Mira's thrust movement came to a halt. Now pinned in place, Twilight was forced to swing her only good hand. Unable to block in her own, Mira turned her back to the attack, hoping the armor would stop it at this range.
Blood poured from both of them now as Twilight's kopis was only slowed by the armor. Mira pushed forward, hoping her rapier would get closer to her heart. Twilight in opposition pulled back for another swing to Mira's back, slashing it again and again.
Princess Platinum, in all her glory, pushed forward despite her wounds. She knew Twilight would push her for a withdrawal. She knew Twilight wasn't aiming for the kill, as she could have aimed with the tip of the kopis and instead used the body. "I will not fall... Not like him." She yelled through her pain.
Twilight's pinned hand shook from those words. She knew Mira's determination was strong, but this was too much. The battle had been hard and long, and despite how fast their speed was, three hours had the princess of all unicorns refused to relent, and now she knew why. The previous ruler relented and... died.
As the rain finally broke forth and poured over the arena, Dim Dusk couldn't help but remember back to the funeral. Gritting his teeth, he moved forward and asked her to give in. "Please, Mira."
"Never, never!" She struggled back into a stance. Kicking her feet forward into another thrust, another rush of victory.
Twilight looked at this with shame and took her own stance. They knew what was coming and deep down Twilight hoped it wouldn't end like this as she aimed the tip toward Mira.
Lightning clashed down at the very center of the arena as both attackers struck for blood. And as they wanted, or didn't want, blood showered out over the arena in all directions.
"Twilight!" Starlight shouted in fear as blood splattered from her teacher's chest. She had moved just a second too slow. Her kopis had only gone an inch through the armor, being slowed by the thickness of her kopis, yes, but also by her hesitation.
Mira’s rapier was slicing through Twilight's chest with ease. This sent utter confusion through Starlight's mind as she watched her teacher's armor fold like paper. Twilight barely could stand as the rapier had torn through a fall in her armor. The same fault. Starlight's eyes widened. It was the same spot where Cold Blue stabbed nearly two weeks ago during her teacher's dark transformation.
Twilight was so drastically wrong in the weapon's power as it grazed just millimeters to the right of her heart into her heart. The only thing that stopped it from punching deeper was her shredded hand, almost torn in half, punching against the hilt of the rapier. However, the pain was still so intense. Liquid flooded through her armor and splashing on the ground. Twilight's sight waned.
Her arms shook to pull herself back into a stance, but it was pointless. One of her kopises was on the ground, the other, despite caked in the enemy's blood, could barely be held in place. Her mind raced on everything, so faster that she didn't even sense the princess laying the tip of a hidden dagger against her throat.
"Looks like you will end your journey here." Princess Platinum smiled as her horn glowed. She didn't plan on killing her, but the enemy had managed a good fight, but now it was over. Crystals wrapped around Twilight's weakened legs.
A loud shred tore through the air. Mira stopped for only a moment. Spitting up a large amount of blood. She felt a massive pain in her side. Feeling the heavy gash tearing through her gut. She looked down to see a dark claw ripped through her armor like paper.
The claw clenched down twice, making her twitch in pain, making bile and blood rise from her stomach. The fingers moved inside her as if feeling each tube of her intendants. The claw pushed in deeper, pulling Mira back into reality. She dropped the dagger and gripped hold of the claw, stopping all advance.
Laughter echoed outward, making her finally look up at Twilight, or who was standing in her place. A mare with pale blue patches of frostbitten fur stared back at her with a twisted grin. Laughter echoing from it despite her mouth not moving at all.
In fact, the laughter was getting louder and louder. Mira looked in other directions as the sound amplified in all directions. All other sounds were going to a painful ring. It wasn't long before she realized the laughter was echoing deep from within her own head, and yet it was clearly coming from the pale mare in front of her.
Without warning, a magic pulsed outward, knocking Mira back at least a full meter and down to her knees, shredding the flesh of her legs across the ground. The rapier which was still tightly gripped in her hand had been pulled out of the pale mare, pouring more blood out, yet the pale mare refused to falter.
Mira barely had time to react, and a beastly hand rushed forward into her mouth and punched her whole body to the ground. The ringing and laughter stopped at the blood soak claw punched her hard into the ground over and over.
"How? What?" Mira's eyes raced in confusion. The same armor as Twilight, the same wounds, the same position. Everything she saw told her this was Twilight. However, every instinct told her this wasn't Twilight at all. All she could think was a simple word, "Pale mare?!" Her words made it finally stop.
It backed away and finally opened its mouth, laughter with its real mouth. For the first time, everypony could hear the evil wales. The more it laughed, the more its body distorted. The wings clacked loudly through the illusions that still kept them hidden from Mira's sight. All of them could only guess which way, why, and how the sounds were being made. The back popped just as loudly as bony spikes ripped through the armor, making it hunched down.
"Pale Mare!!" Princess Platinum shouted back at the laughter as magic filled her horn. "Your tricks will end and you will bow to me!"
"Rex..." Clover jumped as another magical pulse was shot off.
"I know." He took a stance, "But we are nowhere near that altar." His chains moved through his shadows.
"Yes! That name will do for now!" The monster roared out and rushed forward, punching Mira's head hard into the edge of the arena. Her crown flew off and Mira's head was lifted again for another punch. "You will call me, the Pale Mare!!"
The Pale Mare as she was known now lifted her upward and shook the princess in the air. "I the pale darkness with all, with this darkness you will be SHATTERED--" The Pale Mare was stopped upon feeling Dim's axe against her back. It turned to the naga and growled.
Dim's eyes widened, "Whatever you are? The Pale Mare, Shattered, Twilight, you will let the princess go--" He was stopped as Mira heard his words and began stabbing the beast repeatedly, "Stop, Mira!"
"Never, I will win, I will win!!" she screamed through her pain. "I don't need any help, especially from you!!"
The Pale Mare looked to Mira's arm and licked her lips and grabbed tightly, stopping the attack.
Mira's eyes went wide, and she wailed in pain. It was the only thing damping the cracking sounds of the bones in her arm. Mira screamed louder in agony as the grip pushed down tighter.
"No!" Dim swung forward, only for him to hit nothing. Even though just seconds ago he had his weapon against the skin, the Pale Mare dodged the attack so easily, jumping at least twenty feet into the air with a single swing of wind. The Pale Mare crashed her talon-like feet into Dim's back.
The Pale Mare jumped again as chains shot out of the nearby shadows. She tossed Mira away and rushed around the arena. Dim jumped to Mira's safety.
Rex's eyes went wide, realizing this the Pale Mare was now heading right for him. Despite Twilight not knowing how his shadowmancy fully worked, even in this crazed state, she could perceive him as the attacker. He pulled his chains back, and Clover aimed her bow staff forward. Starlight just stood by in shock. She didn't know at all what to do.
The two warriors charged forward only for crystal walls to rise all around the arena. "No," Mira screamed. "This is my battle!"
"But--"
"I said shut up!! I will defeat her..." Mira's feet struggled. The Pale Mare looked to her and gave a toothy grin, charging forward at full force. Dim rushed forward as well, totally ignoring his princess' words.
Mira herself just held up her rapier with her other hand and closed her eyes. Her words before were just purely her pride, but her next words were the only ones she knew to be true, "Take care... my guardian..."
The teeth got closer and closer to Dim. As quick as the attack was made Mira teleported in the way aimed rapier forward, tearing through the Pale Mare's mouth and pinned her into place.
Realizing the attack made contact, Mira opened her eyes, tackled the Pale Mare to the ground and jammed her rapier deep into the ground. However, despite having the body of blade puncturing through entirely and laying against the spinal cord, the Pale Mare refused to relent, roaring and screaming as if the weapon wasn't there at all.
Seeing the effect her weapon did little to the enemy, Mira placed her broken arm into place to pin the weapon down. She pulled back her good hand and punched the chest of the Pale Mare over and over, aiming right at the very spot she first stabbed just before this evil transformation.
Each punch left a big dent in the armor. Its swing cracked Mira's own hand, yet she refused to stop until the thrashing stopped. However, nothing she did seemed to have any effect at all. When her hand eventually snapped, she stopped and fell to the side. The pain ultimately reached its peak and numbness followed.
Mira's eyes were so weak. Her bones were shattered, her pride was shattered, and her pain was slowly following behind. She now understood the meaning of the Pale Mare's first words to her all too well.
Deep within her head, the words echoed aloud. "I the pale darkness with all, with this darkness you will be SHATTERED."
Shattered!
Shattered!!
Shattered!!!
A loud shattering sounds echoed around the arena, snapping her back to reality. Mira fought her sight and looked at the source. Much to her shock, the Pale Mare was bashing her hands into the ground, dark magic blasting upward out of her with each bash.
The Pale Mare, shattered in her twisted laughter, was pushing her mouth up over the rapier. Despite the blade now tearing through her teeth and skull, she kept pushing until the rapier flowed out completely. The weapon made a loud popping sound, still pinned in the same place on the ground. The Pale Mare simply turned away from the weapon and punched away, breaking the crystal outline and the metal easily.
The dark magic stopped flowing and pulled back to the Pale mare, wrapping around her head. She felt over her face, pushing fingers between the large gash through her skull. Measuring out the full wound, she placed her hand on both sides.
Much to the shock of all, she pushed the skull closed. The dark magic moved wrapped tightly to her flesh before forming into maroon liquid and filled the gaps in the flesh, bones and any part of the wound before falling to the side and vanishing. The wounds were instantly healed by this liquid as if they had never happened.
The Pale Mare brought her hands down and looked at Mira. "That fucking hurt!!" Her body distorted again at the sight of Mira. The Pale Mare's arms stretched and thinned, and each of her fingers tripled in length.
Seeing her aim and the waning of her sight finally ending, Mira gave in and turned away. She looked at the white towel. It was almost caked in her blood. She knew she only needed to wipe the blood from her broken hand over it. She didn't want to admit defeat, but she hoped this would stop the Pale Mare in place and let the weak Twilight return.
The Pale Mare laughed and walked forward, reaching closer, her legs now stretching in the same form as her arms. Her grin got bigger and more beastly with each passing second.
A soft sound cut through the gore of laughter. Without warning, the Pale Mare stopped. Mira noticed the same for a moment. She flinched a few times before dropping her guard at the sound of music. The soft sounds echoed from an ocarina.
They all turned to see somepony at the far end of the arena. Rex's eyes narrowed and his chained dropped, "So, Cold Blue. You are here as well."
Cold Blue gave no response as he moved into the arena. The crystal wall did little to stop at his advance, falling around him. Faster than others could compute, he rushed over and knocked Shattered to the ground.
For the first time, the dark magic ended. Cold Blue aimed his ocarina blade at the throat. He stopped his advance of taking her life at the sight of the tears that had been pouring from the eyes the whole time. Despite what the others were seeing, Twilight had been fighting this evil transformation the whole time.
Another dark magic pulse went outward. This was far softer and less harsh. Cold Blue pulled back his weapon and played another group of notes. The transformation reacted to each note, reverting each limb back to normal, each bone back to shape. From arms, legs to the back, everything was returning to normal.
His eyes raced over to Princess Platinum. His eyes once again filled with rage. Seeing what he wanted, Mira turned away and finished her advance. She placed her hand over the towel and beat her blood over it until the white was completely red.
Cold Blue dropped his rage. Taking a deep breath, he stopped playing before raising his ocarina dagger upward.
"No, don't!" Starlight pleaded.
"I won't, this time. She is still fighting it, she is not ready yet." On that, he turned the sharp end to his wrist. Much to the shock of the others, he cut his wrist open.
Starlight gasped as the blood poured forth. It was the same maroon color as the smoke her teacher breathed. The same liquid that had sealed her wounds so easily.
Cold Blue moved as quickly as possible as he poured the maroon colored blood over any remaining wounds. He knew he had very little time before the wounds would be unhealable. However, just as he thought, each wound slowly sealed up.
"There, there, drink up." Cold Blue moved his wrist over to her mouth to heal the inside next. "Please, mighty beast, calm your rage."
Starlight smiled at the sight of Twilight returning. She didn't know how he was doing this or why she was simply glad to have her teacher back. Twilight breathed heavily before falling back to the ground, unconscious.
The giant crystal hand shined down over the city of Gelum Voce Pia and despite the destruction that had been described by the others Celestia couldn't help but admire the beauty in its form.
Maroon was always one of the colored she was told to fear the most, yet seeing so much in one struck a different cord. She had been in this city for two days now and even after studying it so closely did she now truly took a moment to admire its majesty and grace. The sun's light shined through the crystal, veiling the land in a rainbow of many reds of differing hues. From cherry to brick, then a bold crimson before reaching a reddish-purple and ending in maroon.
She walked closer and lifted her horn to her tent and puffed it away so the shine could be that much brighter. The hues answered her assumptions with a greater glow. However, something was still off, a dip that didn't seem to fade.
She looked around to consider the possibilities. First were the rocks, she had been told; they lifted when the barrier of space was much further away and now only the stabilization of their current form was holding them; the barrier had moved quite a measure since the crystal formed and even while she was here, roughly around one/third a meter a day, twelve days meant the starting point must have been at least four-meters in diameter.
She waved her hands over the tore ground and her magic smashed the pieces back into place, allowing more light to shine. However, there was still a dampening of colors. She raised her hands higher and moved the bones of the dead animals away and still little to no improvement. She closed her eyes, concentrating on a distinct form of magic. The glow of her horn turned from yellow to a very faint indigo blue. She whispered a spell, "Light magic, Spell number 2, purest scan."
Blue light shined from her horn and slowly covered every part of the area. It traced over every pebble and grain of dirt to the smallest chips in the ground before going deeper. Celestia's eyes shot open and stop her magic at something she didn't expect to find.
Tears tipped her eyes as she fell to the ground at the sight of thousands of bodies just a mere three meters below the surface. She expected none of this. However, the most shocking and confusing part was they were all wendigoes.
"You see them, don't you?" An old, familiar voice echoed.
Celestia turned around at that voice but was stopped dead in her tracks by a stone and a rageful roar from another voice altogether. She caught the stone but stepped back at the sight of several of the town folk now surrounding her.
"Leave now!" One pony screamed.
"Get away from there!" A griffin followed.
Each pony, griffin, and siren showed her such hatred and filled her with such confusion.
"Do you see what she saw?" The old familiar voice returned.
"What do you mean?" She scanned around for its source but only saw the rage of the others. Their rage pushed her to the center as she attempted not to fight them.
"Get out now, monster!"
"Yes, you damn alicorn!"
Celestia was at an utter loss for words. They knew she was an alicorn and yet they showed her such rage. She wanted to question if this had anything to do with the war her uncle was having, but they threw more stones. She stopped them easily with her magic, but more flew by.
"They are afraid of you, just like they were afraid of her." The familiar words made no sense.
The friends told her that Twilight was a good pony, the greatest representation of kindness, laughter, honesty, loyalty, generosity, and friendship. "Why?" She questioned, "Why would these creatures hate her so much?"
"No, no, they are afraid of her?"
"Afraid..." She shook as more stones hit her barriers to and over. Thoughts and possibilities crossed her mind as trying to figure out what the voice meant until her sight came upon the ground. "The wendigoes..." She fell to the ground and looked at the crystal hand; finding herself right at the edge of the space bending barrier
The towering monolith stood in the center of everything; right below it, the remains of an altar... made with a special intention. She faced the spacial distortion. She knew even with her alicorn durability she could only survive entering such twisted space for only a few minutes.
"It's the only way." She took a deep breath and stood up. She placed her hand on the distortion and it shook to her touch. She pushed forward and was instantly met with incredible pain and pressure, pushing down over every millimeter of her hand. She gritted her teeth and moved inside the barrier.
Her knees slammed down with a loud bang; her whole body wanted to twist and rip apart with just mere moments inside.
"You're almost there. See the truth, they refused."
"Yes," she answered the voice with her mind's words alone. "The lies that have consumed this town for so long must end." She channeled darker indigo blue magic into her hand and yellow magic from her horn. Stepping closer, she pulsed the yellow magic upward, reaching the highest point in the barrier before spreading it outward over the town.
Getting back up, she moved closer, aiming her hand to touch the very surface of the crystal. As she moved closer and closer, the more light magic, she had to pour out. She wasn't a master of this form, not even a fully realized alicorn could muster the right amount needed to fight this without a second ascension. She couldn't risk transformation like that in such a dangerous area, especially if she was right.
Any ascension would bring forth something... far more monstrous. And yet indigo blue smoke fought its hardest to break free from her eyes. The smoke was light magic in its purest form and if that were to leave her eyes even for a moment, she would be forced into the transformation. She had to rely on her other senses. She couldn't even speak now or risk the worse.
She knew now more than ever, this happened in Twilight. This was what that wendigo wanted. For her to feel the pain of this town, a truth only she could know.
Finally, she stopped once she felt the coldness of the maroon crystal. Her indigo magic went inside the crystal and considering the opposite form, it was no surprise that dark and light magic both pulsed outward from the crystal in loud anger at what she was attempting.
She couldn't stop though, even as it burned her hand and sent endless agony through her whole body. Keeping her mouth and eyes closed, she fought it as long as she could until she found what she was looking for.
Deep in her mind, she spoke forth a spell. "Light Magic, Finale Spell..." She stopped as she was pushed to her knees and blood seeped from her mouth. "Eternal Memories!!"
The barrier of twisted space stopped, and the dark magic flow ended. The maroon glow intensified to its greatest amount and was only damped by the yellow magic now linking the minds of all the town folks.
In a moment, all the memories and truths unveiled about the altar and why it brought about such a dark transformation from Twilight.
For thousands of years, the altar had been used to execute wendigo after wendigo. Millions of their corpses were buried within this land. But further back in time, the more shocking truth was this was once a home created by Indigo Frost...
The true Indigo Frost forged it for someone, and she never got the chance to see it. Instead, Indigo Frost's rival burned the original city and replaced with it a pin of butchery and agony for all wendigoes. A place to breed their hatred and fear rather than bring peace and grace.
After so many years, this hatred seeped into the ground and would curse any creature to show their fear through a false hatred alone. Even the slightest fear would bring out this twisted, and it was the attack twelve days ago that brought its strongest form.
Celestia fell to the ground as the message was delivered. She knew now that Twilight had seen the same thing all those days ago. However, Twilight could not break the curse of the land. Instead, this altar of blood and agony had changed her, cursed her, and her dark magic. Tears flowed as she finally let her eyes open, knowing it was safe now.
The stones stopped. The truth was in the open, and now the plague of fear could finally end. It wasn't Twilight's fault; it wasn't the alicorns' fault, and it wasn't the town folks' fault as much as their own shame led them to believe.
"A single creature was to blame, the one who hated the true Indigo Frost with all his might, but why?" Celestia dropped the mind meld and looked over the crystal. "Why did he hate the wendigoes so much? Why did he hate Indigo Frost so much? And is this the reason this fake Indigo Frost started his war here?"
Celestia turned her attention to the townsfolk and softly told them. "It's time you change this monument to mean something else entirely."
Though they were in a bit of a daze from the mind meld, they nodded to her request and left to do just that.
"Good... Good." Her voice grew weak, and she fell. Blood flowed from her mouth like a fountain, her throat giving little to no fight at all. She attempted to catch herself, but luckily she was caught by a pair of pink hands.
She looked up to see Golden Williams holding her. Seeing her pain, he placed his horn to her horn and absorb the excess light magic causing this. The blood stopped flowing with a few coughs and she smiled at him.
"That was idiotic. What would Starswirl say about such a stunt?"
"I had to, he told me to."
"Who? The same voice that called on me?"
"Yes," she still did not know who the voice was, but it helped her and showed what she needed to do, so she thanked it before falling asleep in the alicorn's arms. Golden Williams didn't argue and took to the sky, flying back to the alicorn citadel.
As they left, a lion watched them. He stood just beyond their sight, yet could see them perfectly. He laughed at Celestia's victory. "Well done. I did not know you had such a strong granddaughter, Heavonos. Ending a curse that lived in this town for five thousand years. Though she didn't find the full truth, it was enough. Even if I helped, just a little. I can see why Twilight admires her so much. She truly is the best of your kind."
******
Back in Princess Platinum's garden arena, guards gathered around the princess before lifting her in a magical grasp. They did their best to close her wounds before removing her from the arena. Her most loyal naga watched from a distance silently until she held up her hand.
Without a word, he rushed over to her. Despite the need to get her to heal, she reached to him and pulled at his armor. She stared at him with rage but also contempt. She didn't utter a single word and kept the stare for a full minute before he answered instead. "It will be done, my princess."
She let go and allowed the guards to take her away. The naga turned to the group. “Once Twilight wakes, she may go up there to Princess Platinum's place. She may do as she wishes. Please know, I never wanted this.” The way he worded that last part clarified that while the princess was allowing Twilight to go, he was still firmly against it and this war.
Starlight took the words to heart and turned back to Twilight. Her wounds were healed, but faint scars remained. Cold Blue had done his work and left. He couldn't do the same for Princess Platinum, since she was not suffering from a dark ascension.
Dark Ascension, that was what they called it. The one known as the Pale Mare was supposedly a piece of Twilight not guarded by emotions or limits. According to Rex, it was an embracement of the power, but there was no way Starlight could ever believe such a thing. To her, that creature was not Twilight at all and it needed to stay gone. There was no help, kindness, or hope in those eyes. It was utterly terrifying and could never be the real Twilight. That monster could never be her teacher.
She picked up her teacher's hand, moved it over the stomach, taking this chance to check the breathing. Cold Blue had told them she would be fine, but Starlight wasn't sure. She didn't know who that siren was or who he was to Rex, but she couldn't trust him at all.
Though he was gone now, his face was still fresh inside her head. Cold dead eyes void of any emotions at all; an unending rage tinted by the greatest of calm waves; a warrior with no sign of motivation. And yet, he saved her teacher. Again, why? This was the second time she met him and both times his face never changed toward her and her teacher and yet he saved her without a single hesitation, why? "Why?" She questioned aloud.
"Cold Blue was always a mystery to me and Blood Diamond?" Rex answered. "Where I would obey the command, he would follow orders."
"There's a difference?" Starlight's eyes wandered over to the Four Towers of Faith.
"Yes, and until you can understand that, you will never understand the Icy Siren of the Four Seasons."
"He..." Starlight pushed the thought away.
"Crim..."
Starlight's eyes jumped to Twilight as her eyes slowly opened. "Teacher? What?"
"Crimson... I'm sorry..."
Starlight stopped. She was in complete shock now. She pulled away and took a full step back. Her teacher's actions before made no sense, battling in a seemingly unwinnable battle, but now her teacher was calling out for Crimson. Why would Twilight apologize to him? Why now?
Twilight's eyes opened, and the faint image of Crimson faded. She sat up and looked at them with confusion. She was perfectly fine, yet they all had fear over their faces.
******
Deep within the Four Towers of Faith, Blood Diamond sat quietly. He had cleaned nearly every surface in this room and beyond, and his patience was running thin. Princess Platinum would not answer his summons.
From the powerful burst of magic he sensed earlier; he assumed she was about to send an attack on him. He had defenses made, but they proved pointless as nothing came. He was wondering if this work was worth it. He eventually concluded that once Stygian had returned from his surveillance, Blood Diamond would proceed with his classic plan of murdering the entire city. It wouldn't give him his answers, but it would keep any other mortal race in line.
"Are we getting as harsh as our father?" he posed his thoughts aloud. "Genocide so quickly?" He smiled at the thought, but only for a moment before dropping the idea entirely. "No, our father's own possible actions lead us to this choice ."
As if someone else was there to answer his question, he quickly replied, "Yes, killing them all would end the problem instantly, but that wouldn't clear the air of questions."
His observing ears lifted high, as if unquestionably listening to words that seemed to have no source. "You have a point, old friend. They do seem rather too weak for such questioning, even through torture. Unless the action taken was under--" He was stopped by noise from one crystal floating around him.
He pointed at the crystal, and it floated over to his fingers. Twirling it around a single digit, a voice spoke from it. "Lord Blood Diamond, it seems Princess Platinum cannot have a meeting with you."
"Cold Blue?" Blood Diamond answered. "Where have you been?"
"Gathering information. I am sorry for my absence as of late."
"You sound distracted." Blood Diamond noticed the dropping pitch in the siren's voice. It easily revealed stress that was unbecoming of his most loyal warrior.
"Princess Platinum is sending another to her place. A unicorn..." Again Cold Blue paused. He attempted to keep on the subject. However, Blood Diamond knew the siren was holding back on certain details.
The alicorn couldn't gauge why, but the hesitation was clear. He wondered if it had anything to do with the surge of magic; even from here, Blood Diamond could tell that dark magic was used.
Blood Diamond sighed, hoping to calm his soldier. "We will accept this other pony's offer. What is the name of this pony?"
"..." Cold Blue didn't answer at first; this action threw things into question. After a few moments pasted, Blood Diamond nearly questioned his soldier, but he answered before a word could come out. "Her name is Twilight Sparkle."
Blood Diamond frowned at those words, "Hmm, would that be the same unicorn that Rex was forced to take in."
"Yes, the same unicorn I reported to you about after I was done in Gelum Voce Pia," Cold Blue's voice faulted.
Blood Diamond wondered if this unicorn was the reason for his soldier's loss in stride. "Please, retelling everything you have learned about her." he already had all the details he needed but hearing it again now would allow him to better gauge if this Twilight Sparkle was indeed the cause.
Cold Blue's hesitation was so strong at this point that Blood Diamond could almost see the sweat without needing to see his soldier's face. After a full minute, he answered back. "No."
Blood Diamond's eyes widened at this. "Such a shame, but it's expected. Continue to watch her." He waved the crystal away.
******
After everything was explained to Twilight, she left for the Four Towers of Faith. Her lack of care toward the transformation only intensified Starlight's fears. Her teacher was strong and stubborn, much like her, but this was reckless.
"Dark magic is dangerous," Rex answered Starlight's thoughts before she could say anything. "Her path is dangerous... And I fear she will fall on this path like I..."
Clover turned to him and gripped his hand. "No... She's stupid and even blunt, but she's not you."
"What does she mean?" Starlight finally questioned. "What did you do? How did you fall?" She stepped closer. "How can Twilight escape this? Tell me?!"
Rex turned to her and gave one answer. "I fell by fighting it." With that, he fell into his shadow and left them. Annoyed, Clover jumped in after him.
Starlight was left alone with nothing but Silver Pear and her thoughts. She didn't know where to move next. She had always been told what to do; she had always been taught by Twilight to do what was right, but what was right here? That thing wasn't Twilight, it couldn't be Twilight at all.
"Are you going to standby and do nothing, Lovely?" Silver Pear walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder.
She was taken aback by his action. Normally he would move for her rear, but his words and actions told her this was no time for fun, or to wait and standstill. "You're right. I must help her." She stared out at the Four Towers of Faith, seeing Twilight enter the northern one. She slapped her face with both her hands and ran forward in the same direction.
******
Starswirl exited from a swirl of chaos magic and landed back on the Titan Airship. he was understandably surprised by the smoke and small fires that littered the hallway he entered. With a wave of his hand, the fires were snuffed out with thick globs of cotton candy.
Once the flames were out, he held his sleeve and funneled the smoke into it. He held out his other sleeve behind him and the smoke continued through to that sleeve and came out as soap bubbles. Now ready, he walked to the hallway cleaning all the surfaces and using his horn magic to fix any dents or holes in the metal.
In a few minutes, he reached the healing bay. He stopped there upon seeing Fredricson on a bed inside, with Lady Cat and Adagio watching over him. Seeing the distress of his friend, he flicked some magic with his horn and summoned a green tornado to complete the duties he was already attending to; sucking in the smoke and raining down soap bubbles. He left it to its job while he walked into the healing bay.
Fredricson quickly noticed him. "Sorry, just a few cuts and bruises." he winced as Lady Cat tightened the bandages.
"I see you had some problems." Starswirl stopped at the bed and saw that Adagio was sad. He puffed a cup of chocolate milk into her hand. She hesitated at first before drinking.
"She got spook more than anypony," Lady Cat commented, "Seeing that it was one of her sisters that broke in."
"One of this siren's little sisters?"
"Yes..." Fredricson couldn't hide his shame. "She was acting as if somepony else was controlling her; Speaking through her."
"Interesting--"
"No, it wasn't. That beast of a voice made that poor filly wear my nephew's own... pelt!" Lady Cat was still sickened by the idea.
"Strange. Did this voice say where they were here?"
"Yes, to damage the ship's engines," Fredricson answered.
"Shame, how much damage?"
"Far more than simple magic could repair."
"Oh, dear." Starswirl showed a grain of annoyance before stroking his beard. "And my chaos magic doesn't react well to repairs."
"Maybe that unicorn or alicorn could help?" Lady Cat questioned.
"Impossible, I just came from them and their powers might prove just as harmful." Now annoyed too, Fredricson huffed and attempted to sit up. Starswirl waved him down. "Don't worry, for now, heal. I have a distinct feeling we might be here for a while, anyway."
"Yes, but--" Fredricson stopped as Lady Cat pushed him back down.
"Do as the old wizard asked?"
"It's not that." He waved her away. "The sister of Adagio. She is still out there."
"Nearby?"
"Possibly. She didn't use any powerful spells during the tussle."
"Hmm, that might mean this mind controller can only rely on her magic alone." Starswirl smiled at this and looked at Adagio. "Do you mind helping me find your sister?"
"Only if you free her!"
"Of course." He rubbed her head. "Now hold still." He stopped his hand at her forehead and closed his eyes. His horn glowed brightly for two moments before stopping. "Okay, she is nearby... In the Four Towers of Faith."
"What? Where is that?" She questioned. "What was that spell?"
"Don't worry, I know where it is. As for the spell itself, it was something I made for my former students. It's short range, but it works perfectly for things like this."
******
The storm clouds echoed thunder as they finally came to a stop in front of the Four Towers of Faith. Dim stopped in front of the west tower, looked up to them, and frowned, "Please don't rain, not today."
Ignoring his words, the rain fell, anyway. He let each drop hit his face as anger grew in his eyes. The words of Mira echoed louder in his head, and he looked over at the soldiers he had brought with him. Nodding to them, they pulled out large star-shaped crystals.
The group spread out once they saw Starlight and Silver Pear enter. Quickly, they surrounded all four towers and waited as their princess ordered.
******
Twilight continued to climb the stairs until she reached the top. Reaching the halfway point, Starlight's fears toward her returned, pushing her thoughts on the transformation. All their words made sense to her. She had little to no memory once again, yet unbeknownst to them, just like before, the transformation had left joy in her heart, not fear.
It sickened her so much that such power didn't seem to terrify her at all. Euphoria was filling her head, her brain cells were rushing with endorphins. Her body never felt so alive. That was her concern, a worry she couldn't let the others have. She wondered if Rex had felt something similar. She knew from the old stories that he used dark magic, but there was never a mention of a dark transformation.
The only pony on record that had received a transformation similar to her own was King Sombra. However, the recent events had made her doubt her records. Memorization meant nothing if she didn't have all the facts and considering her books never mention a monster named Indigo Frost nor a war with the alicorns, only made things even harder to follow.
She wanted to learn the truth, yet she didn't feel like she needed to. There were so many questions now buzzing through her head, and yet the transformation was again at the bottom of the list. She wanted answers, but felt like she already had them.
She waved her head back and forth to focus her thoughts, but they refused. It was at this moment she eventually realized it. The last room was right in front of her.
She reached out to the door but stopped. Hesitation filled her body and fear finally formed inside her. All other questions fell to the side, for Blood Diamond would be the first alicorn she encountered in this timeline.
Now that she was thinking about it, Celestia and Luna were the only alicorns she knew before going on this journey. While stuck in this timeline, she did as much studying as she could on the subject, but books only covered so much. This would be her first time encountering another alicorn. Truthfully, her curiosity nearly overpowered her fear. She knew the first thing she would have to do was scanning the details of his body, not maybe his magical strength first, or possibly his knowledge.
Fighting the hesitation, she grabbed the doorknob and open it. Inside the room was completely clean and void of dirt. The floors were a clear blue and the ceiling a darker blue. There was a large window on her left. Ahead of her was three tables; two large ones on the sides and a small table at the center.
Sitting upon a crystal throne, a clearly recent addition to the room, was the very alicorn she had been sent to meet. Blood Diamond was a red alicorn with forked ears and a long teal mane finely combed at the top but somewhat shredded near the bottom. He wore dark blue armor that covered nearly every part of his body outside of his arms, which was covered instead by green silk cloth. The armor was detailed, with circles drawn deeply into place at random points in the armor. Despite alicorns having large wings, he could keep his wings well hidden under a turquoise cloak, so perfectly. Could he be hiding them with magic? If so, why?
He was far younger than she expected. Though considering how alicorns aged, he could still be far older than her by several millennia. It was clear he was younger than Celestia and Luna appeared in the present. Could he be younger than them now? Could they be younger than him now? After all, she hadn't seen them yet in this timeline. She did not know how young they would be now, so the comparison was hard to find out.
She waved her head back and forth, trying to get her mind back on to the proper subject at hand. She reached the center of the room and bowed to him. "I am Twilight Sparkle. A unicorn... sent by Princess Platinum to negotiate a treaty to end this war before any bloodshed can happen." She lied through her teeth about her form, hoping he couldn't see through her disguise and realize she, too, was an alicorn.
Blood Diamond stood up from his throne and walked to the table in the center. "Why do you think we want war?"
"The command," her voice raised for only a moment before softening. "It was sent by your father, King Emerald Teal."
"We are not here under our father's orders." Blood Diamond walked around the table and to Twilight. "We came here because we have many unicorns under our employ and wish to know why their princess has tempered them against us."
"She is tempered because of the claim your father made." Her voice echoed through the empty room. Twilight tried her best to not seem demanding to the alicorn in front of her, but sweat quickly caked her face.
"Is that what she told you?" His words made no sense to her at all.
She adjusted her armor and stood stern; she couldn’t show weakness now. “Prince Blood Diamond of the Crystal Empire, please answer my question. I was there when the message was sent. I heard every word that King Emerald Teal made.” She tried correcting her shaky tone before continuing, “Why are you fighting in a war with Princess Platinum?”
“War? Is that what she calls it?” His tone was so calm and easy. It was hard to tell if he was lying, or why he would be lying. Did he even know of his father's proclamation? He had to. There would be no other reason for him being here.
“Yes, war! Now, why? The unicorns have served you all so loyally for many years.” She adjusted her voice one last time.
"Loyally? Is that what she calls it?" His questions again only brought more confusion out of her.
"Yes, loyalty. We all have!!" She stood up finally, speaking more from her experience under Celestia's service. She knew he couldn't see a lie. The truth was all over her face.
"We see." His eyes narrowed on her. "Why would you represent the unicorns in this?"
“I know the hist—world around us can be good if we let it,” she corrected. “We don’t need to fight it.”
“So…” He scratched his chin as he thought, “We don’t need to fight.” Suddenly, his voice fell in tone. “Fine, we have thought of something better.”
Twilight jumped back as he raised his hand upward. Twisting his fingers, a small gem shot out of his sleeve and easily slip through his first two fingers.
Blood Diamond turned to the small table. He smiled and threw the gem at the table. The crystal impaled into the table and formed a crystal game board on the surface. With a snap of his fingers, crystal chess pieces appeared.
He walked over and gestured to Twilight to follow. “We see you want peace. Then let us bring peace with a game. If you win, we will take our armies and leave. If we win, then we will continue this war.”
“How do I know you will keep your word?” Twilight approached slowly and took a seat.
“You don’t.” He frowned at her question, only to lift his finger upward in a swinging motion. “Peace is a game of trust, but it only truly works best for the side that wants it more.”
“Fine…” Twilight looked to the window once more, trying her best to hide her sweat. “Let’s play.”
******
As the chess pieces moved, Dim watched from below, getting his princess's plan into place, fearing for the worse. Starlight inched closer to Twilight's location, fearing the worse. Rex and Clover watched onward with their fears of the worse. Twilight was in a far more dangerous battle against an opponent that was beyond predicting.
All their fears bubbled around the four towers of faith. Such a monument to love and kindness now being replaced with fear and terror.
Starswirl could sense all the emotion gathering in this single place. His fears now were like no other. There was only one outcome to come from this chaos. And if what he was guessing was right, Adagio's sister, and the alathar were unknowingly right in the center of it all.
Starswirl opened the door to the furthermost tower and icy winds from the long-forgotten tower flew through his cape. With a single look, Blood Diamond only saw to clean the inside of a single tower for his use. The others, though clean on the outside, were just as dusty and old as before. With a wave of his horn, Starswirl frowned to see there was no sign of the siren's present inside this one either. He had checked all four now and found nothing. He knew she was here, but where was uncertain.
He exited and looked over to the outside. Dim's soldiers had been slowly surrounding the four towers as soon as Twilight reached the last floor. He looked up to the tower Twilight was in and barely could glimpse her. She didn't seem to be in any danger as far as he could tell Blood Diamond gave no care what was going on down below to bring any harm. The old wizard smiled and hoped his fears were for not.
He remembered Blood Diamond from the days long past. When the four alicorns, Celestia, Luna, Golden Williams, and Blood Diamond were but children, he met them and got to learn the most about them. He trained Celestia and Golden Williams first, and when Luna and Blood Diamond came to the right age; he trained them as well. Blood Diamond was the last one to be trained and was the youngest of the four and therefore felt the most desire to better than his elders. Blood Diamond always felt like he needed to prove something. Sometimes this would lead to excellent outcomes, but more often than not, bad outcomes.
Soon enough, Starswirl noticed something strange about the scene between Blood Diamond and Twilight. Not the scene itself, but the image of the scene. He held up his hand and snapped his fingers. A banana appeared in his hand. He lifted the banana in magic and floated it over to the same building. The image of the banana looked normal.
He snapped his fingers and teleported the banana just outside the room Blood Diamond and Twilight were in, just outside of their sight. The image of the banana altered to match the strange change in the rest's image. In fact, it looked bent. Starswirl's eyes widened and he let go of the magical pull of the banana, allowing it to fall.
The strange bent kept over the image for several floors before returning to normal, just eight floors from the ground. Starswirl stopped the banana before it splattered on the ground and lifted it back up. He stopped at floor seven and crept closer. He stopped on the last time as they bent started.
The old wizard's eyes narrowed and his horn's magic turned to a yellow with spots of black. Chaos magic filled the banana, making it explode. His eyes widened as pieces of the banana stopped in the middle of the air, stuck to a wall invisible to sight. However, seconds later, the image of the splatter pieces vanished.
Starswirl smiled and lifted himself in magic. Rising to the full height of the eighth floor, he was stopped by a wall; the same wall that stopped the banana. He placed his hands on the wall and the image of the tower behind the wall shook before adjusting. It seems there was a structure sitting between the four towers, invisible to all sights. Leaning closer, he placed his horn on the wall to scan for the siren.
He was correct. The siren had found her way into this place, but why would she go here? And why was such a thing hidden from sight?
He lit up his horn and covered the wall with magic. He kept pushing until the entire structure was covered in magic. He snapped his fingers and the illusion flickers for a moment, revealing a ten-story tall orb with walls made of solid geode.
The phase in the illusion wouldn't last long. He needed to find a way in. His eyebrow raised, and he waved his hand over the gesturing his fingers. Making a few symbols followed by a snap, a portal opened. "Chaos Spell Number Sixty-four, Unheeded Void!" With that, an opening appeared. Much to his disappointment, another stopped him, but this seemed to lack any magical veil so he could let go of the illusion and still see the new hole. He repeated the spell and created a new opening, yet again another wall stopped him. It was clear this a very fortified structure. Even with such an advanced spell, this would take a few moments to get through.
He waved a hand to one side and poof a floating mirror to his side. With another snap, the image of the mirror showed the outside world, as he suspected this travel might cut him off from everything outside. Casting another void spell, he moved through the holes and removed each wall, blocking him. Meanwhile, he looked at the mirror and tuned it to Clover and Rex.
******
Rex and Clover looked onward over the towers from on top of the titan airship. Clover wasn't concerned for Twilight, but for Rex. He seemed so uneasy since seeing Cold Blue. The two rivals rarely ever talked to each other as long as she knew them. Out of all the creatures Rex knew, Cold Blue was the one she knew the least about.
Finally, having enough of the silence, she spoke. "You have said nothing yet still? You left Starlight and Twilight to their own devices, and yet even now you watch them? Are you that worried?"
"No, Cold Blue..." He stopped and turned to his shadow. "Just why would he attempt to stop a transformation of that form?"
"I don't know. Maybe he was worried about Twilight."
"Twilight? He barely seems to know her. He would have left her to burn everything around her... like." He stopped and reached out. The scroll holding the coordinates to the alathar flowed out.
"Like what? Like him?" She questioned. "Or like her?"
Rex looked at her with shame, knowing very well she wasn't talking about Twilight at all now. "She... is not what I'm fearing. It's Cold Blue..." He unrolled the scroll and traced his eyes over the descriptions. Still mostly hidden within a dead language, he could only gather so many answers. "Legends speak of dark ascensions."
"Yes, it's what we assumed Twilight was turning into?"
"Yes, but Cold Blue had one of his own. He is the only dark magic user I have ever encountered that can revert and forth... That is until..."
"Twilight..." Clover stepped closer. She moved her eyes over the dead language, the words even more foreign to her. "She differs from most."
"Yes, an alicorn. But there are dark ascended alicorns too, Cassandra, Sapphire, Caster, Alastor, Avalon... All of them of which could never revert and forth. All of which are dead, anyway." He pointed to two spots on the map. "Two of these alathar pertain to two dark ascended."
"What are you getting at?"
"Before Cold Blue, there hasn't been a dark ascended since... the purge."
"No..." Clover's eyes went wide.
Rex's eyes narrowed on the towers now. "Emerald Teal purged them all five thousand years ago, around the same time Indigo Frost, the real Indigo Frost died, and yet the one moment someone poses as him, another dark ascended appears and another purge. This time of unicorns, yes, but still..."
"Are you saying somepony is trying to repeat history?"
"No, most of the details behind the purge and even the dark ascension itself are kept under near-absolute secrecy..." Rex stopped and raised his eyes to the towers, bringing them up to the height where Twilight would meet Blood Diamond. "Maybe somepony is attempting to reveal something through this retread." His sight narrowed to their smallest points. An uneasy feeling settled into his stomach, bringing far more fear than any evil he had ever faced. "However, what I'm fearing right now is that the fake Indigo Frost might not be the one pulling all the strings."
******
Back on the top floor of the north tower, pieces tapping the crystal board were the only sound that could be heard as Blood Diamond and Twilight continued their game. Twilight’s hand had become jittery since she lost both of her knights. She didn’t know how long she could take this game. Blood Diamond was just as much of a master at this game as she was. And to make things worse, he seemed to get sheer enjoyment at taking each of her pieces.
Blood Diamond raised his eyebrow. A clever smile cut loose as he took a breath and grabbed his piece. He moved it ever so slowly and then slammed the piece down loudly, making Twilight jump back.
She adjusted herself as she looked up at him. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to stay strong as she grabbed her piece. Moving her piece into place, she called out, “Check.”
“Oh, we see you caught it.” Blood Diamond’s eyes fell in disappointment.
Twilight’s heart rate finally slowed. Maybe she could end this war; with a mere game, such a thought would even make the likes of Discord laugh, but she hoped for success either way.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Blood Diamond spoke loudly as his eyes lit back up.
She came to attention and even lifted her head high enough to reach his tall stature. “Yes.”
“Do you know what is the best thing about this game?” Blood Diamond grabbed his king and held it up high and then moved into place. Twilight tried to follow with her move as he grabbed his knight and held it high. “It tells everypony what kind of ruler you would be. For instance, since you started with your knights first, it means that you are a steadfast ruler who wishes to end conflicts quickly.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as he placed his knight back down in its original spot and moved it to take the piece that she was about to check his king's with. Twilight moved another piece to take his king. Blood Diamond followed this by moving his bishop, “If you are strong with your bishop, that means you are loyal to your beliefs but easily predictable." The bishop took her piece, so she moved another. Blood Diamond matched this with his rook. "If you favor the rook, then you are slow to start but hide your kindness with cruelty.”
Twilight took a breath and made another move, this time her queen. Blood Diamond smiled at this and continued his brief lesson.
“But it’s the use of the queen that show, which is most important to us.” Blood Diamond moved his queen. “So Twilight which is most important to you?”
Twilight’s eyes moved back onto Blood Diamond as she heard his piece stop moving. She grabbed her queen and moved into place, “Check.” She let a small smile cut through.
However, it was halted as she saw the smile on Blood Diamond’s face. “We see. It was once friendship, wasn’t it?”
Twilight’s eyes widened at Blood Diamond’s words as he moved his piece. “What do you mean--”
“Checkmate.” Blood Diamond stopped his piece and leaned back.
Twilight’s mouth fell as her eyes wandered on the board. Indeed, while she was so preoccupied about making a check, Blood Diamond had used his pawns to trap and then checkmate her King. All of his kills were to lore all her other pieces away. He even broke the check he was trapped while killing her queen. He removed all his obstacles, saved his king, and claimed victory all in one move.
“But how?” Twilight stood up in defiance.
“The pawns.”
“The what?”
“Now we know a little more about you, Twilight Sparkle.” Blood Diamond stood and raised his hand into the air. The chessboard and pieces vanished. “You are fractured, like us and one other. However, where we admit our brokenness, you deny it and it's strength, therefore, can't properly use it.”
“What are you talking about? I’m nothing like you.”
“Us? As in all alicorns.” He turned away from her and walked over to the throne. “Not all alicorns are born… pure.” His voice halted for a moment and seem to almost deepen in tone. "Some are hateful, some are jealous, some are monsters, and some are in total misery." He pointed to her. "Which are you?"
"I..." She blinked twice, unable to come to an answer for herself. However... "Celestia is pure."
"Celestia? Really?" Blood Diamond couldn't hide his laughter. "She just as impure as we, impure for the same reason."
"What?"
"Where I lusted for Luna, she adores Starswirl the Bearded."
"What?" Twilight jumped back at those words.
"You didn't know. Those two have been behind curtains for a few hundred years now. Luna doesn't know, his son doesn't even know, not even Celestia's ex knew."
"I... I..." Twilight's mind fell back on old memories of Celestia. Her strong friendship with the wizard of chaos was always assumed to be base level, but could she have been wrong?
"Enough on failed loves. What is your impurity?" Suddenly his pasture changed almost completely; his back straight to a near-perfect level and his shoulder blade dropped to their lowest point. His face fell as he continued, "Do it... answer me?! Alicorn!” His speech pattern seemed to almost alter for a moment as he dropped the royal 'we'.
"I... I'm not an alicorn."
"DO NOT LIE!!" He roared his horn with twisted green magic. Much to Twilight's shock, her illusion fell completely, unveiling her wings and proper form.
"What? That magic is?" She took a step back. That spell looked way too familiar.
"Do you take Blood Diamond for a fool?! His mother was the Queen of illusion!! He sensed it from the moment you stepped inside. Compared to her, your shapeshifting is a pale imitation!" He laughed at her failures.
Twilight was in utter confusion. Blood Diamond was now speaking his name instead of using me and we as if he was talking in third-person. "What is going on here?"
“I ask the questions!!" He turned to the window. "Are you like Luna, constantly jealous of her sister's victories?"
"No... I'm not impure."
"ANSWER ME?!" he screamed, "Are you secretly hateful like Golden Williams?"
"No, I don't want to be such a thing."
He smiled, knowing that something had been plucked from her. He could see the impurity all over her form. She was broken, but was unclear about her brokenness. His eyes went wide upon realizing her brokenness was familiar to another. "Or are you a monster, just like... Crim--" He stopped at the sight Twilight falling to the ground, tears pouring down her face.
His words, his actions, had completely torn her apart as nopony could. Her face fell forward, facing the ground as she punched the glass. "I'm... not a monster... I'm not a monster!!" Magic attempted to pulse from her eyes in her rage, but she stabbed her hand into a shard of glass, making the pain overpower the rage.
His eyes widened at the pulse of maroon magic and the strange sense of them and familiarity became clear. “But of course…. You are not a normal alicorn, are you?"
Twilight unconsciously distanced herself completely at his words. “Of course I’m an alicorn--”
“No, you are not! So you wouldn't be able to understand him or his ways.” He turned to face her with his head held high. Twilight’s face went completely cold upon what she saw. His eyes had changed form completely. His pupils were now knife like in form and his irises were now glowing bright neon green. "I see it as clear as day. You’re not a true blood-born alicorn, just a cheap fake.”
Twilight dropped her tears and moved into a battle stance as she placed her hand on her kopises. "Those eyes, I've seen them before..."
Blood Diamond saw this and took a moment to calm his breathing. His pupils returned to the round form they were before, and his irises stopped glowing. Twilight still kept her guard up and her hands at the ready. There was no telling what he was going to do next.
However, he smirked almost playfully at her. “Sorry, he interrupted us.” His voice returned to its original pitch and style. This threw her the most off guard. She never knew about this strange attitude.
She kept her hands gripped tightly to the hilts of her kopises, and her eyes stayed strong on him as he walked over to the window.
“Even though I won, I will still answer you, Twilight Sparkle?” He stopped at the window and looked toward the second of the four towers.
“About why the alicorns want to destroy Princess Platinum’s kingdom?” She pulled on her kopises, not fully sheathing them, but being as ready as possible for anything.
“Because they are the enemy. Nothing more, nothing less. A pawn must do whatever it takes to complete a command, and a king, a ruler must give whatever command it takes to win.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in horror at his bitter words. “That's what you meant.”
“Yes, the moment you chose to not favor your pawns over your strongest piece shows that you have never ruled a single thing in your life. And to make things worse, you once valued friendship, but your value in it, because you fear letting anypony close at all.” He held up a crystal, and it transformed into a pawn. "The pawns were your friends, and you lost them, therefore you can't use them, instead you use other pieces to replace them, memories of what you thought what they were like instead of moving on now that they are gone."
"They are not gone..." Twilight rose back at his words and attempted to deny them, but each time. Her mouth opened again to answer why, but nothing came this time. Her brow dropped and her jaw hanged as she forced out words. "I will... find them!"
"You want to find them, yes, but you are afraid you will. Why?" Without a single hesitation, Blood Diamond threw the crystal pawn into the window. It impacted with enough force to crack but not break, giving massive cracks that spread the window from end to end.
She stopped, she found herself unable to answer, but not because she didn't know the answer she did; her mind was now screaming the truth, but no words would leave her mouth. Instead, her body wanted to buckle and drop her to the ground, only her battle stance kept her standing, as fragile as it was to Blood Diamond.
“Enough time has passed, we see it’s done.” He placed his hand over the window as he looked at the giant circle of crystal stars that now surrounded the four towers. “So that’s the Ultra Dampeners, developed by Nox Co. Said to be strong enough to even stop an alicorn in its tracks.”
Twilight was at a loss for words until she walked over to see what he was pointing at. Just as he said, there was a massive barrier of magic blockers all around the towers. Her eyes widened to see Princess Platinum's naga standing ready with the activator already pressed in hand. It was at this moment she realized the truth.
"You see what we saw the moment we arrived, right?" Blood Diamond turned to meet her fearful gaze. "Before we arrived, we sent a message for her to meet us at this tower, yet when we arrived we found nopony had set foot near it in years. Princess Platinum didn't answer my summon because she has wanted this war from the very beginning. Peace was never an intention. We came here seeking the same as you. A peaceful end, but she wouldn't tell you the truth."
Shame poured over Twilight like a fountain. He was right; she agreed. Mira had lied to her from the very moment she arrived. And yet she couldn't help but question why? Why would Mira want this war? Why would Emerald Teal give into something the unicorn princess already wanted? And if this all fit perfectly, why would he even openly make such a proclamation in the first place?
Blood Diamond turned to the window and, with no hesitation, finished the job the pawn started. “What are you doing?” Twilight braced herself as the pressure from the outside air pushed its way around the room, sinking into every crevice of the room until the pressure settled.
"We are doing as you wanted, ending this war before it can even begin."
"Even begin?" Her eyes went wide and her mind bounced back to her first question to him. Her demand to end the war before any more bloodshed. He had answered back with a question of his own.
"Is that what she told you?"
"She..." Her eyes went wide.
"I see you have the truth now." He walked over to the very edge. "My father would never waste time with a proclamation at all. My father would have committed mass genocide without warning, as he has done to many species before."
"Wait, that means the message sent to all those cities was an illusion."
"Exactly. Someone else wants this war, not our father." He lifted one foot over the edge. "Whether it is Princess Platinum or somepony playing to her weakness, matters not."
Twilight reached out to him as he dropped downward. “There is nowhere to go. All magic is down, including flying.”
“Looks like you haven’t been a fake alicorn for very long.” He held out his hand for her to see. Instantly, her eyes widened as she saw a trigger pull out of his sleeve and into his hand. “You don’t know how durable we alicorns can be.”
Time appeared to slow around Twilight as her legs pushed her toward Blood Diamond in failure to stop him. In the end, he frowned with a disdainful look and pushed the trigger button with his thumb. Meanwhile, floors from the bottom upward began exploding one after the other. His plan was now destroying all others in a sweeping motion.
Dim and his armies were pushed back. Starlight and Silver Pear fell from the shaking.
*******
The winds rushed through the cracks of the windows of the nearest tower until they ripped apart. As she watched the other building collapse, Starlight coughed hard from the harsh punch of the air. She stopped herself upon seeing Twilight falling.
“No… no… NO!” Starlight ran over to the edge and reached out. “Teacher--”
“No, it's too far.” Silver Pear pulled at her arm.
“Let me go, I have to get to her.” She struggled free
“But, how?”
Suddenly, Starlight’s eyes went wide. “Throw me!”
“What?!”
“Just do it.” Starlight stared at Silver Pear with determination.
Silver Pear’s eyes raced back and forth between Starlight and Twilight. He grabbed Starlight by her shoulder and hip and lifted her with a quick spin to get better leverage as he aimed for the opening.
“NOW!!” Starlight words snapped him out of his hesitation as he threw her through the window. She knew she didn't have any magic; however, if she could land her in the building next to them, they would be safe. She gritted her teeth as the winds and shatter glass scraped around her and she reached out for her teacher.
*******
Several meters inside the orb, Starswirl finally reached a proper opening. He lifted his horn and lit the room with magic. The inside was a lovely hue of mixing colors, with the black walls mixing perfectly into the green floors. Despite how dusty the other towers were the inside, this place was the complete reverse; not cleaned, but a lack of dust ever forming on any surface. It wasn't a sealed room, as rain could be seen falling from vents of the ceiling two stories up. They fell softly into a built-in pool at the center with a pedestal in front of it.
He walked over to the pedestal and read the writing, "From the grace of the Queen of Illusions, only the ones who value love can take a grasp of this... alathar." His eyes widened at that word. "So the alathar is here."
"Yes, just beyond her sight." A voice caught Starswirl completely off guard. He turned to see a siren filly wrapped in a light tan fur coat hide cloak and hood.
The wizard didn't waste time in knocking down the hood and revealing a light purple siren fill with purple ponytails and turquoise highlights. "So, this one is Aria."
The siren filly huffed with a male voice. "If you wanted to see this host's face, all you had to was ask."
"I would ask why we were led to believe that Indigo Frost took them."
"Oh, he took them... a minor agreement with me."
"I'm assuming you need them for their bodies." Starswirl snapped some powerful magic at the siren open to gauge the power of the controller.
"Yes, I lack a body of my own." The siren waved away the spell with ease. "It a simple agreement. He provides me with hosts much like that demented octopus. However, where that eldritch beast provides followers, I provide information."
"About the alathar." Starswirl fired off a stronger spell, yet despite relying on the siren as a power source, the controller still could block him with ease. He didn't want to push the power too high or risk hurting the host.
"Yes."
"With such knowledge, you must be someone of great supreme." Starswirl poor party streamers over the siren.
"You are one to talk. The legendary chaos wizard, Starswirl the Bearded, doesn't seem to care too much about hiding his power." Despite being in a small siren body, this controller had quite a spiteful tongue.
"You know mine, but I still lack your... title?"
"Fine..." The siren's eyes narrowed, "I am the Abandoned Alicorn."
Starswirl's eyebrow raised slightly. "An alicorn? I never suspected that."
Aria grinned widely, "You think I'm lying."
"Well, of course. Anypony can claim they are something they're not, as long as they are hiding behind the face of another." Starswirl's voice rose slightly at those words.
"Believe what you will. But know this, I am far from done with these siren sisters."
Starswirl frowned at that answer. "What do you want with them?"
"I want freedom."
"Oh, so you're imprisoned. Well, then I might believe you are an alicorn. If it weren’t for one very important thing."
"And that is?"
"The alicorns are an endangered species." Starswirl raised his cane slightly into the air as an idea formed. "Which makes things stranger on the fact you wanted your sirens to ponynap Granny Apple when you could have gone after Twilight."
"Twilight? Why would a simple unicorn be useful to me?"
Starswirl smirked. He found a weakness finally. "So Indigo Frost hasn't told you?
Aria laughed slightly, "Starswirl, oh Starswirl. You want to negotiate with me for information. I assume you want the sirens sisters released of their curse in exchange."
"Well."
Aria raised her hand upward toward Starswirl. "In exchange for Twilight Sparkle."
Starswlrl's smirk dropped. "No, that is out of the question--" He stopped as the entire room shook. "What was that?"
"Hmm, alicorn made his move." The siren frowned at the shaking. "Looks like I will have to speed up my plans." With that, the body rushed over to the pool and jump inside.
Starswirl gritted his teeth and held his fingers in forked form and span them around as his horn glowed. "No, Chaos spell Number Three, Spinner!!" The room filled with steam as the liquid around the pedestal span around the room at high speed.
******
Dim jumped in horror as the entire front building collapsed in a fiery explosion. He threw up his tail and his arms as they grew to massive sizes, shielding his soldiers from the falling debris. He turned his head down to cover his eyes as the explosion echoed louder.
The ground shook, making him taking another glance. His eyes wider to see the fire shooting over to the other towers, catching them ablaze as well. He was shocked to see the flames have such great power, far more than natural. His sight raced over to the power dampener and was glad to see them on. Had they not been, the entire city would be consumed in a fiery storm.
And yet he still couldn't figure it out. Just how could the flames be this strong without a magic source, was some else powering them? And if so, why would Blood Diamond call on such power? According to the reports, his range was crystal-based.
A loud boom interrupted his thoughts. Lifting his head to the source as the glass finally stopped falling around them. Standing in a crystal-encrusted crater a mere ten meters ahead, draped in smoke, was the target they had all feared. The naga's mind raced with the possibility of fighting him, but considering that his previous plan had completely shattered, what could he do. Dim unconsciously took a step back upon coming face to face with the enemy as the smoke faded and revealed him.
Blood Diamond had finally taken center stage. He smiled as hundreds of crystal spike shot out in all directions.
"I accept..." a final voice echoed from her mouth as the dream ended. Princess Platinum slowly opened her eyes and saw wrapping all over her body. She wasn't tied up but bandaged as much as possible.
Her pain was strong, but she fought just as hard to raise her body. Her hand screamed with torture as she braced herself and lifted her legs over the bed. Sharp anguish ripped through her legs as they touched the ground.
The movement was forceful and shaky as she made her way to the window. She peered at the four towers, hoping everything was going according to plan. She had wanted to do the job herself, but even will power these injuries would just lead to more trauma. She lowered her sight to the rim and smiled at the faint glow, becoming greater by the second.
A doctor ran in with shock at the sight of her moving. "Princess, you shouldn't be up yet?"
"I know!" She glowed her horn at him. "But, I must see this through." Her head fell, and the magic faded. Her breathing became harsh. She was shocked, but not just because of how much pain she was in, but how much damage that monster brought forth. Shame also twisted her thoughts, knowing now that she failed the battle, she would be forced into this commoner's servitude. "Tell me, has Twilight made any demands of me?"
"Princess?"
"Answer, the creed must be kept!"
"As far as we know. She made no commands and simply left to talk to Blood Diamond." The doctor walked closer. "You should rest right now. Worry about that later--"
"WORRY!" she screamed, "Like my father did every day..." She grimaced, "First for her and then for me! Royalty should have no need nor any desire for concern, ever!" She stopped as blood filled her mouth.
The doctor grabbed a wipe, ready to clean the blood. "Please, Princess, we can't lose you."
"I don't fucking care!" She took the wipe and slapped him away. "I will complete my mission, save my citizens, and bring peace to this land."
"I... understood." He took the slap and stood ready.
Princess Platinum cleaned her mouth and slowed her breathing as to not bring forth more blood. She turned to the window and the towers. She searched for the distinct shape of a naga. She placed her hand above the sight of Dim and gave a much smaller smile. "He will complete this, even if I cannot--"
She was cut off by a bright light shining above. Her eyes raced upward and went wide at the sight of the nearest tower going up in flames. "Dim!!" She didn't hesitate to scream as she banged at the window.
Fear, shock, rage, horror, a race of multiple emotions twisted through her whole body as magic flowed from her horn. Sharp pain blazed through her heart and throat as one knee dropped. The classic blue magic she always had slowly changed color, turning a harsh red. She punched at the window so hard that it cracked to the edges and blood poured from her hand. Despite the very clear maroon magic forming over her horn, her blood was still a basic crimson red.
She dropped completely as the maroon magic faded. She coughed, still very crimson red with blood. Seeing it, she remembered back to the transformation Twilight had in the arena. Seeing the blood's color almost screaming at her, she hit it instead, over and over. "He gave me power, a way to fucking survive and yet, how?!?! How is she so different?! I want that power!! I need that power!!"
She stopped screaming as more blood poured out of her mouth. Her head swung left and right as her sight became fuzzy. "Tell me... please... you... bastard..." She fell to the ground and passed out.
******
Dim Dusk, the loyal naga guardian of Princess Platinum, took stock of his duty and threw his arms up in defense of his soldiers, hardening his flesh to its thickest point. They were quickly met by thousands of sharp crystal points shooting out in all directions.
However, it proved pointless as his blood showered over the ground. He shrieked in pain at the sight of the crystal tearing through one arm with complete ease. He dropped to one knee as the crystals continued their advance to his head.
His face of shock was only shadowed as one soldier jumped in the way, stopping the crystals' advance. The brave soul was shredded in an instance but stopped the final shard from reaching Dim's face, stopping just a few inches away from him.
Seeing the bold move, the other soldiers charged forward. Their weapons met on with the crystals that were still moving, only decreasing their growing casualties. Hearing his soldiers' roars of pain and bravo urged the naga to stand and throw a swing right at the alicorn. It landed, throwing the prince several feet.
Blood Diamond smiled at the naga's actions and let him see the blood drip from his mouth. This beast's loyalty was so strong that he refused to fall even with one arm beyond repair. "We see we were right in all cases. War is wanted, no desired, preferred over anything else." He snapped out a capsule from his sleeve, with the little effect it broke open, pouring out a cloud of colored dust over the air.
Dim and his remaining soldiers jumped back and covered their mouths, only to be met with disappointment from Blood Diamond. He waved a single finger at them and then pointed to the crystal. Much to their shock, the crystals reseeded.
Dim's eyes narrowed. "Now I see, that was magic at all." He noted the pure randomness and seemingly endless amount of them.
"Yes, the explosion was to spread out the shards of glass from each window. The bomb itself was also laced with a certain type of chemical that caused even the making of all crystals to expand."
"Even the basic crystalline structure of glass." The naga sneered at the burns in his arm.
"Yes, we heard that glass, in particular, can be quite sharp when shattered." Blood Diamond mopped, "We rarely get to use such material in battle because of the incredible strength of other gems. Such a shame they don't last long." He knocked the rest to dust with just his wings alone.
"So you stopped them because they were useless."
"Not, useless. It took out a few of your soldiers, wounded and even maimed the rest, all while showing where you stand in this war." Blood Diamond held out his hand to them all.
"So, you want war."
"No, we don't seek war," Blood Diamond corrected him. "We seek the truth." Blood Diamond rushed forward and stopped his claws in front of Dim's face. "Which one of you created that illusion?!"
"Illusion?" Dim swung his shredded arm to knock Blood Diamond's hand away. "There was no illusion, your king wanted war."
"Are you blind, or dense?" Blood Diamond went in for another attack. Dim met it with his axe and pushed him back.
The naga was surprised that the alicorn was fighting him with his bare hands, yet his concern grew more on why the alicorn seemed to refuse to draw the legendary arm blades he was known for. Narrowing his eyes off the weapon subject and on the alicorn himself, the naga charged in. It was time for him to take the offensive.
Dim lifted his axe high and dropped it with his full strength. His eyes went wide as Blood Diamond caught it again, this time with even less effort. Dim jumped back and rushed in the swing again with as much strength as he could muster, and yet despite pushing the alicorn a good two meters, the immortal stopped it with his bare arm.
The alicorn pushed him back once more with ease. Huffing in annoyance, the naga rushed in with a fury of multiple swipes, no longer caring how much strength as much as determined to push the alicorn into a fall.
Blood Diamond had come for a fight, covered in armor from head to toe, and yet it was his bare armorless arms that were doing the blocking. No, Dim knew something was very wrong here. The axe was dripping dark indigo blood and yet the alicorn gave no care to this, continuing to fight back with bare hands alone.
Dim jumped back one final time and demanded. "You mock us and yet wonder why we want this war!!"
"Mock you? I'm testing your resolve."
"My resolve..." He lifted his axe and showed the blood to his soldiers. "Such unique blood, can your own resolve out last our's?" Dim leered at his soldiers, giving them every reason to rush in.
Blood Diamond jumped back as the blades fell and slashed. Now he was dodging instead of brushing away. It was as Dim realized. He wasn't sure how the alicorn was stopping his attacks before, but with this onslaught, it was clear it wasn't through strength. He suspected it had to be another trick, but what?
Taking a deep breath inward, the naga brought in his axe. It was time he stopped fighting fairly. He swung and chopped off his useless limb. He then lifted the remains of the limb and gritted his teeth, letting out the air in a roar of frustration as he channeled all of his muscle strength to that single stub until the blood stopped flowing.
Some of his more wounded soldiers watched on with pride as he grew a new arm. However, he was far from done. He gripped the axe with both the new hand and the old hand and pulled in both directions. The axe split in two. He brought the new weapons out to the furthest reach of his limbs and roared aloud. He took in more air and, much to the shock of his allies, his two arms split open and into four arms, each now wielding an axe.
The naga dropped to a knee but pushed through the pain into a stance. He knew to do this brought an incredible strain on his body, but he needed to push himself to defeat this enemy. He knew sincerely that his princess couldn't fight this enemy ever. Blood Diamond had to die here or else he couldn't face the princess ever again.
Kicking at the ground to move, he rushed in as the soldiers gave their commander room. The first hit landed on the armor, finally bring Blood Diamond down to a knee. Despite hitting the armor, the naga smiled and swung with his right upper arm, aiming for the head.
The alicorn gritted and brought of his wing to block. The axe tore into feathers but stopped. Dim sneered and swung with his left upper arm. The alicorn met this with the block of his wing. Taking offensive back, the alicorn punched the naga in the gut, tearing through scales.
Dim jumped back, swung an axe into the arm, finally breaking it. He was happy to finally break something, but would have preferred to take the arm entirely. However, the hope faded as his axe shattered at the same moment. This single move brought an abrupt halt to the battle. The naga wanted to question it, but the halt was only so short as Blood Diamond did the shocking thing over shoving his exposed bone right through Dim's chest.
The soldiers all jumped back as the blood splattered. Dim himself stood still, both in fear and pain. He wasn't dead, but even more shocked that bone could somehow break through his armor-like flesh so easily.
Blood Diamond grimaced at his own pain and jumped back. "Damn, just two inches from your heart. That is a tough hide." He looked at his broken arm and, with little care, snapped the bone back into place. "We shouldn't have any concern about any disease of your kind, right? Not really details needed for us. Our brother is such a clean freak."
Dim brought a hand over and crushed the armor closed. Healing would have to wait. He sneered at Blood Diamond's carelessness toward his busted arm and held a single weapon forward. "Surrender now, and we will make your death quick." He finally saw his chance to end this. He always hated this war and never wanted it ever.
Blood Diamond looked back to his arm and, for a moment, almost considered the naga's words. "You truly are the most honorable, loyal, and strongest of the unicorn ranks." Blood Diamond couldn't lie on any of these accounts. "However, you lack foresight."
"What do you mean?"
Blood Diamond stood up and held his hands out to the surrounding soldiers. "You think simply because we are broken that this war is over."
"You are done." Dim dropped his weapon, and the others took this as a sign to move in and finish it. "We don't lack a foresight for simply fighting you, we fight you because... I fight you because I wish to save my princess."
"A truly honorable reason. However, fighting us wasn't what we meant by a lack of foresight." Blood Diamond finally chuckled. This lone sign of happiness brought chills to the naga as he brought up his own weapons and closed in.
"Then, tell me, what was my lack of foresight?" He brought his axes right to the throat of Blood Diamond.
"Assuming you had the advantage against one fighter." Blood Diamond moved his neck right against the sharp edge. "You quickly forgot as soon as you had me captured in these towers the obvious truth."
"What? Tell me?!"
"You can't have an advantage in two fighters when only one is pinned down." Blood Diamond leered his eyes up to the clouds that had been above them this whole time.
Dim's eyes slowly followed Blood Diamond's warning and finally realized the rain, or rather, where it was and where it wasn't. It was raining all over the towers... and not once touching the capital at all.
A single cloud that had appeared this morning and watched the battle between Twilight and Princess Platinum... and finally fell as Twilight entered the tower and they started moving the magic dampers into place.
The naga's eyes went wide at the truth, but it was too late as water rushed around them at high speed. The naga attempted to fight the rushing liquid as it quickly wrapped around them, pushing them far away from Blood Diamond and taking the magical dampers with them, breaking the magic blocking circle entirely in a single move.
Dim stabbed his axes into the ground to stop himself as water level lowered and showed what he realized. Now standing beside Blood Diamond was the siren, Cold Blue. The siren had been playing his ocarina dagger and before the naga had assumed its purpose was for something else, but it was always to control the water, the rain as it fell.
Blood Diamond had outsmarted them from the very beginning. With this example, the alicorn proved he knew every point of the plan and even how to outsmart the dampers, as their greatest weakness was their lack of ability to stop magic already in effect.
The naga only had one last question. "Why now?" he openly spoke aloud, demanding an answer clearly.
The remaining soldiers took stock and their surroundings to re-circle around the two enemies. Seeing Blood Diamond finally charging magic, the unicorns formed a barrier of magic with their circle. They were stopped for a moment as Blood Diamond's blast halted them in place.
"Why, now?!" The naga repeated louder.
Blood Diamond opened his mouth but again didn't answer, instead a single spell was uttered, "Forbidden Spell, no number, Crystal Bullet." In an instant, blood splattered from every single unicorn between the alicorn and the naga, a massive shockwave threw the rest to the side and shattered the barrier so easily. The naga had no time to react as endless pain tore through his body.
A bullet size crystal shot out from Blood Diamond's sleeve. That was the only purpose of the spell. And yet this spell continued to rip through everything in its path; cutting through every pony, wall, building, and even airship within three-mile. A single ever so small hole could be seen through all of them.
Dim fell to the ground, a gash now covering his left jaw where the air current alone had cut through his flesh. Horror traced over his mind as he knew full well that if the prince had aimed directly at him, his head would have been gone at that moment.
Blood Diamond opened his mouth and finally answered. "We told you from the beginning, we wish to see your resolve... and now it has been broken. For nothing breaks hope more than holding it for a single second before defeat." As he said, the unicorns around the naga dropped their weapons.
Dim felt his fingers shaking to hold his weapons, not in pain but absolute fear. His whole body was now creaking, not from a loss of strength from the tough battle but simply because, despite how much he wanted to deny it, this would never be a victory.
The naga dropped to a knee as shame finally out-powered his fear. The alicorn clapped to this and turned away. "You want your war, then you shall have it, but know this very important thing; mortals hold no gamble toward the immortals that stand above them and the proof is in their resolve. The only one on your side with resolve still standing strong is the alicorn your princess lost to. Look to her now, for only she can save you from our wrath." With that, the alicorn and the siren took their leave.
Dim's eyes went wide as he spoke a single name. "Twilight Sparkle."
******
The inside of the invisible orb in the center of the towers quickly filled with sprays of water as the whirlpool got bigger and bigger. Starswirl moved his magic as fast as he could. Even with the advantage of being a splendid swimmer, the filly couldn't out paste the power of the wizard.
And yet Starswirl was wondering a very important question, "Just why didn't you claim it before I got here?" The siren filly didn't answer and swam closer to the lather. Starswirl moved his hands and pulled the filly away. "That won't work."
"Oh, you doubt me!" The controller spoke with confidence. Without warning, the siren's limbs moved faster, the body twisted and kicked harder through the air.
Starswirl's frustration was evident. He knew exactly what the alicorn was doing, pushing the filly's body beyond her limits. "Stop this." He moved his fingers to alter the spell and used the spinning water to grab the filly.
However, the filly thrashed her body around with harsher moves. The rushing water against her fight tore at the pelt and her clothes. Starswirl's annoyance pushed him to end this faster, but the alicorn was using this anger against the wizard, pushing the filly reckless until she broke free completely.
Starswirl's eyes went wide as he dropped the spell completely. The filly had gotten free but by breaking her arms. Bones laid exposed as the controller forced her to stand.
"Stop this, she is in so much pain." Starswirl pointed to her tears. Despite the alicorn's absolute control, the wizard could see the agony plastered over her face.
The controller refused to listen and forced the filly to rush toward the alathar directly. Rushing over the pool, it turned a harsh red with each step. Kicking with just her feet, the filly reached out with her teeth to grab the alathar.
However, the alathar, as if reacting to the horror, blasted the filly away with little effort, perfectly landing her body in front of Starswirl. The controller attempted to force the filly to stand, but it was pointless. The body was now beyond moving.
Shame clouded the wizard as he reached down to the filly. He checked her pulse and despite the agony; she was still alive. The wizard snapped his fingers and clouds surrounded her body. "I'm sorry little one, this is the best I can do."
"No..." The voice of the controller was still so strong. Fighting back with pulses of magic, shooting out from the filly's body.
Starswirl's shame turned to anger, the first genuine anger he had shown in a long time. "Now I see." Chaos magic sparked from the wizard and he sent a dark glare to the filly's eyes and the controller watching through them.
The chaos magic stabilized and formed the shape of a serpent with a single deer's horn and a single goat's horn. The controller saw this and brought out his own avatar through the filly's tweaking magic. The shape of a mighty alicorn with a crooked horn.
The two images clashed with mighty forces that shook the entire orb to the point of cracking. The two were at a stalemate and yet neither halted. The image of the serpent pulled back and Starswirl spoke. "I don't know your name, nor do I know your power. However, I know this," he raised his voice, "You bring shame to all alicorns. Even the lower fakes like Twilight are far better than you could ever be." The serpent glowed brighter and grew bigger.
The alicorn's avatar spoke this time instead of the filly, "I was one of the first alicorns to ever exist and yet this claim is perfect as the alicorn after I bring me shame." He attempted to grow the avatar to a similar size and charged forward.
"One of the oldest, huh? Fine, face the oldest unicorn to ever live." Starswirl sent the serpent forward.
"And what is your name?" The two clashed with the greatest force yet, sending out shockwave after shockwave. "This power you use is not of a unicorn."
"I am Starswirl the Bearded. and while I'm no normal unicorn, I stand here as the strongest chaos unicorn of them all." With that, Starswirl's eyes narrowed and turned yellow and red. In that same moment, the power of the serpent reached its highest, pushing the avatar away and right into the alathar's pedestal.
The crash sent out a final shockwave, which smashed the walls of the invisible orb, destroying the structure in an instant. This action also tumbled the remaining towers as well.
******
Twilight woke up with a harsh headache. The rush of the fall was still swimming through her head, making movement sluggish. She dropped to one knee and fought her dizziness to stand. She wasn't sure what fully happened after the fall, but she was glad to be alive. However, this joy was short-lived at the sight of all the towers destroyed. She was now inside a pile of rubble, surrounded by so much more rubble.
She crawled to the edge of a window and the sight of crystal spikes pointing outward in the distance. She assumed this had to of been where Blood Diamond landed. She couldn't get a good sight of what was happening, only that the battle appeared to have ended. Which was the victor was unclear, but what was clear was many unicorns were injured and some were even dead.
She fought through the pain and attempted to stand. She stopped at the feeling of liquid below her. Fearing the worse she searched her body, but no wounds could be felt. She looked down to the liquid and its color didn't match her slowly dark maroon blood and instead was a bright crimson.
She turned away to search for the source. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Starlight, stabbed through the hip by a piece of rebar. "No, no, no!" she rushed over. Fighting through her own aching pain, she reached the body and shook an arm, hoping for some life. "No, you can't die here!!"
"Shut up, Teach..." Starlight coughed hard. The unicorn attempted to stand, but despite the rebar not being locked in place, it was far too heavy to lift without causing damage to the body.
"Stop moving," Twilight pushed her back down. "You could rip your insides open."
Starlight looked to where the rebar was impaled, "Ha, just a full foot to the left, and Silver Pear could finally say he's penetrated me."
"He threw you?"
"Oh stop, there was no way of knowing where I would land. Besides, I couldn't let you die, Teacher." Starlight smiled through her grimace.
"I'm supposed to be protecting you and you pull this." Twilight pulled away, shame clouding her eyes.
"Don't be like that. You have been doubting me ever since you heard that prophecy." Starlight slapped Twilight in the face. "Someone still needs to teach me, right?"
"... Yeah." Twilight cupped her face.
Before they could catch their breath, soldiers arrived and surrounded them. Dim, the loyal naga even in his weakened form walked over to Twilight. She attempted to question why they were here, only for him to pull his axe up to her throat.
"You will not speak... alicorn." The naga's rage was clear. "You are placed under arrest for deception and alliance with Blood Diamond."
"What?" Starlight struggled, but blades rose to stop her, blocking her movement. "You can't do this. She's not an alicorn?"
Twilight drapped out her wings for all to see. "No, there is no reason to lie anymore." She held out her hands. "I will leave if you get a healer for my friend."
"What? Teacher, you can't do this?!" Starlight shouted.
"I must. Blood Diamond saw through my disguise from the moment he saw me. It's obvious he told them." She turned away from Starlight, looked to the naga. "Please, save her."
Dim gritted his teeth but gave in at the sight of her wounds. "We will save her. And then you will face my princess's judgment."
With that, two soldiers and Dim took Twilight away while the rest stayed behind and attempted to break the rebar apart without hurting Starlight for lighter transport.
As Twilight was taken away, Starlight reached out with as might as she could muster, but the pain from her wound was too great. She had to save Twilight from death, but she couldn't save her from this. And yet she knew her teacher's lies would eventually catch up with her. She stopped struggling and gritted her teeth in shame.
She dropped her hand to one side, only to jump back at a sharp pain that felt different from the rebar stabbed through her. She turned as best she could and saw a large piece of glass sitting beside her.
"No, this is..." She stopped as she could feel the magic emanating off it. She placed her hand over it and pulled on what magic she could from herself.
******
Miles away within a crystal airship, Blood Diamond frowned as one of the many images he had been watching went to static. He waved his hand over it and the image moved to the center and grew to twice its size. "That is odd. We thought none of them noticed our crystals among the explosion." He twisted his hand, and the image moved backward and showed a unicorn hand covering it before static took over. "Strange to encounter magic that can match our own." He rewound further until he came across the image of Twilight.
He sensed a chill from Cold Blue who had been watching with him since they arrived in the airship. He turned to Cold Blue, whose sight was intently centered on Twilight. "Just what is your connection with this mare?"
"I..." Cold Blue didn't know how to answer this as he turned to face Blood Diamond.
"Answer us this time. You pushed it away before, but we must know now."
"The power... of the ascension that she obtained."
Blood Diamond raised an eyebrow at this. "Hmm, that power of malice and hatred. Such darkness shouldn't be praised."
"But... her darkness is..."
"Like your own, indeed. Which is why she must be ignored." Blood Diamond turned back to the images and snapped his fingers. The static shattered as the crystal turned to dust. He turned his attention to other images and gave his last word "We need to keep our mind on the true target."
"Fine..." Cold Blue looked away before exiting the room.
Once the siren was gone, Blood Diamond let go of his breath in a show of annoyance. He didn't mind Cold Blue sight toward Twilight. There were other reasons he felt the siren was distracted. For two years now the siren had been taking breaks after breaks and sure he had been doing these breaks for over five thousand years now, it had been as frequently as recently. "We don't why we took Cold Blue over Rex."
"Because my former student is rather determined to do things his own way." A shadow answered. "By the way, I see you didn't hesitate to take my airship."
Blood Diamond smiled at the shadow. "Of course, we knew you would bring me good news, Stygian."
"Yes," The shadowy unicorn surfaced out of the shadow and present a large picture to Blood Diamond. "But I'm not sure if this would be good news."
"An image of Lady Mass Hysteria. What could this provide?" Blood Diamond waved it away. While he had never met the mare in person, he had heard plenty of the former warrior before arriving in the capital.
"This isn't just any image of her. This is the last image." Stygian moved his hands over the shadows and they brought the picture closer.
Blood Diamond humored the unicorn and looked at the picture. For a moment, all he saw was the same as before, a legendary warrior who brought kingdoms to their knees turned into a loyal soldier of the unicorn crown before finally marrying into that very family. Nothing of this picture brought anything new to his thoughts until his eyes fell on the arms.
The sight of blackening veins traced over both limbs. He looked back to his own arms, still torn from the wounds of battle, only being kept closed through magic to ensure his survival until they returned to the alicorn citadel. His eyes traced over the dark indigo blue staining his fur. His sight went wide, and he turned back to the image.
Her vein was dark, too dark to see the color. "She was a user of what magic?' he waved his hand over the picture and crystals flew over it, intensifying the image over and over until the correct color was clear. “...Maroon red... Dark magic!"
"Yes, I thought so," Stygian confirmed. "This changes everything."
Blood Diamond smiled, "It certainly does."
******
Back in the rubble of the towers, Starswirl lifted several chunks of rocks with ease and smiled at the sight of the siren filly. Content filled his heart when he sensed the alicorn's present was gone. He snapped his fingers and reformed the cloud he had cushioned her with, and lifted her into the air.
He turned and shouted to Lady Cat and Fredricson, who had come all this way to search with him. "Bring Adagio, quickly."
The orange siren filly heard those words and rushed over. She cheered for joy at the sight of her sister. Fredricson broke down into tears at the sight of his son's pelt. Despite the horrible things that had been done to it, he was glad the defilement had ended.
Starswirl backed away and let them enjoy their happiness. He turned in the alathar's direction and saw Clover and Rex staring at the pedestal. He walked closer and asked, "So why couldn't he claim the gift of Chrystal Laylis?"
Rex frowned. "Because this isn't the alathar that she left here." he placed his hand over the pedestal and the alathar rose from the waters with ease. "See, the Tear of The Sky is aqua chrysoprase. However, this crystal is a red beryl."
"Which means a mind controlled could never take a grasp of this," Clover confirmed. "This is the legendary Eye of the King."
"It's power, Absolute Command, bends followers of the holder to its will and nullifies any opposing commands toward the holder."
Starswirl wrapped the alathar in a tight magic grip. "So as soon as the filly took hold of it, the controller grip broke. If only for a moment, it was enough to make him panic and either wait for me to appear or rush in with little thought."
"Exactly." Rex grimaced. "But at least we now have another alathar of our."
With that, they attempted to take their leave. However, Silver Pear ran up to them to deliver the bad news about Twilight and Starlight. Hearing his words changed everything. Plans would have to change, some for the best, others for the worse.
Many things were charging forward in those next days. From Twilight's imprisonment to Starlight's recovery. It was unclear when both parts would end. Twilight kept a hopeful outlook as she waited for her judgment day. Her cage was so dank and hot, yet every night as if perfectly timed cool rain would reach through the opening. It was one of the few peaceful moments she could have in her cell.
Silver Pear pleaded with Dim every time that he got the chance to undo such a bold move, yet he refused every time. The naga was often seen in too much stress to care for the alicorn. Princess Platinum was recovering but pushing herself so hard, so fast, to get back into battle. The naga would argue with her every night, but to no avail. She refused to falter until she would stand victorious.
The war was runway, whether the princess was there to lead it. Blood Diamond laid a massive siege to the west of the unicorn providence, burning any city that refused to yield. He always claimed he could end the war in an instant, but chose not to, to make an example of Mira's rule. He wished to shame the princess in every way, in every victory.
Rex and Clover stayed purely because the map they were following refused to give any answer, but also because their transport was under repairs. Fredricson said the attack on the ship was perfectly timed. Whether it was to stall for time or have them witness the war play out, Indigo Frost and his alicorn ally wished for Rex and Clover to stay in place.
Despite being trapped in the middle of a warzone, Starswirl in his cleverness could contact the other alicorns in the floating citadel. While he could tell them all the secrets he knew about Twilight, he was quite shocked that Celestia spoke of Twilight by name and that she fought such dark magic only days before Twilight's imprisonment. Celestia wished to avidly meet Twilight but knew she couldn't with the war going on.
The groups were all at a stalemate with the war going on. It was clear nothing could truly get done until the first portion of the war reached its climax. Blood Diamond knew this better than most and as he laid the groundwork for his greatest assault yet, he made sure that every detail wouldn't end the war, but push it into breaking point.
Indigo Frost said this war would consume all species, but only the unicorns have been fighting. However, it won't be long until the other species are forced to move in and take sides. With that in mind, the wendigo had ordered his allies to visit the ruins of a forgotten kingdom, hoping to spread this war to the furthest reach.
The Pale Mare turned away from the window to the north and glared heavily at the door. She could feel the heats from the magics bouncing back and forth beyond it. The echoing of voices, forcing, raging, and twisting through the cracks of the wood. The wood of which was her only barrier, that and her will which was waining every second she looked further into these visions.
She could hear all their voices, from their current rage to their previous kindness. How quickly things change with a mere choice, they refused to let her see the actual truth, to if see she made the right choice. Did she stand on the right side back then and is she standing on the right side now? She longed for time to make the right choice, but she feared such a moment had long passed.
She finally forced herself to turn away when she felt the water drip down her cheeks. Her knees weakened with each drop. Her will, her greatest barrier, could barely keep her standing. Her stance lowered until her legs gave out. Hands wrapped tightly around her face to stop the tears.
After a moment, she realized she hadn't hit the ground yet. She jumped only for a second upon feeling enormous arms holding her up. They were rough to others and only ever soft to her, strong to the enemies yet graceful to her touch, standing tightly against denying powers yet giving to her will.
"I heard your pain." His voice brought her face upward. His cooling breath dried her tears, and she removed her hands from her face. She couldn't hide her blush when he smiled. The creature could only be described as a tall, scaly monster. His head was rough, but his frills were so soft. His arms were so big and yet so gentle.
For the first few moments, all she could do was lock eyes with him. She gave no care to his return, nor to the noises outside. The only thing that now kept her doubt in place was the fear that he would force her to choose like the ones outside were.
"How goes the battle?" her words slipped before she could stop herself.
"He refuses to yield. I doubt he ever will. And now he even has the alicorns at his side. They all demand you choose." The Scaly Monster answered. Hearing that last word made her doubt take back full control, especially when a louder explosion outside shook the entire building. "Blood Diamond is trying his hardest to keep him at bay but alone even he can only do so much." The Scaly Monster wrapped his arms around her more.
Hearing the battle changing waves only brought back the tears in full force. "Why?" She slipped her head into his chest.
"What?"
"Why can't I choose?" The Pale Mare answered.
"I... don't know..." He leaned his rough chin over her head
The Pale Mare couldn’t help but fall into the grip of his enormous arms. The combined coolness of his body and the warmth of his fur almost made all sorrow and pain wash away.
Without warning, she felt his hand upon her mane. Feeling his finger brush through it made her blush heavily. She leaned in more to meet his body. All cares faded for that moment… the return of a moment that could have lasted for an eternity.
She looked back to the time when she first met this Scaly Monster. Maybe the memories of their earliest meetings could bring her closer to her answer.
******
Many years ago, deep within the basement of a hospital, a filly laid upon a table with several tools sitting beside her. Her face was to the ground and her back prominently outward, not exposed to the target as light shined brightly upon it. The filly's age was unclear, but she was at least in her later years, not yet to be considered a mare but far older than most fillies.
A door to the room opened with a loud boom, bringing her attention to two others entering. One was an older ifrit woman in western attire, the other a tall figure cloaked in rags and a hood. Once the figure got close enough, the filly shivered at the sight of tentacles moving inside the cloak.
"Will these tools work?" A tentacle moved over the tools as the ifrit walked closer.
"Hmm," she stopped and picked one tool at a time and looked over them carefully. "While stronger tools would have been needed, these will do.”
"Stronger tools?"
"Let me rephrase, tougher tools." She picked up the small saw. "These will work, but the work will be more... gory."
"Do it!" The filly interrupted them.
The ifrit noted this lack of fear and placed her fiery hand against the filly's back. The filly streaked in pain. "You think you can handle this? You can barely handle a touch from me."
"I don't care," the filly argued back. "I need this to be done."
"Fine..." the ifrit huffed in annoyance and presented her with a mouth guard. "Bite down." The filly did as she was told while the ifrit grabbed the scissors. Moving to the back, she cut open the shirt gently. The ifrit jumped back and the sight of the prize. She carefully picked at the straps and traced her fingers over the surrounding scars, the previous attempts of her predecessors, all failures.
The ifrit felt a twitch of fear in her fingers as she looked back to the taller figure. "Master, is this really what she desires?"
"Calamity, doubt is not desired in this position. You do what we asked of you." The figure answered. He lifted his right sleeve and tentacles flowed forth over the same scars. "This filly has suffered with her curse, she simply wishes for it to finally end." The figure raised a hand to the cheek of Calamity and spoke softer. "Your grandchildren, Sanity and Vanity, have suffered from their curses, have they not."
"But this work won't change this filly's biology at all."
"Leave that to our alicorn ally." The figure pushed her hand to the tools. "Do this, and your grandchildren will be freed as well."
Finally conceding, she took up the sheers and made quick work of the straps and moved to remove the fur around the targets. Once clear, she took the scissors to clean out any smaller hairs. She reached her hands full over both targets, feeling for the joints. She jumped at the seers of pain from the filly before gripping tight at the weakened points.
A loud pop was only matched by the damping scream from the filly. Another louder pop stopped the screaming as shock took over. The targets gave no more fight and fell to the sides with ease. Calamity gripped tighter and pulled one target away just far enough before grabbing the saw.
Though the tool was small, she needed much smaller as this saw tore more flesh than needed, but did its job. Pain re-surged within the fill with the rush of blood.
The tall figure moved fast into his part, the tentacles swept over the blood, appearing the lick it away like a tongue. The more blood flowed forth, the more he cleaned, allowing the ifrit to work faster.
After a few loud cracks and a few more breaks, the first target was removed. The tall figure removed his tentacles and Calamity used her flames to burn the wound shut before the filly could lose more blood.
The ifrit placed her hand over the forehead of the filly. The little one was getting a fever fast. "We need to move quicker, or she might die."
"She won't, her kind are a stubborn species." The tall figure moved close enough until his chest hanged over the operating table. "However, you are right to be concerned." With that, the chest of the figure shook violently as a liquid sprayed from an opening.
"No, Thule." She reached over, "Your current corpse can't handle that strain."
"Then I will quickly find another." A loud crack interrupted him as a giant tentacle stretched out on the chest of the figure. "After all, we are all the light in his darkness. We must be ready to make sacrifices." On that, the large tentacle stabbed deeply into the spine of the filly with ease.
The filly shrieked louder than ever before going limb. The tentacle wrapped tightly to the bone before opening inside the flesh. Smaller, almost microscopic tentacles poured out of the holes and quickly found what veins they could. They intruded the veins and filled them with blood from before, now cleaned and refreshed, as if the blood had never left the body.
"Continue," Thule answered.
"Fine." Calamity moved over to the next target and went to cut.
Pain could still be felt from the but it didn't match the agony of the tentacles sticking through the back. It wasn't just her back as the refreshed blood moved throughout her body as she bled from the fresh wound being carved at that very moment. Thule sucked up that old blood and refreshed it as well, ensuring no blood loss at all. It was as if every part of her body was being violated. She wanted to cry, but she knew she had already cried enough. For her, this needed to be done if she was to truly stand strong again.
******
Echoes of footsteps bounced from the floors to the walls deep within the Alicorn Citadel. A lonely unicorn rushed with a stack of scrolls in his hands. He looked onward to the second tallest tower and the symbol, an orb covered in centipedes. Shame and fear traced his eyebrows as he got closer.
As the door swung open, voices could be heard matching the echoes of his footsteps until they overpowered him completely. A room lay ahead with a table and six chairs. Topaz Silk stood at one side with Celestia and Luna. On the other side was Golden William, Lord Red and Blood Diamond, the last of which wasn't there but again was using a crystal to communicate. The unicorn quickly moved to the furthermost chair to the door and present the scrolls to Lord Red.
"Thank you, Clovis." Lord Red took the first scroll and presented it to the five others. "The proof you asked for, Celestia."
Celestia looked over the data, but it only brought her more confusion. "This makes no sense. Is this all the data you have on Twilight?"
"I scanned the first explosion as soon. There are no lies. Her style matches your style by twenty percent." He pointed to Luna, "And her magic output matches yours by fifty percent."
"Impossible. This data makes no sense." Golden Williams couldn't agree with Lord Red at all on this. He had supported his other points, but this one made no sense. "The only way such data could be possible is through linage or tutelage, both of which currently impossible."
"Current is the point," Blood Diamond finally spoke up. "When I encountered her she had high levels of light magic around her."
All but Topaz Silk grew silent to this. She alone answered, "The Omnious."
"No," Blood Diamond corrected, "While the Omnious is said to have both magic inside them, the light magic around Twilight is far too thin, a shell for Twilight, an anchor, holding her to this timeline."
"Time travel... You mean that light magic event two years ago," Golden William concurred.
"Yes, I believe these two things are connected." Lord Red answered them.
"Impossible, the current time travel available can only send items, not creatures." Luna opposed. "And such time travel is still thousands of years away."
"Yes... but that doesn't mean it won't be complete soon." Celestia conceded to her realization. The rest looked at her, curious about what she meant. She turned away from their glares and answered slowly. "Starswirl has been attempting to finish a proper spell for some time now."
"Or he will be destined to complete it purely because he has contact with this time traveler." Lord Red confirmed.
Seeing all this finally reach its conclusion, Topaz Silk finally gave her advice, "It seems this Twilight has a destiny, whether its to help Starswirl finish the spell is unclear right. The chances are high that she may simply inspire him and her own destiny might be something else entirely. What we aren't considered is if her arrival was planned, then what is her purpose in this timeline and how will it affect the fate of the future."
The Sun brought forth such a beautiful morning over the small town known as Gelum Voce Pia. The light dazed through the large blue grass plain, melting away the snow until reaching the town, bringing with it the smells of the last month of winter. The sounds of chariots echoed all around as citizens gathered together. They moved around wood and stones, clearly up debris and fixed up buildings.
The pain they had suffered twenty days ago was gone, and they could move forward. Celestia's plan had succeeded, but at most, in helping the creatures of this town free themselves from the darkness that had chained them down for so long.
Rainbow Dartz could see a few hippogriffs lifting some heavy boulders, while sirens pushed snow out of the way and unicorns were just as quick at moving new stuff in place. He laughed at a certain sound before looking at Red Steel.
The buffalo was quick to lift a hippogriff out of the way as Hermes ran by in a green blur. The griffin moved effortlessly, passing out food and other supplies before returning to the chariots to grab more.
Rainbow Dartz watched in amazement as he took a drink of his cider. He stopped at his sip and noted the lighter flavor because of the less alcohol. "When do you think Lighttone will be back with the stronger supplies?"
"We don't need you too drunk," Hermes laughed. "I know you and Lighttone prefer a good drink, but we have worked to do."
"True, I'm certain his trip to the Earth Pony Conglomerate won't take much longer." Rainbow Dartz turned to his left and gave a hearty laugh of joy at the sight of some folks lifting the new wall for the Wolf's Apple. "That alicorn's kindness is even greater than Granny Apple."
"Yeah, I just wish Princess Celestia could visit again."
"I'm more hoping that Silver Pear and Granny Apple can return soon." The pegasus's eyes turned to the right and fell upon the monolith of a crystal hand. "Maybe, Twilight and Starlight as well. They all need to see how much we have grown so much since that day."
Red Steel saw the strain in Rainbow Dartz's eyes and walked over beside him. The buffalo placed his hand on his back and padded lightly. The old bull didn't even need to say the words. These three had been friends for far too long. He could see the shame deep within the pegasus' eyes. During that old battle, he did so little while Red Steel and Hermes did so much more.
The pegasus nodded and placed down the drink. "You're right, the work is far from over. Starlight won't give up, Silver Pear won't give up, so we certainly can't give up either." With that last word, they returned to work.
Hermes continued his fast movement while Red Steel and Rainbow Dartz helped move the new wall into place. Happiness could be seen in all of them.
A lone watcher of the events unfolding couldn't help but smile with them. They had grown so much with so little help. The lone figure watching from afar, in fact, watching from on top of the crystal hand. A lone lavender unicorn stallion watched and commented, "Yes, things are moving faster and soon everything will be in place." He stopped and noted the sky. Clouds were gathering, but not of snow. Instead, much needed rain. "I better return to the mission at hand."
******
Miles away, deep within the Unicorn Providence, a far different emotion could be felt as the muddy footsteps echoed around Twilight Sparkle as she walked, chains over her arms, legs, and wings. The guards kept a good watch, especially over the sky, turning on the magic dampeners as soon as the clouds gathered.
The alicorn walked when she could or else she was dragged across the street, much to the laughter of the unicorns pointing at her. Among the screaming, she could see Silver Pear struggling to reach the edge of the crowds.
"Twilight!" he screamed out.
Twilight reached out to him but stopped as a whip cracked into her back. Her face was so cold and broken after all these days of walking that the tears of flesh meant nothing to her. She had been so detached since the imprisonment twenty days ago and each additional punishment only dulled as the days. She said nothing to the shock in Silver Pear's eyes toward her lifelessness.
"Don't worry, your student is finally being released from the hospital today!"
Twilight attempted to speak to him, but she was silenced as the chains pulled harshly, knocking her to the ground.
"Keep moving!!" a guard screamed. "Damn monster alicorn!!" He kicked her in the gut, knocking her further ahead.
Twilight gave no fight despite the rage in Silver pear's voice toward the attack. Instead, her eyes were on the flesh of her right arm. As the sight of the paling flesh, she bit down deep in her arm. Screaming through the pain, she forced the transformation away. Rex had told her one way to keep the transformation from taking over was the drain out any maroon blood by opening the flesh. She couldn't let the Pale Mare take command, no matter how much pain she was in.
There was a distance to travel, there always was. She knew she had failed, so fighting it with the powers of darkness, no matter how tempting they were, now more than ever, it was pointless. The way she saw it now was to simply accept defeat.
Silver Pear watched every second with hatred toward her punishers. While he was never too close to Twilight, he couldn't help but feel shame, at least for Starlight, unable to do anything to save Twilight despite the number of times the group tried since the fall of the towers. However, he was an earth pony in a kingdom of unicorns. He could only do so much.
All he could do was look up to the cloudy skies and hoped somepony could help Twilight even in this darkest of moments. He wanted to help her, anypony to help her, no matter who they might be.
******
Those same clouds were floating above two others at the edge of the city. Rex listened to the crackle of the wind in the stormy weather above them as he and Clover walked through the outer limits of the city. He knew something was off ever since he saw Cold Blue during that battle twenty days ago. The rain had been so random on appearance and Princess Platinum was on guard every minute because of it.
A lot of things outside the city used to be beyond her sight, but now she had posted guards everywhere, even in the furthest areas. He even heard reports about how nearby cities were also over-preparing for anything to happen. If her fears were genuine, that meant they were never out of that siren's sight or the sight of his master. "How long will you continue, Cold?"
"What? There is no way he can control every cloud?" Clover was in denial of Cold Blue full strength.
"Not every cloud, yes, but you don't know him as well as I do. The great siren of the west, known for his endless cold and harsh storms."
"Know? He's been your rival since long before we ever met." She snarked back. She knew about how long their rivalry lasted, over five thousand years. "As old as you both are, your age is nothing compared to Master Starswirl."
"True, but Starswirl holds back on magic that only a few can even come close to mastering. Cold Blue is a siren. Their natural magics are sound and water-based. Where Starswirl has spent many millennia mastering a skill beyond that of even alicorns, Cold Blue is using spells that even the youngest of sirens can get a handle on and he has mastered every version and every limit his species can reach." Rex stopped and pulled out his Dark Alicorn Amulet. "And to top things off, he doesn't need to rely on artifacts like this to access dark magic."
"But doesn't his dark magic come at a terrible price?" Clover questioned.
"Yes, much like Twilight, he too has a monstrous form, known as simply the Scaly Monster," Rex continued walking, this time with more paste, as it was clear he didn't want to talk about this darker form of magic.
"Huh, what's with the simple names these other personalities come up with." However, Clover persisted.
"They aren't alternate personalities, but primal urges, desires the host in question refuses to accept so they bottle it until the darkness forces it out.”
"Huh, if only they were on our side we might just win against that wendigo."
"Possibly, but I fear that this Indigo Frost might have his own monstrous form we have yet to see."
"What makes you say that?"
"All dark magic users must confront their darkest urges eventually, no matter how pure they are. Maybe he has yet to unleash his darkest half just yet, or has already mastered it to its fullest potential."
"Really? I wonder if Cold Blue has mastered his own. I mean, he could keep Twilight's under some form of control."
Rex came to a stop before answering. "While he has mastered every storm spell ever created, I've rarely seen his monstrous form, so I'm unclear whether he has mastered it yet. What I know is much like a wild beast. The monstrous form will respond to basic actions, sounds for example."
"So legends of songs soothing the mighty beast are true."
"In a certain way, yes, though I find it rather odd that Cold Blue could find the right song for Twilight so easily." The umburm looked onward to the titan airship which was just down a snowy hill in front of them. "Besides, we can't expect help from him while the unicorns are fighting his master."
"Either way, it looks like that old pirate is almost finished," Clover commented at the sight of no massive hole in the titan airship. "Soon we can leave and go back to hunting down the rest of the alathar."
"Just because he sealed it doesn't mean it will fly again soon." Rex was as doubtful as ever.
Clover frowned at this and padded him on the back. "Don't be a grumpy puss." She laughed and slid down into the snow. Rex moodily followed behind her. The unicorn enjoyed the last bit of snow, knowing that soon it would be gone for the rest of the year.
"Shit!" Clover came to a stopped and jumped clear at the sight of two siren filly's running by. She reached over to Rex to give a warning, but he already vanished into his shadow and reappeared out of her shadow.
"Careful!" Lady Cat ran over and scolded the two fillies.
"We're sorry," the two spoke in unison.
Clover just laughed and lifted the two into a tight hug. "You two are just so adorable."
Rex went to see Fredricson, who was hanging off the side of the titan airship. "Fredricson, any news?"
"Three or four more days at worst," Fredricson lowered himself down to Rex. "Speaking of news, did..." The old pirate's words drifted.
"The remains of Mon arrived at his grave yesterday. The message came in through my shadows just this morning." Rex handed him the letter.
Fredricson took the letter and gave it a read. The more he read, the more sweat gathered on his face.
"Yes, apparently, Mon's mother has a worse use of vocabulary than you." Rex looked around. "Where is Starswirl?"
"Attempting his own message with the alicorns."
"Hmm, any reply?" Rex was curious.
"None that I know of." Fredricson went back up.
"Hmm, strange." Rex leaned against the wall and watched Clover experiment with the siren fillies. Adagio and Aria looked so happy to have found each other. At first, he had found the children to be an annoyance, but seeing the happiness grow on Clover's face made things better. He couldn't dare go against her joy. She waved at him before going back to the children. He watched her in return, letting her enjoy every moment.
"My, my, with a look like that, I would assume my sister wanted children of her own." An unknown voice broke the silence.
Rex jumped back at that voice. Chains rose out of his shadows and wrapped tightly around the intruder. He didn't hesitate at the sight of Clovis the Coward, Clover's younger brother. "What are you doing here?"
"Really? Is this the best way to treat me? Maybe my master should come instead." Clovis was stopped as the chains got tighter.
"Your alliance to Lord Red is why you are in chains now." Rex threw the unicorn to the side. "Blood Diamond is already making moves on this kingdom almost daily if Lord Red gets involved, it won't be long before Emerald himself steps forward."
"I understand that as well as you." Clovis struggled. "I am all for Blood Diamond's mercy toward my species. However, the reason I'm here takes higher priority."
"Liar!" Rex threw him again, this time far harsher.
"Clovis," Clover's words stopped Rex from continuing the torture.
"Oh, hello sister." Clovis breathed better and stood once the chains lowered back into the shadows. "Mother sends her regards."
"And father?"
Clovis was shocked by her question. "You don't know that father is already in the city--" He stopped as the chains rose back up.
"That curiosity can wait," Rex sneered. "What is the other priority?"
Clovis rolled his eyes at the umbrum. "Fine, where is the alicorn known as Twilight Sparkle?"
Both Rex's and Clover's eyes went wide. "Why do you want to know about her?" Clover questioned.
"Oh, our research is plentiful already. The reason I am here is the danger she presents. Now where is she?"
"At the courthouse. She is a prisoner of Princess Platinum."
Clovis frowned in disappointment. "Then the problem just got much worse." Lightning cracked through the air at his words. As if somepony else was listening, the rain fell with his words. "I have been sent here to give a warning. Lord Red's most elite soldiers will arrive soon to capture Twilight Sparkle, dead or alive."
******
Footsteps echoed through the courtroom as Twilight was brought forward to be judged. The former princess of friendship now faced another princess during a war between mortals and immortals; Princess Platinum stood in the judge's chair.
“Twilight Sparkle, look at me.” Platinum slammed her hammer. The room was small but big enough to hold just enough juries and Platinum herself standing with a judge in this twisted proceeding.
Twilight mumbled as she looked down. She dared not look at the princess or the juries, for despite their given title, it was very clear from their faces and reactions that each was chosen by her judge and would serve her will alone, not Twilight. She knew the system would be rigged, could only hope that Mira’s punishment was painless, or at least quick.
“I said, look at me!” Mira screamed at Twilight only to gain no reward. She realized that Twilight had long accepted her fate. Twenty days had finally broken her hope. “I must know, why?”
“Why?!” Twilight spoke with a proper volume this time. “Why did I save this city, this kingdom that wanted war so desperately?!” Her voice raised with each word.
“No, why would you deceive us with such illusions?” Dim asked what Mira refused to fully admit as he pointed to Twilight's wings.
“It was not meant as a deception. I was born a unicorn, of course, I would do whatever it took to save you all.”
“Save us? We didn't want to be saved by your kind! The alicorns have seen us as the lower species for so many centuries.”
“No, they don’t?!” Twilight argued back. “They value you as allies and as friends.”
“They did nothing when my father died trying to save my life! They did nothing as wendigoes hunted and feasted on our country’s children in the night.” Princess Platinum’s words were mostly true despite how much Twilight wanted to deny them. “And now we face one of the most vicious ones, Blood Diamond, as he declares war over us all.”
“Someone provoked him!” Twilight remarked to Blood Diamond’s words of how his father would not waste time with a threat. Her heart jumped upon remembering that if King Emerald Teal wanted them dead, they would already be dead. This war was his mercy.
“Again, more lies. He lied to you and now you use his lies on us!” Princess Platinum showed images through magic, images of their own homes ripped apart by crystal magic, soldiers ripped apart and families slain. “All these pains and agonies, this blood is on your hands as much as on there.”
“I… I…” Twilight caved and turned away. This had been the fourth time she had been brought before a courtroom, and each time Princess Platinum had struck back with more proof of her words over Twilight. This was quickly becoming a losing battle. She only hoped that Starlight and Silver Pear would find the truth before she faced her death here.
“Now, face me!!” Princess Platinum demanded. Again, Twilight refused. It turned out she was wrong. Despite the twenty days, the alicorn’s will was still stronger than hers. Four times now and this insult continued. The princess screamed in a fit of rage and grabbed Twilight’s face with magic.
However, Twilight fought her with every ounce of her own will. Despite the magical dampeners deeply embedded in the chains that kept her alicorn magic in check, Twilight did her best not to look at the unicorn directly.
Seeing her fight even more now only angered the unicorn even more. Using her magic, she punched Twilight harshly in the gut, knocking the prideful air right out of her and pushing her to the ground. “All you alicorns are the same, prideful to the very end, vain to yourself until your death.” She pushed Twilight down more, brushing her face on the hard marble. “You all continue to mock us!!”
“Mock you?” Twilight spat up blood, “I used to idolize you… Rarity.” She whispered all of her words, not letting the mare she believed to be the preincarnation of her best friend, hearing any word.
Princess Platinum slapped Twilight with magic and knocked her back by several feet. “Enough,” she slapped her hammer and looked at the jury. They nodded in agreement. “You will spend another five days in prison and then repeat this process until you finally bend to my will!”
The princess gestured to her loyal naga guard. Doing as she commanded, he brought over heavier chains and tightened them over Twilight's whole body. The guard grimaced, "Just give up already."
"I..." Twilight winced and whispered, "Already have..."
Dim's eyes went wide at the pale flesh over the alicorn's face. Without warning, massive dark magic pushed him back and snapped the dampeners in an instant.
The Pale Mare gave out a massive roar and rushed forward, grabbing Princess Platinum by the throat and punching her into the wall behind her so hard that the wall tore open, letting in the rain.
Mira, in her pain, could only smile in a minor victory to the beastly face and form as the rain and light from the outside shined over it. "Go ahead, you damned alicorn, prove me right!!"
"I... I... will... not." The voice softened, much to the princess' disappointment.
Twilight screamed free from the transformation and fell to the ground in tears. "I will... not break..." Letting go of her grip, she fell to the side and unconscious.
******
Hours later, Twilight awoke, the pain of being thrown into her cell being her spark back to reality. "Damn, why doesn't she just kill me!" Twilight spat up more maroon liquid. She looked at her wounds from before and just like with the previous transformations, they were healing much faster; faster with each form.
She quickly sneered in pain and grimaced at the source. She opened her clothes and looked at her chest. The only wound in her body that refused to heal. She had it since her first-ever transformation, and each returning transformation only made the wound bigger. It now reached from the top of her collarbone and down below her breast. And yet, despite its size, it refused to bleed or bring her any harm. Pain from it now only seemed to come just before or just after the transformations, only to fade within a few minutes.
"Just what is this? Why does this mark never heal even when the pain fades?" She lifted her hand to her eyepatch and her frostbitten eye. "It remains just like this does. Just like all my older wounds, yet it is much younger than they are."
She closed her clothes and leaned back as the rain returned. Soft drops of water fell in from the window above her head. The wave of cold removed the heat of the transformation that always brought her. She remembered the last memories she had before waking up here.
Though none of them could see it, above them all in the clouds alone, the shadow of a siren could be seen in her memories of those clouds and the rain that calmed her down. She didn't know why he brought her back every time and why his rain was the only joy in her life now.
"Thanks for saving me again..." She didn't know why or how, but every time the transformation took control, there was always something to pull her back to reality. A soft voice belonging to a stallion that she still never knew the true face of; the kind voice she had heard so many times; the song of the sirens whose rain had consumed this entire city. Whether it was under the orders of his master or of his own choice and actions, all she could be thank the only light in her darkness. "Thank you, Cold Blue."
Deep within a floating crystal airship far above the Unicorn Providence, the pieces echoed with the movement of black and white pieces across a chessboard. Blood Diamond moved each piece carefully, only occasionally moving a piece back when a different decision was made. The black pieces represented the Unicorn Providence itself, or rather, each one served as the cities within the country, with several of them already fallen.
Blood Diamond stopped his arrangement and nodded to a screen on the other side. "So, you say that Lord Red is on his way?" He asked the one on the screen.
"No, just his soldiers," Golden Williams answered from the screen. "Hmm, what about your left flank?"
"No, that's a decoy. We suspect she might see the same thing, especially if she is listening to that alicorn."
"Princess Platinum listening to Twilight Sparkle? Brother, you put too much faith in these mortals."
"Faith? No, we refused to ignore all options and possibilities. We suspect that Twilight sees things in a similar mindset to this and she will see the decoy just as easily."
"Then, why keep it?"
"Because if we remove it and Twilight is not helping the princess, then even she could figure out something is wrong."
Golden Williams laughed at his answer. "With all these tactics in play, why not try some diplomacy?"
"Always the one to see all the angles as long as they are in your favor, brother," Blood Diamond snarked back.
"Angles, how is that any different from you seeing all possibilities?"
"Possibilities and angles are as different as tactics and strategy."
"Fine," Golden Williams narrowed his eyes, "Your left quarter flank."
"We know," Blood Diamond stopped him, "But that can't be strengthened without breaking our decoy."
"Just trying to help." The older alicorn noted the area where the place was. "That's near Rage Mountain."
"What about it?" Blood Diamond raised his eyebrow and leaned over to it.
"Nothing, it's just thousands of years ago that place used to be a massive crystal--" Golden Williams was interrupted as Cold Blue entered the room.
"I'm sorry to break this meeting," the siren kneeled. "But I must ask Blood Diamond for something important."
"What is it?" Blood Diamond didn't even turn to face the siren. "We are busy."
"This can't wait..." Cold Blue's voice slowed as anxiety settled in his throat, "I need... advice,"
"This is about Twilight?" Blood Diamond's question was spot on. "We discussed this. She is on the opposite side of this war zone."
"But, sir, she could be of great use to us."
"To you. However, the only purpose she could serve us is in weakening Princess Platinum's army and that could easily be achieved by the princess simply not using her as a proper piece." Blood Diamond was quick as ever to see his soldier's questions without even letting him speak.
"Sir--"
"Enough, Twilight will remain where she is."
With his words given, an air of uneasiness could be felt in the room, especially from the siren. The creature clenching his fist so tightly at his master's words. His eyes turned to the hallway behind him and a shadow watching all of this play out.
What neither alicorn could realize was the full scope of things that were about to unfold today as the two went back to their game, no longer noting the siren was still in the room; the shadow begging to be seen rushing forward.
******
Back in the city below, the storm clouds parted, allowing the sunlight to finally reach the city and over Silver Pear as he pushed Starlight into a wheelchair.
"Do you have to push me?" The unicorn was annoyed to be stuck in the chair since her wounds weren't that bad. At most, she saw herself with a small limp for a few days.
"Yes, I have to," the earth pony completely disagreed with her as he was still uneasy about her leaving the hospital anyway, especially after what he saw Twilight going through earlier today. "Princess Platinum is still on a tirade of everything that has been happening."
"I still think we should break her out."
"That would only make things much worse. Besides, I would think a former criminal would come up with a better plan that didn't involve breaking the law."
"Former criminal, or rather a criminal, yet to be. I'm from the future, remember." Starlight corrected him.
"Pretense versus future tense can be pretty confusing even for your teacher, Lovely." Silver Pear came to a stop as they reached the dock where the titan airship was sitting.
Starlight's eyes fell at the mention of her teacher's current fate, "Yeah, I guess she wouldn't like me to fall into such evils when she tried so hard to bring me to the side of good."
"Exactly, we just need a legal way to get her out."
"Like that's going to happen with Princess Platinum controlling the legal systems." Starlight leaned back in her chair and huffed. "The only thing that could make things better or possibly worse right now is if another legal system got involved."
As if right on cue, a blast of magic could be seen flowing out of the airship and throwing what appeared to be a unicorn to the ground. Silver Pear and Starlight were shocked by this action and rushed over to see what was going on.
They arrived to see a unicorn stallion covered in chains attempting to get free. They were about to ask what was going on when the scream of a familiar umbrum answered them. "Don't you dare help that bastard to unicorn kind!" Rex blasted more chains out to throw Clovis even harder.
But the cowardly unicorn was always a master of escape, easily unlinking the chains that currently held him and jumping clear over Starlight and Silver Pear with the same olympic grace as his sister, placing a knife by Silver Pear's throat. "Back off, Rex. Clover wouldn't like us fighting."
"Right, still not as bright as ever," Rex snarked.
"What do you mean--" Clovis's knife was stopped by the pulsing magic of Starlight, giving Silver Pear enough time to throw his hand as his claymore flew to them from Rex's shadows.
In a crackle of magic and metal, Clovis was sent back further, knocking into the side of the hill until the titan airship was near. Corner by Silver Pear, Starlight, and Rex might have been too much, even for this master at escaping.
Starlight and Silver Pear wanted to question what was going on, but knew that could wait as the unicorn charged his magic. Rex ready his chains and charged in one side and Silver Pear another side. Previously, these two would fight each other, trying to outmatch the other because of their separate knowledge of Indigo Frost. Now they could combine those fighting styles, not against the wendigo, sure, but a problem either way.
Clovis slipped between the two swings of weapons before activating his spell; akin to a teleportation he appeared behind them only to be blasted by a magic pulse, knocking him back into Rex's chains, the blast belonging to Starlight, though still bound to a chair she was still a genius in her own right to the teleportation spell.
Clovis sneered at this but jumped upward again as Rex's chains flew around him. Using his hand, he twirled around over the heads of the two stallions, dodging them multiple times before landing back in the corner.
"Damn it, this unicorn is annoying!" Silver Pear ready his sword.
"He always was. Never as strong as his brother or as clever as his sister, but annoying to the highest degree." Tiring of this, Rex placed his hand on his chest and on the hidden amulet. "Make me an opening."
"Whatever you're planning, you've got it." Starlight teleported above Clovis, using her wheelchair as a heavy weapon. The opposing unicorn twisted out from under and barely jumped over Silver Pear's claymore as it swung by. “Watch it!" Starlight stopped the claymore from breaking her chair even more than she already did by throwing it back to hit Clovis again, but as annoying as Rex said, the tricky unicorn twisted under the blade and kicked Starlight over before turning back to Silver Pear and landing a fury of kicks against his claymore.
Rex used their efforts to distract to channel the magic within the dark alicorn amulet. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Listen, you damn goat. This unicorn is a servant of Lord Red..." There was no response, as often there wasn't. He had hoped the mention of Lord Red directly to that old creature would get a reaction. "Damn it, answer me! He is threatening one of your descendants." A twist of pain from the amulet brought Rex down to a knee. "No, not me. I know I disappointed you, but she clearly has not... this Twilight Sparkle."
Shockingly, the near mention of that name directly to the dark alicorn amulet was enough to finally get a response; glowing a bright maroon red, flowing dark magic into Rex's hand and through his chains. His shadowmancy spread far beyond his own shadow and took complete control of the hill's shadow, launching thousands of chains upward to the hill's edges.
"Move now!" Starlight's eyes went wide to the maroon glow flowing outward from Rex and she grabbed Silver Pear, teleporting behind the umbrum as he unleashed the amount he could barely charge.
The umbrum held out his hand and spoke "Dark Spatial Break!" With that, the hill cracked open and crumbled over the unicorn.
Clovis' eyes moved fast to seek an escape, but none were easily clear as chains surrounded him and were at each edge of the hill. He sneered. Rarely caring to defeat, he channeled his magic into a teleport, but found the very space around him was preventing any kind of exit. He growled at the sight of Rex using dark magic, knowing he couldn't keep it up for long. Frowning, the unicorn accepted defeat and sat down, waiting for the boulder to fall and crush him.
"Enough!!" Clover finally interfered, breaking his connection to the amulet. "We don't need my brother dead." Rex dropped to a knee and took a moment to change his breath.
"Brother?!" Starlight and Silver Pear, now having their answers, hastened to catch the unicorn. Starlight threw Silver Pear through the rubble, so he could grab the trickster and land on the other side.
Not crushed, Clovis still found it rather hard to escape as Starlight enveloped him in a very familiar magic. "Wait, what?! I taught no one this spell?!" the unicorn struggled.
"Huh, there are perks for being from the future." Starlight rolled over. "I read this spell from your family spell book long ago. Never thought I would meet one of your family."
"Sorry, Starlight." Clover rushed over and stomped her staff into her brother's chest. "Now enough escaping."
"Why? Your stallion is just going to kill me again!"
"He won't need to if you don't pose a threat! Unlike your master!"
"Lord Red isn't a threat as long as you hand over Twilight immediately--" He was stopped as Rex's chains climbed back over him and held him to the ground.
"That will not be happening." Rex tightened the chains. "You will tell your master we refuse his help."
"I can't. He won't let me teleport to his side until I get an agreement. In fact, I can't even leave this city."
"Teleport him anyway," Starlight answered.
"Who is this unicorn?! You dare question the power of my master!!"
"If he said Lord Red won't let him, there is no power at all that can change that." Starswirl finally arrived. "Lord Red is far beyond the power of most unicorn."
"Master Starswirl..." Clovis sneered in disappointment.
"Hello, Clovis, how is your father?"
"To my sister, he is already in the city. However, he isn't taking orders for Lord Red. I was the only one Lord Red sent."
"Fine, then we will have to talk to Lord Red," Starswirl walked over to Starlight's wheelchair and looked down at her.
"Wait, why me?"
"I would rather not face him alone. Plus, there has been something I've been curious about." Starswirl leaned down and whispered into Starlight's ear, "Omnious pony." Before they could be stopped, both vanished in a teleportation of chaos magic.
Silver Pear was left in utter shock as he was hoping to help Starlight back to the bed in the ship so she could get some better rest. "Huh, I guess we should go warn Twilight."
"Not going to happen!" Fredricson rushed over. "Damn it, I missed him."
"You need to get back to repairing the titan airship," Rex stopped him, "The sooner we leave the better."
"That's not our biggest problem no more."
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" Clover could see the distress in the earth pony's eyes.
"Look for yourself," He tossed her the newspaper.
After a few moments, she dropped the paper "... fuck!" being her only answer.
"What?" Silver Pear attempted to catch it, only for Rex to take it instead.
"It seems our two groups aren't the only ones after Twilight." Rex unfolded the paper, revealing the main title, "Alicorn escape with the help of strange lightning."
******
Back in the floating crystal airship, Cold Blue felt shame cloud every part of his mind as he attempted to speak his thoughts to his master. Such action was always so hard to do. He owed so much to this alicorn, his training, his life, and even his soul. Speaking against him took so much willpower as the siren gave a definitive answer, "Forgive me, sir."
"What for?" Blood Diamond's eyes went wide. "What did you do?"
"I..." His eyes strained away, especially when the alicorn stallion stood up from his chair and faced, expecting an answer. "I..." his words fell again.
"He did nothing wrong," a fresh voice entered the room as the shadow hidden behind Cold Blue made herself known. Even Golden Williams came to attention at the sight of Twilight Sparkle standing in the room.
"What is this?" a spark of a rage spat from Blood Diamond's horn.
"Please don't, Blood Diamond Constantine Hollow Chernobyl Bloodstain," Twilight rushed to Cold Blue's side and bowed to the ground, using the opposing alicorn's true full name to plead. "Do not punish him."
Blood Diamond was taken aback by the false alicorn's use of his full name. Such knowledge before their meeting twenty days ago would have been questionable, but it was clear from her actions now that Twilight had learned a lot since their last encounter.
Blood Diamond raised a crystal to Twilight's throat but didn't cut the flesh. "You have gained knowledge, but so have we, time traveler."
Twilight gritted her teeth as her secret was revealed. Caving, she answered, "Yes, I am a time traveler. I was forced through a portal and after many journeys arrived here." She winced her eyes as a thought bubbled through her mind, assumptions she hoped to never reveal to anyone outside of Starlight. However, this was the only possibility that could work. She channeled all her magic and pushed away from the crystal at her throat and faced the alicorn.
"Fine, speak." Blood Diamond could see the fire in her eyes. "What do you offer us?"
"There was something I didn't want to consider at first. But after learning your full name I knew it had to be true." Twilight's eyes narrowed. "As this Lord Red must have revealed, my magic matches Celestia and Luna, but even he doesn't know the full scope of things."
"Really? That the truth is what you offer?"
"No, I offer you pride, a pride that you don't even know exists yet, because it has yet to form in this timeline."
"Pride? As in familial?" Blood Diamond was quick to figure out what Twilight's answer even faster than Cold Blue's answers.
"Yes, I did time travel here, but not alone." Twilight stood up and present an image of Starlight Glimmer.
"The unicorn? What does she offer?"
"When I heard your name I knew the truth," she pointed to the image, "Her full name is Starlight Constantine Hollow Glimmer."
Blood Diamond's mouth hung open. Pure shock edged every part of his face. He was in such realization that the crystal chessboard faded from a lack of concentration along with the screen showing Golden Williams, preventing him from hearing what Blood Diamond was about to say. It took Blood Diamond a full minute to finally answer what Twilight suspected this whole time. "Constantine Hollow, it's a family name, held by my mother, passed to me."
"It's also the true name of Starlight's hometown, which is why I knew it was important at first, but..." Twilight stopped herself, this final bit of information was too dangerous to give him even if she was just as desperate to learn the truth
"That gives us no answer. Matching a name to a city is one thing, but a unicorn to an alicorn no fewer breaks too many questions."
"Yes, but it still creates far more questions than breaks." Cold Blue affirmed Twilight's assumption. "If this unicorn is too from the future--"
"Enough." Blood Diamond summoned chairs for both of them. "We will accept this alliance. You may stay with us for now." Sitting back down, he gave his own offer. "What is it you desire? Know this though, we will not stop our battle with Princess Platinum."
"Fine..." Twilight turned away with shame. "But what about this Lord Red?"
"Knowing Starswirl, he will make his own move against his old rival soon. Now, what is your desire?"
"I wish... to move the battle away from the capital."
"Oh, changing the view, why?"
"No... Princess Platinum is so determined to fight this war, but I don't think she is the one causing this pain, nor are the unicorns living in these lands. But if they aren't, wouldn't it be better to find out who is responsible and end them."
"Taking the battle away from the capital would require a different arena of battle...?"
"It would push Princess Platinum and her forces out of this city long enough to find the traitor and end hi--"
"Kill him, we will only accept if you bring us his head." Blood Diamond smiled as he saw the words bring a shock out of the false alicorn. "Cold Blue will accompany you and you will bring this traitor's head to us."
"I..." Twilight's eyes fell, and she gritted her teeth. "I understand."
"Good, you will leave once you explain how we get Princess Platinum to follow this plan unquestionably, especially with you free of her grasp." With that, the chessboard reappeared in front of Twilight.
Twilight's fist tightened, and she took her chair and grabbed the first piece. "First off, we will need to cast some sort of illusion to make it appear as if I am leaving with you to the next area of battle. Princess Platinum has such hatred toward me right now that the mere fact of us working together should pose a far greater threat."
"We are not a master of illusions, but our brother is. We will contact Golden Williams to send one of his doubles to us before we make our move."
"How long will that take?"
"Only a few hours. As for your allies, Rex, Clover, that earth pony and..." Blood Diamond's voice slowed, "Our granddaughter, Starlight Glimmer."
"You said Starswirl will deal with Lord Red, odds are he will take Starlight with him. He has been curious about her since we join his group."
"Hmm, you've learned about that old wizard."
"Let's just say a form of him still exists in my time. As tricky as he can be, I trust him in making moves that won't pose a threat and instead lean toward pros of curiosity."
"Intriguing, still dangerous for a child of our lineage."
"If you don't trust me, then send Cold Blue to check while we wait for Golden Williams-" Twilight stopped upon seeing Cold Blue was gone.
"He does that often. Knowing him for over five thousand years makes trust an absolute priority." Blood Diamond leaned back. "We will send the message to Golden Williams. Meanwhile, you will tell us everything you know about this town Starlight heralds from."
Twilight felt a shift of coldness upon Cold Blue leaving her side. She had hoped he would stay longer, as she still didn't trust Blood Diamond that much. She didn't know why she trusted the siren more, but did hope for his return soon.
Twilight's eyes traced open and over the darkness of the prison. Only a few more hours had passed. The rain had stopped, leaving only the dripping behind.
Whereas the rain before provided her with a light in this darkness. This dripping brought only disappointment. His rain was a joy, but it wasn't enough; she longed for freedom. She reached up to the window and hit the bars. She sneered, as the feelings weren't enough. She hit again, this time far harder, and no answer came. She pushed at the walls harder, shouting for help, but no answer came.
Finally, she fell back down and caved. She didn't want to admit it but there was no way out. His rain was a graceful relief as it kept her monstrous side at bay, but it wasn't a savior. Clinging to it was pointless. All she could do now was let the tears flow instead of the rain.
"Damn it, why is this happening? Why can't I change things? What is the point of being in this past if everything is doomed to fail?!" she screamed. "I want to change this war! I wanted to make things right! This is not my fate!!"
As if listening to her roar of rage, the walls shook, and a loud crackle stopped her. She looked to the window, only for her eyes to go wide and see lightning rushing toward her, somehow in slow motion. She didn't waste time questioning it and jumped out of the way.
The walls were torn open by the power of the blast. The form of lightning and its movement made her realize it wasn't lightning at all. Where most lightning was blue, this was maroon red; this was dark magic. Standing within the bolt of dark magic was a figure just about half a foot taller than her. The light, or rather darkness, around the figure, faded, unveiling a blue siren with a golden brown mane tied tightly into a long braid, stretching down to his belt. He wore a silver full body armor with magenta outlines along the edges and cut through each incline, forming a chest symbol of an 'I' over a 'W'; a bold long white fur cape with a navy blue inline flowed out from behind the armor.
Twilight was perplexed at first by this strange siren, questioning who he was until she felt his palm pick her up off the ground. The siren brought her close and held her tightly as guards rushed in; alerted by the sounds.
Twilight fell into the siren's embrace as he held out his hand to the guards. With a blast of more maroon magic, the water in the air pooled forth and shot at the guards, slicing through their armor and throwing them to the walls.
The screams of the soldiers did little to hinder the calm and kindness Twilight felt from the siren. She held on tighter and they lifted off the ground and up into the clouds. Once within safety, Twilight looked up at the face, finally seeing its features, a smooth beard, and cold eyes... cold eyes. The last detail that stayed with her for far longer than she ever expected.
As the rain swept by, she hid her face in his coat and whispered, "Thank you, Cold Blue."
******
"And that was the last thing I remember before he brought me here." Twilight lowered her head after finishing her story to Golden Williams.
"Keep still, just a little longer." The pink alicorn noted. Twilight readjusted herself on the glowing stand.
She had hoped Blood Diamond had stayed to listen, but after hearing her plan, he took his leave to make his moves, leaving the connection to Golden Williams still open.
"Interesting. My brother has told me of how Cold Blue has had his brash moments before, but he almost always stayed calm. This one has to take the cake of strangeness for the very few times he has been defiant. You must have sparked something out of him."
"I'm not sure how? This was my first meeting with him."
"But not his first meeting with you. In fact, every time he met you, it was your darkest self."
Twilight looked back at those moments, hoping to understand him, but each scene was so fuzzy in her mind. For the longest time, she could only rely on what Starlight described, and even then Cold Blue's form was just a shadow to her until today. The first time she saw Cold Blue for real, it felt very different from those fuzzy visions. They were so empty and easy to throw away, yet the sight of him this time was so clear but full of emotions that she couldn't figure out. All she could do was the question, "Does Cold Blue have a darker form?"
"Yes, all dark magic users do. It's a power they must control, or else it controls them. That is the most I can tell you. I have never used such magic, nor can I so understand it falls to you and him."
"What about Blood Diamond?"
"The closest he knows is Stygian, the shadow pony and you'll find getting ahold of that ounce of darkness is even harder than the Blood Diamond trusting you."
"Trusting me? How can you tell? I gave him such secret information?!"
"Do you have a brother in your time?"
"Yes, but--"
"Then you can understand how I can see right through my brother's crystal hard mind whereas you cannot."
"I... I understand. Twilight looked away. "In my time... I was always told the alicorns were— Are always so wise and trusting," she quickly corrected.
"And who told you this? Celestia?" Golden Williams laughed. Twilight nodded, leading to him laughing harder. "That mare's hope is often too strong for her good. Luna is a completely different picture, so depressing."
"Spoiler alert! Those two never change." Twilight smiled.
"Brilliant, just brilliant!!" Golden Williams stopped and rubbed his head. "Okay, it is complete, you can step off."
Doing as he said, Twilight was surprised to see a perfect duplicate of herself now standing in the same spot she was. "So lifelike." She placed her hand over the cheek, half expecting it to react.
"These life models are based on our mother's magic. While she may not be around to bring these to life, I can make a close facsimile." Golden Williams bowed and waved his hand through his screen and the model glowed. "Just tell it where to go and what to do and it will listen to your command, but be very specific."
"Okay." Twilight removed her hand and spoke to the model. "Me, you will leave with Blood Diamond and fight in this war against Princess Platinum. Do not kill her. Simply fight her to your best abilities as me only if she poses a threat to you or Blood Diamond."
The model came to attention and saluted her. "Good," Twilight smiled. She gave the model one last look over. Her eyes stopped at the ears and how there were holes in them. The detail looked so familiar. "Why are the ears different?"
"A design flaw left behind during the copying process, the smaller the detail, the harder it is to duplicate." Golden Williams was stopped as Blood Diamond returned. "Though, that exact flaw happens in all of them in the same spot."
The red alicorn looked over the copy before noting the same point that Twilight remarked on. "They never change even after all these years."
It was at this moment Twilight noticed a similar hole in Blood Diamond, remembering back to Golden Williams's words Twilight poked where she really shouldn't have. "Blood Diamond, who is he?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" Blood Diamond narrowed his eyes on her.
"When we first met, you spoke with a 'we'. At first, I thought it was royal fanatics, but now I see this and question your own ears. You dropped the 'we' only to act as if someone else was in control of your body. Just like another alicorn, I know in modern times."
"Twilight, asking him that isn't wise--" Golden Williams was stopped by Blood Diamond smashing the screen.
"Ask him again, I dare you." Blood Diamond's voice deepened just like it did before and he dropped the 'we' just like before.
Twilight grinned through her fear at the knife-like eyes reappearing. "Him, who are you?"
"I..." Blood Diamond's eyes went wide. "I... am nothing!! I do not exist!!" the deeper voice screamed before halting. His hand raised and a crystal shard stabbed through his foot, making the deeper voice scream in pain.
"What? You don't have control of the body?!" Twilight jumped back and readied herself in case the real Blood Diamond was returning with rage. She got just that, as the floor of the airship flew open without warning, sending her falling toward the ground.
Blood Diamond fell back in his chair and waved his hand over the screen to bring it back.
"Where is Twilight?" Golden Williams answered.
"She's finding her destination." Blood Diamond removed the crystal from his foot and healed his wound. "Damn bitch reminds me a lot of Luna."
"Similar teaching, obviously."
"Right, similar teaching?" Blood Diamond looked at the Twilight copy and frowned at the ears. "You need to get better at copying your mother's work. And enough with these lies." He waved his hand over the ears and they were fixed.
"Sorry, I just wanted to get a reaction out of all three of you. I didn't expect Twilight to 'poke the bugbear' so to speak."
******
As Twilight fell, she facepalmed at her actions. She had already pushed a big button with the revelation of Starlight's origins, so confronting him on other information was obviously off the table. "Damn it, I was hoping it would be like Nightmare Moon and Luna. Looks like I'll have to rely on Cold Blue for intel on how to control my monstrous side."
"You provoked that other side of him for that reason alone?"
It was at this moment Twilight noticed a voice was coming from the surrounding clouds. "Wait, when did you return?"
"Return?" The clouds rushed around her, catching her in a thick damp net of magic. "I never left." Cold Blue took a proper form.
"So, you can use form magic, much like..." Twilight stopped herself. Whereas with Blood Diamond, she will poke buttons. She hesitated to question Cold Blue.
"My magic is very similar to Indigo Frost. Is that going to be a problem?"
"No, it is just..."
"Are you still afraid after all this time of who he might be?"
Twilight's eyes widened. Was she that easy-to-read right now, or was he that good enough to simply able to read her with little information alone? She raised her hand to her eyepatch. "I need answers if I'm going to face him again." She dropped her hand to the city below them. "I need the information to stop this war." She pointed to him, "I need details if I am going to control this new side of me on my own."
"So..." His eyes drifted away at the words, 'my own'. "Is this the real you?"
"Well, I'm certainly no monster." She dropped her guarded hand into an offering hand.
"Yes, the truth of it all." Now Cold Blue was the one to be hesitant, reaching slowly to the hand before Twilight gripped them together and shook in agreement.
"That is settled. I will take your help."
"On that, it will take a while for my master to make his move and lure Princess Platinum away. Where should you go until then?"
"Hmm," Twilight took a moment to think of a few places. She couldn't go back to the titan airship because that would be the first they would look. As much as she didn't want to leave Starlight out of this, she needed to keep her distance and keep Blood Diamond distant until she was sure that he could be truly trusted? "How about the Gross?"
"The unicorn black market?"
"You know of it."
"Yes, we will move through the mist." Cold Blue waved his hands around them; his magic followed the movement, pulling the surrounding clouds before dropping them straight down. The clouds flew with them as they descended back to the city and the entrance to the dread and disgusting underground of Gross.
******
As they left, a single patch of red stopped in place, a single red snowflake. As they lower, it turned away and rose upward, reaching beyond the clouds and to the bright moonlit sky. There it stopped and spun in place. As it spun, more red snowflakes came into view from below and gathered tightly around it.
Once enough of them had gathered, the central one passed over the others, and whispers echoed forth. After a last moment, the whispering softened into a quiet buzz before stopping completely.
The red snowflakes separated and flew off in different paths over each of the pony lands and kingdoms, while a final grouping stayed behind to watch as his plan continued.
******
One group heading to the east sped up toward the grouping of mighty clouds as big as oceans. Inside, beyond lovely rainbows and rain, were spires of rock stabbing through the ocean like clouds. On these spires, islands were deep blue cities. However, these red snowflakes were not heading to any of those, instead, lowering themselves just before they came into sight of the pegasi that stood guard. Dropping through cold and dirty rain, canyons came into sight.
These canyons were so deep that a bottom couldn't be seen, the spires from above reached out of the darkness like forever towers of stone. Going deeper down, holes could be spotted in these spires, caverns leading to brown and dark cities.
And this was the snowflakes' destination; below the Pegasus Isles laid the Batpony Canyons.
The red snowflakes were flagged down by a hooded figure. They lowered to the figure's spot deep within the westernmost canyon cave entrance. Once there, the red snowflakes gathered together into a face in the air.
The figure smiled and held out his decaying hands in surrender. "Child of Ice and Water, how is your guidance on the light and darkness?"
"It is perfect, Thule. I assume since you are not referring to me by my father's name that the others have not arrived."
"Don't be concerned about that, Indigo Frost," Thule corrected. "Sage and Vanity are exploring this new land as we speak. They were concerned about why you asked to bring the remains of Vanity's sibling."
Using their ashes will become clear soon enough, for now, to keep them safe." Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed as another group crossed his mind. "Has the Night Brothers contacted you yet?"
Thule's hood lowered in disappointment. "Their mission's completion is unknown. But do you remember where their target lies?"
"That's why I have made contact. It seems their teacher is on the move."
"What do you mean? They need to change direction."
"No," Indigo Frost gave an evil grin. "Their chance of succeeding has increased. Tell them to attack a ship heading toward the Unicorn Providence from the Alicorn Citadel. In doing so, they'll be directly in their former teacher's path?"
******
Back in the capital, Rex and Clover arrived at the prison where Twilight had been held; Silver Pear following close behind. Appearing out of a shadow, the two entered the building and found most of it empty outside of some security tape.
"Hmm, would have thought this place would have been more guarded, especially after what happened?" Clover questioned as she flipped over the tape.
"Unlikely, the princess was shown to have quite the temper. The guards are out looking for Twilight and Cold Blue."
"How certain... are you that this is his work?!" Silver Pear dropped to the ground, out of breath as he had to walk.
"Blood Diamond never handles the minor stuff; hence, why he has so many working under him. From Cold Blue, to my former master, to me at one point."
"Speaking of which?" Clover stopped at a turn to allow Silver Pear to catch up. "Clovis said my father is in the city."
"What?" Rex paused. "Do you think he might appear too?"
"Just saying since he hasn't gotten used to our..." Her hand reached for Rex, only to be halted as Clovis finally caught up with the three of them.
"Look, I don't know... where our father is. I just know that he left for this city over twenty days ago." Clovis was far slower than all three of them, though Silver Pear attempted to lose him several times.
"Who is your father, anyway?" Silver Pear questioned.
"We're getting off track!" Rex huffed in annoyance before taking the turn and going ahead of them. "Now which floor."
"Third floor up, twenty-third room."
"He's right, we need to find Twilight." Clover was a bit misplaced upon hearing her father was somewhere in the city, but she was distracted by Rex's need to find Twilight too. Sure, she didn't want Lord Red's armies here any sooner than him, but if the reports were true, Blood Diamond had Twilight now, therefore Lord Red wasn't an obstacle.
The group moved through the building's floors until they reached the right one. Originally, they were going to search the sides for the blast point, but it was clear from a distance that the opening had been closed. They would have to find another way to the cell.
"Okay, the third floor should be beyond this door." Rex cut the last tape and opened the door, stopping in place. His eyes went wide.
"Okay, it should be the twenty-third room--" Clovis was halted in his tracks by the sight of everything, dropping to the ground and puking.
Silver Pear and Clover stepped over him but were just as shocked by the sight; hundreds of unicorns ripped apart; their blood smeared across the walls and floor. The three that could keep going moved slowly through the hallway of body parts and broken bars.
"This couldn't have been just one siren?!" Silver Pear's mouth hung agape.
"He did all of this under Blood Diamond's order?!" Clover covered her mouth as each scene got more and more gruesome.
"No," Rex dropped as the bodies flipped through the dismemberment. "Blood Diamond would only desire such gore from himself, not Cold Blue."
"Then he got involved."
"No," Rex pointed out the water everywhere under the bodies. "This was indeed Cold Blue's work. It's been a long time since I saw him this mad."
"The calming storm of Blood Diamond's wrath! Impossible!!" Clovis completely disagreed.
"Believe what you will, but truth be told, this isn't even his worst."
"His worst?" Silver Pear's eyes widened.
"Yes," Rex dropped the body and stood up. "Now where is the room?"
"Over here!" Clover called out to them.
The three made their way to her and opened the cell. Rex pushed Clovis in and demanded, "Scan!"
"What? Why me?"
"You are a master at teleportation, and frankly, Cold Blue has never been very good at it. Most of the time, he relied on form magic."
"Form? What do you mean, like Indigo Frost?"
"Yes, very similar to the wendigo, only instead of snowflakes, Cold Blue's form is liquid, a power passed down through his family for many generations. Had he just entered and left without Twilight, we wouldn't need you, Clovis?"
"Since he left with Twilight, teleportation had to be involved, huh." Clovis huffed and filled his horn with magic.
A yellow glow flowed over the room; it crept over the chunks of body parts and through the dry blood, reaching the floor and walls. The magic twisted into each crack before expanding outward, engulfing the entire room in yellow light.
Clovis closed his eyes and images flew through his mind. He studied them carefully, from Cold Blue entering, to Twilight falling unconscious in his arms, to his senseless slaughter of any unicorn that dared to stand in his way. It was just as vile as the current state of this room, but Cold Blue wasn't after torture as he originally assumed, rather Princess Platinum's soldiers were so determined to take Twilight back that they didn't care what stood in their way either even if it was the bodies of their other comrades.
"Well, what do you see?" Rex tired of waiting.
The cowardly unicorn dropped to his knee at an image of Cold Blue slicing the last guard in half. The shock of the bodies was too much, yes, but seeing this sparked something within the coward of which he dare not utter to the others.
"Clovis!" Clover rushed to her brother's fall, but he pushed her away and straightened himself.
"No, I'm fine. I don't know where they were..."
"Were? They were just here?!" Silver Pear interrupted him.
"No, he means the trail is being masked."
"Yes, they left here and disappeared completely from sight before appearing several miles above us." Clovis looked upward.
"An airship, no surprise Blood Diamond would have one nearby. How far up?" Rex questioned as he prepared his magic.
"No, after that they went back down." Clovis dropped his head. "Below us."
"Below?" Silver Pear's eyes raised. "Wait, you mean this city's black market? I know where that is, but why would they go there."
"That matters not. Tell us the way," Rex pointed Silver Pear to his shadow. "Exact measurements when going underground or we're all dead."
"Uh, okay." Silver Pear thought back to an accurate depth.
Meanwhile, Clover noticed her brother was still shaken. She padded him on the back, "Well done. You are still the best at this." When she noticed her words didn't stop his fear, she questioned, "What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure, but even the weakest teleporter wouldn't move as slow as Cold Blue did," Clovis whispered.
"Well, he was carrying Twilight."
"No, it took him a full five hours to reach Blood Diamond. During that time, his location was beyond even my strongest scans." He kept his words as quiet as possible around Rex. He knew Rex and Cold Blue were rivals and had been for a long time, so he was unsure if this information would change the umburm's next move. They needed to find Twilight before things got out of hand, the unicorn had been given a mission by his master Lord Red and despite all the horrors he saw today none of them compared to the punishments that awaited him should his master find out how things were falling apart right now.
Deep within the Gross, Twilight and Cold Blue kept to a tight group of random species, isolating themselves from as many unicorns as possible. It wouldn't be until night time before they could go back above ground, but even down here, there was still information worthy of gathering.
Twilight spotted an old bookstore and remembered that Starlight had found some good books down here twenty days ago. "Over there," she pointed.
"Okay," Cold Blue didn't stop her and followed. His mission was simple; keep her out of the sight of Princess Platinum's forces.
"Some of these books are history style."
"Hmm, you can tell that easily?" Cold Blue was surprised just how fast and keen Twilight moved through the bookshelves.
"Well, I grew up in a library. I'll never be lost in the search for these kinds of books... unless I'm reading them." She stopped at the name of H. P. Bloodcraft. "Hmm, another one?"
"What?"
"Starlight found some stuff on this stallion twenty days ago and now there is already more available."
"Hmm, I don't see the importance. His levels on magic projection pale compared to my master and even Starswirl." Cold Blue was stopped by another author's name. "Here, Dr. Pr. Halo," he presented it to her.
Twilight raised an eyebrow as the name sounded familiar, but she didn't remember reading a book by him. "Okay, let's see what history he covers?"
"Every species, or at least the base thirteen."
"Interesting. Does that include the changelings?"
"White, gray, and black."
"Really? I've only encountered the black kind." Twilight was surprised by how much knowledge of books Cold Blue had. She looked over every detail of the book. Before she knew it, she was floating in the air, lost to all of this knowledge, leaving Cold Blue to himself.
The siren wanted to say more, but her silent sigh said enough to him. He looked around. Judging by the time and the movement around here, it would be some time before they could tell if Blood Diamond had made his move. He decided here was a good enough spot. He pulled off his cloak and laid it under Twilight. As Twilight subconsciously lowered herself onto the soft cloak so ponies wouldn't stare, Cold Blue sat down beside her. Twilight was so lost in the words of her book until she felt the soft fur under her. She reached down and felt the well-knitted texture before looking at Cold Blue. Cold Blue was reading a book of his own from the shelf.
They continued for a minute, making minor comments back and forth on the details of the books they read. While yes, Twilight was gathering up knowledge, she was surprised that Cold Blue was reading a short adventure book called Letter of Hope. The two had a good laugh at how the series of those adventures had been going so strong even in the future she heralded from. Cold Blue's laugh was short and quiet, but familiar. Twilight was unsure where she had heard it before, but hearing it was very relaxing.
"Tell me, what is it like working for Blood Diamond?" Twilight finally took herself off the topics of books.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, back in my time, I've worked under Celestia since I was five years old. She was always very lenient on work, though I think she knew I would take far more than I could handle often."
"Hmm," Cold Blue questioned himself. He had never considered such a question before. "Blood Diamond prefers to take his duty to the extreme."
"That's an understatement. I mean, how does he treat you?"
"He..." Cold Blue stopped. He had never considered it from his own perspective. "He is lenient with me too."
"Really?"
"I often leave him to work alone." Cold Blue's eyes narrowed on the book as if he wanted this train of thought to stop.
"Does he...?" Twilight's eyes rolled around her head and she winced. "Does he push you?"
Cold Blue went far more silent at this question. After a moment, he finally blurted out rather harsher than he wanted, "Are you seeking more knowledge or more power!"
"I..." Twilight knew these questions were not part of the mission and though he didn't make it clear at first, Cold Blue too did put the mission first. Twilight could say the same about herself. Unfortunately, her mission was not the same as his. "I'm sorry," she caved. "I wish to end this war, but if I go out of control, then ending it would be pointless for me."
"Then stop fighting it." Cold Blue didn't hide his disappointment.
"Don't fight it?" Twilight was perplexed by his words. "Is that what you did--" she was stopped as he shushed her.
"Take a breath." Cold Blue's gills opened up, giving Twilight a bigger hint as to with a cast of quick magic. The two became like puddles.
With no warning, Rex, Clover, Clovis, and Silver Pear ran by. The four stopped by the bookshelves to catch a breath as guards rushed by. Rex noticed the puddles and dropped his chains into one. No reaction came, but he was still uneasy around such things while hunting his old rival. The four stayed until the guards were out of sight before leaving.
Once those four too were out of sight, Cold Blue and Twilight raised forth from the puddles. Twilight took a moment to catch her breath, as that felt like forever. "Damn it, that was too close."
"He nearly had me." Cold Blue rubbed his throat where the chain had twisted. "I was surprised you didn't give away our position. Are you this determined?"
"No, I trust them to handle things on their own. Though, I do not know why Starlight isn't with them." Twilight rubbed her head and laughed. "Really, I'm more surprised at your skills at form magic, holding multiple targets like that for that long."
Cold Blue stood up, grabbed his cloak. Knocking the dust off, he gave another look in case they were still nearby. "I've learned from the best on form magic."
"Blood Diamond?"
"No, someone far stronger." Cold Blue caught his mouth closed.
Twilight gave a sweater to laugh at his reaction. "Did you just deadpan?"
"Is that a problem for you?"
"No, I just thought that was a more modern expression since I've only ever seen it on me and Starlight."
"Nevermind that." Cold Blue's eyes tracked back to the books they had dropped during the spell. He spotted some notes sticking out of the book by Dr. Pr. Halo. "You take notes too."
"Of course, you can never be too careful!" Twilight grabbed the book out of his hand and flipped to the notes.
"Shapeshifting, form magic, and astral projection." Cold Blue's eyes narrowed at Twilight. "You attempted to learn ways to control that monster inside from the very beginning."
"You would be surprised what history can teach you. Besides, I noted every mention of unicorns but there wasn't much to work with."
"Strange, that was one of the first subjects he covered in his research." Cold Blue took the book away again and flipped to the first chapters and skim enough to get the basic details. "Huh, I see."
"I know. This book is too new. I need an older edition to help me."
Cold Blue closed the book and took a moment to think. "There might be someone we can talk to."
"Someone? As in not a pony?"
"Indeed, follow me." Cold Blue took another survey of their surroundings. Spotting more guards approaching, the two increased their speed. Within moments, they were deep in the crowds. They knew they would be out of sight soon.
But little did they notice the magical string latched onto Cold Blue's cloak, leading to a certain umbrum in the distance. "Got you."
The two soon arrived at a dusty old shop with nothing but a bell sitting beside it. Twilight was a bit confused by this place and why Cold Blue had brought her there. However, Cold Blue gave her no direct signs of answering her. Instead, he approached the bell rather cautiously and tapped it twice.
After a moment with no answer, he tapped it twice again. Another moment passed and no answer leading to Twilight finally openly questioning, "Why are we here?"
"You wish to gain unrestricted access to the knowledge hidden within the underground." Cold Blue leaned down and pulled out his falcata. His eyes narrowed on a crack in the ground and stabbed his weapon into it. With a quick flip, a trapdoor opened.
"Well, I guess it would expand my search grid." Twilight leaned over into the tunnel.
"Then you will need to talk to the leader of this place, Diamondback Gust." Cold Blue grabbed Twilight by her side and slid them both down into the tunnel, much to her dismay. Unknown to them, the string broke from this sudden dropped but Rex had a good idea now where they were heading as the four stopped at the sight of the tunnel.
The slide was rather quick if enjoyable for Twilight. Dealing with so much war and being locked up for twenty days had made it impossible to have some time for fun. She had a small fear in the back of her mind that Pinkie Pie was leering at her from the future for going so long without fun.
The two reached the bottom and found a massive cavern reaching so far outward that the light could not fully envelop it. Twilight was already curious by the architecture upon landing, "It's old, ancient, far older than anything I've seen before." She walked over to one of the many massive pillars. "So vast that it could span the entire city."
"It does, I think." Cold Blue walked forward.
"What?! Impossible, there is no way these pillars hold up the entire city." Twilight caught up with him.
"These pillars had been here since before the city even existed."
"No, no, no," Twilight was so confused by this. "Geländehorn is the oldest unicorn city to ever exist."
"Exactly, that doesn't mean other cities existed before it."
"I... I..." Twilight stopped to hide her shame. "I never considered what life was like before the unicorns, frankly before ponies."
"The lands were ruled by many creatures far older than ponies once." He stopped at a wall and pointed to some images. "The naga, nuckelavee, centaur, thestrals, the centrapedes, ifrits, and even the wendigoes. Most of which were never marks in public books."
"Huh," Twilight lit her horn with light. Her eyes went wide at the sight of words far too ancient to read and images. "There, unicorns!" She pointed to the image of three unicorns meeting with an enormous serpent.
"This shows how the unicorns forged their first allegiance with the naga." Cold Blue moved his fingers over the words. "Unicorns at first couldn't control their magic and the other ponies. earth ponies were already building their farms and pegasi had just started moving clouds. In their vanity, unicorns allied with an old foe of the alicorns, the naga."
"This makes no sense in my future." Twilight traced her hands over the images. "Naga is such a rare sight, almost considered myths."
"Now isn't much different. The alliance only lasted long enough for the unicorns to master their horns and project magic outward. After which, the naga moved back into their caves. Only the royals keep in contact with them now." Cold Blue turned away as shame poured over him now. "Unicorns are selfish beings at heart..." He stopped and stared back at Twilight, "Well, most are."
Twilight didn't catch his words or his stare, as she already had a notepad out. Taking notes was her favorite pastime, studying every detail sometimes to the absolute extreme.
"Twilight..." Cold Blue reached out to her before stopping and turned away.
"Huh, did you say something else about the unicorns?" Twilight jumped as she noticed him walking away.
"No, it's nothing." Cold Blue went quiet upon seeing new light in the distance. He held out his hand to stop Twilight. "He's close." Those words stopped Twilight in her tracks as Cold Blue moved toward the light much slower, especially as voices could soon be heard.
Getting closer, the two stopped behind a massive pillar. Twilight noted the massive bite mark on it as well as several somewhat recent battle scars around it. Hiding carefully and quietly back into a puddle form, they went silent as two nagas approached.
"I'm sorry to bug you about this godfather," a voice spoke. Twilight was surprised to hear the voice of Dimitri Dusk, Princess Platinum's naga guard.
"Your connection to this mare will prove to be your downfall one of these days," a larger voice echoed. Since Twilight lacked sight in this puddle form, she had to assume this was this Diamondback Gust.
"I can't abandon her, not while she is getting this reckless. I must end this war before more get hurt."
"Wars are often needed to surface evils some would rather ignore."
"I know but..."
"The evil you wish you could have never seen?" Diamondback Gust questioned.
"Yes," Dim conceded. "I want her to stop before she becomes just as evil as..." His voice softened to a point that Twilight couldn't hear the name. She knew there was shame in Dim's voice, but if only she could hear the name, she could end this war, too.
"Hmm," Diamondback Gust thought. "I have a customer coming by in a few minutes. Maybe he can help you."
"Really, who?"
"An alicorn."
Shock filled both Dim and Twilight at those words. Dim's fists tightened, and he refused, "No, they start this war."
"Not this one. He is far too old to be a part of this cabal that poses a threat to your mare."
"Old," Twilight wondered if this might be the alicorn that Starswirl fought before. He mentioned to her that the one seeking the siren fillies was an ancient alicorn of some sort, abandoned by his kind. Twilight questioned to herself if the name mentioned wasn't the one responsible, then maybe this alicorn was. After all, he had the power to pull something like this off.
Twilight stopped her thoughts as the room shook. Twilight could feel Cold Blue's hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide. Did she say that out loud?
"You heard that too?" Dim questioned as the shaking increased.
"Yes, silence..." The shaking increased and got far closer.
Twilight was mentally slapping herself on such actions. She had to do something or else they both would be caught. She prepared magic ready in case that had to battle as the shaking increased to its highest point as if Diamondback Gust was right above them. Just how big was this beast?
"Hold!" Dim stopped his godfather's advance. "Message?" He questioned as he reached into his pocket. Twilight heard a familiar gem sound and a message spoke.
"Head back to base, something has happened to the princess," a guard spoke on the other side of the line.
"Mira?!" Dim rushed back to the exit. The loud movement of Diamondback Gust followed, giving Twilight and Cold Blue and a moment of rest.
"What happened?" The larger serpent questioned.
"I'm not sure..." Dim stopped. "Tell your alicorn to meet me outside of the hospital tomorrow morning."
"I understand, just be careful." Diamondback Gust answered. Once Dim left, Diamondback Gust turned around and slammed his tail around the puddle, making Twilight freeze in fear. "Okay, he is gone, come out, or I will squish you next time."
Cold Blue conceded and undid the spell. Rising from the puddle, he bowed to the massive naga slivering toward them. "Forgive the spying, we did not know you were talking to someone else until you arrived."
Twilight fell back in pure shock at the sheer size of the beast. "Wow, wow, you are even bigger than Tirek."
"Ixion's grandson, but is he just a child?" Diamondback Gust raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"We're getting off track." Cold Blue rose from his bow. "We are here to seek unrestricted access."
"My godson is fighting your master. Why should I help you?" Diamondback Gust lowered to their height and showed his teeth.
"You care for your godson, right?" Twilight stepped forward. "We seek to end this war too."
"Wars are a way for the universe to unveil pains hidden in plain sight. I do not wish to end this war." Diamondback Gust turned away in disappointment.
"But you care for your godson, yes?" Twilight demanded an answer this time.
"Yes," the naga conceded.
"Then, help me end this war before he gets hurt."
The massive naga went silent to her words. It made perfect sense to help them, so why was he hesitating. The beast moved away, refusing to give them an answer until Cold Blue gave his answer, no, more of a declaration,
"Wars are the great unveiler, so let us unveil the true purpose of this war!"
The naga stopped in his tracks and turned back to Cold Blue. The beast raced right toward him with rage and malice, teeth outward ready to strike, and yet Cold Blue didn't falter in his ground at all. The siren never went for his falcata nor his ocarina-blade, not even charging up magic, instead, staying completely defenseless.
Twilight rushed to his side and raised a magical shield, but the teeth tore through the projection so easily. Her eyes went wide as she was the shield of Cold Blue. It was too late to pull back, as there was no room for escape. She simply fell back, mentally slapping herself for failing here, of all places.
However, as time passed, she realized the teeth never once tore through her. She stood her spot with being ripped apart. She opened her eyes only to find the naga had stopped his advance, not because of her but because of Cold Blue. Her eyes went wide at the sight of a giant bony and scaly hand from the siren holding the naga back.
Diamondback Gust pulled back in fear and held up his defense. "A dark ascended." Twilight's eyes softened as she realized what Cold Blue did just now to save her. Or maybe he was planning to use
The bony and scaly limb retracted back before vanishing. It was then Twilight realized it was an astral projection. "You wish to let this war continue to reveal the evils of this world? We wish to learn this war's purpose." The siren questioned with an icy breath.
"Wait a minute, you can astral project your alternate form?!" Twilight interrupted Cold Blue, bringing down his temper with her confusion.
"Of course, I noted no detail against such a technique." Cold Blue's firm stance was in complete pieces now, thanks to her complaint.
"Here, I am trying to learn more about my darker self and you show off an astral projection of your own and that looks as easy as breathing!!" Twilight argued back. "Why didn't you show me this sooner?!"
"The mission was to keep you safe, end this war. Both would be impossible for you wasting time learning this power now!" He snapped back.
Now his words caught Twilight off guard. She had completely forgotten the dangers of her alternate form. Seeing him use his power so easily gave her hope that she jumped to conclusions and pushed buttons that weren't meant to be pushed. She backed away from him in shame.
Both of them for a moment totally forgetting the giant naga standing in the room. Diamondback Gust didn't mind this. In fact, he found their little spat to be quite cute. He leaned back and waited and hear what they had to say to him. After all, despite Twilight not noticing it, that astral projection was easily strong enough to toss the naga across the room easily and yet the siren only used it to stop the naga's advance.
Cold Blue conceded and apologized. "Twilight, I don't take on multiple tasks without knowing ahead of time that I can handle them."
"But I can handle them. I just need time."
"Time, for a time travel, can last for eternity but for the rest of us the opposite is true." Cold Blue turned to the naga and demanded. "Give us the access or tell of someone who would be more willing to help."
The naga laughed at this. "Fine, I'll do one better. I've heard word of another searching up information about the war. You need to talk to him, another unicorn."
"Who?"
"Lord Red."
Twilight felt a chill go through her spine upon hearing that name. "That might be a problem."
"I know, he is already searching for you," Cold Blue answered with as much hesitation as anyone else. "He is one of the oldest unicorns in existence."
"If that's true, he might hold more information than any other, even more so than the naga." Twilight wondered aloud. There was a lot to think about, but the move was solid. The naga lowered his snout and allowed them to climb aboard so he could bring them back to the entrance. Upon exiting, the two noticed that night time had finally arrived.
"Looks like we will have to find a place to rest." Twilight noted the emptiness of the Gross now that night was here.
Cold Blue didn't answer at first, instead, pulling out his falcata and aiming forward. Twilight jumped back at the sight of it blocking her path. Looking forward, her eyes widened at the sight of Rex Moba standing in their way.
"Actually, you and I need to talk, first," the umbrum proclaimed as chains rose from his shadows.
Echoes of impatience tapping bounced around the room as Starlight and Starswirl sat around a U-shaped table with a massive chair in the center where Lord Red was supposed to be. However, after traveling for a few minutes to this airship and being brought to this table, two were forced to wait hours for his arrival.
Starlight was the source of the tapping and though she often considered herself patient, especially after spending twenty days trapped in a hospital, waiting here was finally pushing her limits. Hearing of the commands about Twilight, she wanted to get this settled as soon as possible, but here she was waiting again.
Starswirl looked through notes and books, details of which were unknown to Starlight. The younger unicorn did at one point suspect he was possibly curious about Lord Red, but he spoke before of him as he knew him very well, so that possibility was false. The next thing she considered was that Starswirl was curious about that alicorn he fought twenty days ago during which led to the towers collapsing. That had to be the strongest possibility, though why was he looking it up now? Was he bored as well?
Starlight rolled her eyes away as her tapping became boring to listen to. She decided the silence had lasted long enough. "So, Starswirl, how long have you known this Lord Red?"
"I know he is one of the oldest unicorns to ever exist and has been working with the alicorns since the fall of Grogar."
"That long?!" Starlight had a hard time believing somepony was that old, let alone more than just one.
"Studying certain magics can have rather unseen side effects." Starswirl puffed some chocolate milk in front of Starlight, along with some cotton candy. "You have already seen the effects of dark magic on your teacher. Chaos magic, while not as monstrous, overuse can affect the age of its users."
"Not monstrous, right?" Starlight attempted to hide her chuckle. "What about Lord Red, don't tell me he is a chaos magic user as well?"
"No, he studies something far more dangerous."
"What?" Starlight took a drink of her chocolate milk.
"Corruption magic." Starswirl laughed as Starlight gave the perfect spitake reaction. "You see now what I'm curious about his reaction towards you..." He dropped his note and stared at the door. "After all, there is nothing a corruption magic-user fears more than a user of both darkness and light."
Before Starlight could question what he meant by that the door to the room finally opened. They were surprised to see no guards this time at all. Starlight was even more surprised by the ancient figure stepping into view. Nothing Starswirl told her before could prepare her for this meeting.
Standing nearly as tall as an alicorn, Lord Red finally arrived. He was an orange unicorn with an incredibly long red mane in a warm blackened full body armor with white centipedes patterns. An ancient unicorn far older in appearance than Starswirl, and yet his movement wasn't hindered at all. His sickenly thin body moved slowly and but with no walking stick of cane or any help. Traveling at a snail's pace across the room, past the table and central chair.
Starlight had got so annoyed waiting for him. She wanted to leave her chair right now and demand this old unicorn stop this hunt right now. Yet upon gripping her chair to let her rage go, she was stopped cold in place. Lord Red simply looked at her and spoke, "Rage toward me will only slow this process."
"Sorry, Starlight. I told you he was a corruption user, but what I should have clarified was he is the best and only corruption user."
"Indeed," Lord Red lifted his hand and the scroll appeared through a twisting of the very fabric of reality. "From the moment you arrived, I sense what you desired, and rushing me now will not change the facts, Omnious."
Starlight's throat grew dry from his words, and her body constrained. beyond her control. She didn't know what he did, but right now, it felt as if she was being chained down in place. She couldn't describe the sensation by any means, but what was in front of her; it was as if the centipedes that covered his entire armor were now wrapped tightly around Starlight.
"So, this is the reaction you give toward the magic of prophecy." Starswirl attempted to lighten the mood.
Lord Red laughs, "You are right, I am overreacting." With that, Starlight could, the mysterious grip fading. "But if you were ever told that the magic you lived your life studying was prophesied to one day be defeated by a user of both darkness and light, an ominous... well."
Starlight's eyes went wide as the tightness returned so much stronger than before and only lasted for a second before releasing completely with the sound of a cut. She looked at her arm and found three small fresh-cut marks. "How? You never acted a single ounce of magic, you never even moved."
"Little filly, to think a small bit of a fear poked me upon your arrival. One day you too will perform the magic of this level, or maybe beyond." His eyes narrowed, "If you are indeed the mare of prophecy."
"Enough, poking her. I got what I wanted, now onto what she desires." Starswirl waved to Starlight. "If you will."
"Yes..." Starlight grasped her arm. "I want to know why you deem my teacher, Twilight Sparkle a danger."
"Because she is a dark magic user, things are such a rarity, especially after the defeat and imprisonment of Grogar."
"Don't be coy," Starswirl waved his finger, "We both know there are dark magic users not being watched or given death threats. Cold Blue, Rex Moba, Sapphire Amethyst, the dragons, and farther west, and even the egg in Helios's basement send dark magic signatures."
"Yes, but most of those are too far to be both or too small to care for. However, much like Cold Blue, this Twilight Sparkle has shown to have quite the potential behind her. And unlike him and Rex, she has no control of it."
"Control?!" Starlight couldn't understand what she was hearing. "She had been teaching me for two years now, she has far more control than I ever could."
"Containment is not controlling," Lord Red snapped back at her.
"What are talking about? Or course, she controlling it."
"Then explain the last two transformations she has had. Such forms when not control can lead to mass destruction as you have seen before."
"I..." Starlight didn't want to admit it, but he was the right part. These transformations were very dangerous. "But... what about Cold Blue, doesn't he have one as well?
"Yes, but he has not been seen in full power since he was an infant." Lord Red was quick to shoot down Starlight hopes. he had enough convincing her with words. "I didn't want to use this scroll, but the truth is in plain sight right now, in the unicorn capital." With that, he unrolled the scroll and moving images flowed out from it. These images changed everything for Starlight, Starswirl, and especially Twilight Sparkle.
******
Chains echoed loudly through the area as Twilight and Cold Blue dodged Rex's oncoming attacks. Despite what he said, there was no talking at all, just strikes and moves through the area. Twilight flew around with some ease as the lack of others around finally gave her the freedom to use her wings without consequences. Meanwhile, Cold Blue was dropping in and out of puddle forms, hoping to get close enough to stop Rex's attacks. Neither one could get an opening showing very well that Rex was not holding back.
Twilight had to think fast. She knew even someone as efficient as Cold Blue couldn't keep these spells up forever, and neither could Rex. She couldn't take the chance of one outlasting the other. She had to provide an advantage for Cold Blue. She continued to dodge while looking through the area to spot something to stop Rex's attack long enough for Cold Blue to make a move. "Magic? No, what would I use it on?" Suddenly her eyes went wide, "No, wait, of course," She laughed at hearing the memories of the voices of Pinkie Pie and Rarity in the back of her mind. She lit up her horn with a bright light before blasting it toward Rex.
"What a waste!" He swatted it away... exactly as Twilight wanted.
The ball of magic exploded in contact, releasing multiple bright splashes of light right in front of Rex. So much light quickly made his shadows fade away, voiding his chains from the battle.
"Now!!" she shouted.
Cold Blue barely needed to hear that as he shot in close. Seeing the siren's large falcata outward, Rex had to rely on movement alone. Dodging the first strike, only to toss his strings around the hilt and Cold Blue's hand. The umbrum pulled downward and flipped his legs around, kicking Cold Blue in the face. The siren sneered at this and slashed the foot with his ocarinablade, making Rex fall back. Charging with magic, Cold Blue ripped his falcata free and attempted to cut Rex clean in half with the upswing.
Without warning, Rex vanished in a teleportation, much to the shock of both the siren and the alicorn. "Impossible, Rex has no more shadows?"
"No, that was..." Cold Blue's eyes went wide, and he jumped back toward Twilight, "Above you."
Twilight turned too late to see Clover and Clovis above her. The two wrapped her in Rex's chains and rushed her to the ground. The alicorn didn't have time to process why they were here, only knowing their direction was leading her to the remaining open shadow, she could only fight back against them. Pulling deep within her, she opened her eyes and spread her wings, roaring like Rainbow Dash, pushing upward with a massive boom of pegasus magic, blasting them back long enough for her to get free of the chains.
However, she still felt close enough to the shadow for Rex to make his move as a giant mass of chains swarmed out of the shadow below her, reaching through her wings grabbing ahold of every feather. Twilight's eyes went wide and her body shrieked with pain at the attack, but she fought back, kicking at the chains with the same force as Applejack, breaking them.
Clover and Clovis, still falling, both pulled out bow staffs and clashed with Twilight in the air, using what magic they could pull on to hold the alicorn in place. "Twilight, we don't want to hurt you." Clover argued, "But if we have to, we will." She charged her staff with more magic.
"Why would you need to?" Twilight flapped her wings with more strength, pushing them back more.
"By siding with Blood Diamond?!" Clover couldn't understand this move at all. She knew the fear Rex always had for the alicorn prince. "To work with Cold Blue?!" The rival that Rex deemed more dangerous than any other.
"Cold Blue isn't my enemy. We will work together!!" Twilight gritted her teeth. "And when it's over, maybe he can help me as well?"
Clover's eyes narrowed on the siren at Twilight's words. "Rex once said Cold Blue was the greatest and most terrifying monster to ever exist! You side with monsters to save yourself from monsters? Is saving your sanity better than saving your life?!"
This wording caught Twilight off guard long enough for Clovis to push down on his side, sending Twilight into a spin and giving them enough force to push Twilight to the ground; breaking her shining light spell.
******
Back with Cold Blue, he kept his eyes on Twilight, while using magic to pull water from the very air as a defense, wondering when Rex would make another appearance. However, his attention fell solely on Twilight as her light shining spell faded.
"Nice to keep your attention on the beautiful mare," a voice chimed up behind Cold Blue as Silver Pear bashed the hilt of his claymore into the siren's back ribs before swinging it forward and an almost reverse to what Cold Blue had nearly done to Rex.
The siren's eyes narrowed at the blade's edge, tearing into his flesh, cutting just enough to stop him but not kill him. Seeing his blood pour forth filled the siren's eyes with incredible rage, making him roar out a loud sound that stopped Silver Pear's advance.
The earth pony was surprised, totally forgetting he was fighting a siren. However, the loud noise fame for the species sounded somewhat different from Cold Blue, far harsh and almost beastly compared to the legends, but above all so familiar.
With Silver Pear's guard broke, Cold Blue swiftly turned around and tore his ocarinablade through the earth pony's arm, making him drop the claymore. Now free, the siren rushed forward to save Twilight, only for Rex to reappear directly under him with an uppercut and chains wrapped tightly around the beast.
Seeing Cold Blue being to the ground made Twilight's eyes fill with fear. Her plan for failing was a minor concern compared to Cold Blue's capture. With him, she would never learn to contain the dark transformation inside her. Pulsing her horn with magic, she blasted at Rex erratically, but from her trap position, she couldn't get a clear shot.
Rex looked back and further between Twilight and Cold Blue's struggles and felt a piece of familiarity in this scene, such an event he didn't wish to see again. The umbrum ignored Twilight's attempts, as he had no trust for the siren, most of all if this was a ploy by Blood Diamond. "I don't know what that alicorn is planning, but this ends now."
"No!! We just want to end the war!!" Twilight screamed in vain as Rex took Cold Blue's falcata and lifted it over the siren's neck.
"Surrender, or I will end your long life," Rex demanded.
"Long life..." Cold Blue turned away. "My life for so long has been nothing but lies!" He closed his eyes in shame and took a deep breath. A loud slash echoed outward!
Dark magic shook the ground around them as Cold Blue opened his mouth and spewed maroon red liquid in large amounts over his shadow. Rex's eyes went wide as the shadowmancy shook, as if screaming in agony upon the touch of pure dark magic.
Twilight was in total shock and awe, mastery of the dark magic displayed before her. Though it wasn't clear, Cold Blue had far better control of the liquid than Twilight could dream of. She sneered at her shame, pooling on what dark magic she could without pushing on her transformation. No, hoping that she wouldn't lose control. Stand tall like Cold Blue was doing right now. She aimed her dark magic right at Cold Blue as he did the same.
The two maroon red beams clashed with significant force, twisting the very space around them and cracking the very ground under them. The four were forced to jump back as both pulses of dark magic met, clashing head-on in the darkness of malice and hatred. Such forces shook the entire area shook to their foundations, shaking even the pillars within the naga city under the Gross as something from even below that ancient place shook forth and free from the very ground. The ceiling collapsed over the two dark magic users as something shocking rose forth, covering everything in smoke.
******
Dim arrived at the hospital. He didn't know what was going on, only that Princess Platinum had been injured. He rushed up to her room, only to stop at the sight of the door. This room was so familiar, this action seemed so familiar. He had been in this position before, too many times now.
Remembering his godfather's words, he thought back to how many times he arrived at the hospital before this. Sure, there was the battle she had with Twilight, but before she would often come here for transfusions. When she was young, she was often very sick and her father was often the only one with enough willpower to enter the room. Even after he died and Dim swore absolute loyalty to Mira, the naga still found hesitation upon entering the room and fearing the worst.
Finally, biting his tongue, he opened the door only to find her sitting up, injured and surrounded by guards, yes, but nowhere near as injured as the other times. The naga stepped forward and bowed in shame. "I'm sorry I was away."
"Not to worry, I'm not dead." Princess Platinum tightened the wrapping on her arm before standing back up to stretch the limb to check if there wouldn't be more bleeding later.
Dim stood up and embraced Mira tightly, fear clearly on his face more than on hers. The princess and her extra guards were taken aback by this openness. Sure, they never attempted to hide their relationship from the most loyal, but her naga had never been so public with it until now. "Please, stop pushing yourself." He asked.
"You know I can't..." She rubbed his frills. "My unicorns need their leader. Besides, the alicorn wasn't trying to kill me this time."
"This time..." Dim pulled back. "What do you mean? You've still yet to encounter Blood Diamond directly."
"Yes, I would have confronted him today if Twilight hadn't had stopped me." Princess Platinum turned away.
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"That mare has aligned herself with Blood Diamond. She attacked the castle and knocked out several of my guards before injuring me."
"She came back that quickly."
"Yes, and left just as quickly. Heading toward Rage Mountain." Princess Platinum sneered at the name. "My mother's burial grounds."
"Why there?"
"Unsure, but I will put an end to her and Blood Diamond there." Princess Platinum grabbed her rapier and looked over the engraving. "Not just for my unicorns, but for my father and... mother both this time."
Dim grimaced at her words. He knew very little about her mother. She had left directly after Mira had been born. News had arrived shortly after he took his position that the mother had died during a journey, leaving both Mira and her father alone for the father to die five years later. His hands shook upon the possibility that Mira was going to die, much like her mother and father. "Please, just be careful," He let his hands soften.
"Of course..." Princess Platinum leaned closer for a kiss.
A massive shaking stopped them completely, knocking them to the ground and throwing everything around. Dim struggled to stand from the force and made his way to the window. "What is happening--" His eyes went wide at the sight of a massive monolith rising from the ground.
The maroon red crystal hand rose from the ground, shredding and destroying anything it touched. Any building near it twisted and let out a terrifying scream from their foundations. The ground itself pealed upward around the base of the monolith before reaching a certain height and twisting as well.
Surges of dark magic could be openly seen shooting out of these twisted pillars of metal and stone toward the monolith, making it grow even more in height casting a massive shadow over the hospital miles away before towering over the entire city.
By the time the shaking finally stopped, the only thing that stood above this beastly spire was the Moon itself. Nighttime perfectly arrived, making the shadow cast further beyond the city, displaying a terrifying sight. While not as wide as some of the biggest buildings in the city, its sheer height left a devastating mark on the land.
The naga couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything his princess had feared had come true. This much power could only be processed by an alicorn. While they couldn't confirm who used such power, they didn't underestimate her fears anymore.
An icy silence fell over the city as many of its citizens wondered just how many were injured or possibly died in this incident. However, almost perfectly on cue, the worst happened as a small crystal floated down from the sky. Dimitri, on his strong duty, couldn't believe his eyes. Just as the rumors had said, a message from the alicorns had arrived again, this time in their own city.
A giant image nearly as vast as the monolith flowed from the crystal and a shadowy veil of an alicorn appeared. The image was so blurry but the boasting voice was unmistakable. "Foolish unicorns, see this power before you. See what awaits you. This is war, a war you shall lose. Accept defeat, accept damnation and death under our boot."
"No!!" Princess Platinum, in her royalist or rages, screamed out. She charged magic outward from her horn, blasting out the window completely. She stood as strong as she could, keeping a brave composure to her unicorns below.
She stared proudly at them all as they looked at her for an answer. "My unicorns, we will not take the insult likely. the alicorns think they can just kill several of us without a second thought." She smiled and held out her hands to the destruction and screamed louder. "For those who have suffered before us, we can't let ourselves falter, not once!!" She pulled her rapier from the wall with a fierce flow of magic and aimed it at the crystal. "This Emerald and his power will not mock us!!" She pointed to the sky where it descended. "His son, Blood Diamond, and his armies will not make us yield at all!!" She pointed back to the crystal and pulled back. "This is my declaration in return!! I will not rest until every alicorn in existence is dead under my boot!!" With that last move, she threw her rapier toward the crystal, shattering it on contact and impaling itself into the monolith.
******
The smoke cleared around them as Twilight rubbed her eyes. She couldn't believe what happened. Again, a new monolithic hand had formed from her power, but this was so much bigger. She crawled over the surface, still so weak from the power output. Reaching the edge, she was even more shocked by just how high up they were. The two dark magic users' locations were no longer in the Gross but above the tallest of towers in the city and within the palm of the hand itself.
Twilight stared over the city, looking at each building. Finally, her sight fell upon a rapier stabbed into the monolith itself. She looked back at the buildings. The closest ones were twisted by some strange gravitational force. No space disturbance, she questioned. She used her magic to bring up the rapier and found it despite entering the barrier; it was unaffected by the power.
She placed it down and fell back, as there was so much more information to take in. Sure, her dark magic was strong, but just a small clash with Cold Blue was all it took to make this much. It made no sense at all. There was no way either of them was this powerful, right?
The aches of pain from the siren brought Twilight back to reality. She rushed over, only to find him bleeding out. "What? How? When?"
"That earth pony's strength is truly unpredictable..." Cold Blue could barely talk as the blood moved faster.
He was only half right. Twilight could tell that though Silver Pear's attack was strong, the maroon red clash was the true cause of the problem. "It's okay, we need to heal you." She rushed to tear her cloak, but she feared it wouldn't be enough, especially since both of them were too weak to perform any healing magic.
As if hearing her thoughts, the siren grabbed her wrist and brought it over to his wound. Twilight was puzzled by what he meant. "Cut..."
"Cut what?" Twilight questioned. She looked back and forth between his wound and her wrist, trying to figure out what he meant until she remembered back to a memory, something she thought had completely left her mind. A flash of images played in her mind, showing her what he did once.
She pulled out one of her kopises and brought it to her wrist. "Are you sure? I mean, am I ready for this?"
Cold Blue didn't answer. The truth was evident on his face. He too, was just as unsure. However, there was no other way. Twilight channeled what dark magic she could into her wrist before cutting it. Much to her surprise, maroon red liquid poured forth from her wrist over the wound.
It wasn't like she was bleeding. The feeling was very different. The best she could describe it was as if she releasing was liquid from her body, not quite like an experience in the bathroom, but it was just as calming. There was no pain at the cut site, at least not at first. She poured as much as the maroon red liquid over the wound as the healing process began for Cold Blue.
The siren smiled for first, truly happy. "It is rare for such a new dark magic user, but it will be enough..." His voice drifted. Twilight rushed closer, wondering if things were getting worse. Cold Blue simply waved her away. "Such healing takes power from both of us..." He closed his eyes and gripped Twilight's wrist. The alicorn could feel sharp pain but not from the grip, rather as if the cut's pain finally hit her. Her eyes widened as the maroon red was replaced by classic red blood.
Twilight became weak as well. Using so much dark magic before and so much now was taking the toll on both of them. Without realizing it, she fell into the siren's arms. Cold Blue pulled the cloak over both of them as the fridge air up here was getting too much, even for him. Either way, he knew sleep would claim them both soon.
******
Starlight backed away in shock upon seeing the monolith in the image tearing through everything and the message playing before them all. "Why does this keep happening? Why now?"
"That is what I want to know." Lord Red frowned at them. "The message wasn't from Emerald. In fact, I've already disconnected any alicorn magic from the citadel long ago to ensure none of it could be assumed." He tapped his hands impatiently. "And yet it can't be denied that this false magic still stinks of alicorn levels of power."
Readings appeared in front of Starswirl. The old wizard couldn't help but agree. "This is a lot of power. I... I'm not sure how but that signal was sent by an alicorn and there is only one in that city right now." He zoomed in the image and showed who laid at the top of the monolith.
Starlight turned away from the sight of it. This was too much. The unicorn's face fell to the ground upon seeing it. "No, it can't be her..." Starlight refused to believe this. "You are lying!" She stared hatefully at Lord Red.
The thin red unicorn only smiled, taking a deep breath through his nose. "Oh, yes, yes, your hatred smells so good, but I'm not lying. This is escalating out of control and neither of you will leave until you have completely convinced me why the source of this war shouldn't be put to death right now!" He pointed at the image emblazoned upon the scans, the image of Twilight Sparkle.
As the ultimate declaration was made, Lord Red stood from his chair and took his leave. The lights of the room shut off, leaving Starswirl and Starlight in darkness questioning what they should do next. The room grew quiet as no answer came to them, no hope at all even as the moon's light finally reached them, too. From a window, the moon's light brought shame over them all as this day finally ended.
However, beyond the window, the disasters were far from over as within the dark sky, two pairs of feathery wings approached the airship, just below its sensors. The closer they got, the more their cheery faces could be seen through the darkness. One of the pair was weak and needed to land soon, but he knew he would find quite the feast upon this ship.
"Yo, brother, do you think he is here this time and nowhere other?" The stronger one gave his poor attempt to rap.
"He has to be here. We trust that wendigo's words. He did free us after so long." a hoarse voice could barely laugh through his breathe but enjoyed every ounce of his happiness. "Our teacher kept us in that prison for so many centuries and now we are free, free to have our revenge."
Warm sunlight tore through the streets of a small canyon town near some old ruins. Shadows of batponies disrupted the light with their peaceful movements. Big and small ponies ran and flew around cave-like buildings carved out of the ground and canyon walls. The town was quite young, despite the old age of the ruins beyond it.
Just as the happy warmth reached its peak, it was fastly halted upon a great chill. batponies stopped in place and grabbed themselves as shivers of the cold quickly covered them all. Their faces raised to the thin cloud above them as it suddenly jolted. Confusion swarmed their faces as the clouds surged toward each other.
Once they all collided, snowflakes fall. The smallest batponies, colts, and fillies ran to their parents. A face of want and fear sweating over them all. The parents themselves were also confused. The snowflakes felt warm to the touch, yet the air was much colder.
A batpony walked to the center of the road, looked at the clouds. This stallion knew something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what.
With no warning, the snowflakes jolted from their spots in the air and swarmed to him like locusts. The snowflakes grasped onto him tightly and despite the warm touch they gave the other ponies, he only received intense cold; so much so that he fell to the ground. The snowflakes beat against his body over and over. It was a sharp intense pain akin to something biting him.
Blood slowly poured from his body as he stretched outward, trying to stop the rush of shards. He finally let out a terrifying scream as the swarm completely covered every inch of him. Crushing sounds covered his screams as it became very clear what was happening under the veil.
The other batponies quaked in fear as the snowflakes turned red and slowly munched his body into a paste and then solidifying into a new shape before dispersing. A wendigo stood in place of the stallion, his hands and mouth soaked in the stallion's blood.
"Sorry, I was starving after that mass of power." It was clear he was talking about some other form of power drain that must have happened before his arrival here. He was surprised to see batponies here in the first place, as he had been told this place was abandoned. "Hmm, this won't do at all, no, not one bit."
His bony footsteps sent echoes through a now quiet road as it became more and more empty. Not that the batponies were running to their homes, but more like they didn’t want to be anywhere near him. In fact, after getting off the road, most of them would turn toward and froze still staring at him and his cold icy breath. While the parents held tightly, the children shivered and twisted behind them as he drifted closer.
“It’s a monster…” a small voice cracked through the cold, fear-tipped air like it was glass.
"Such a shame." Indigo Frost stopped and perked his head upward. Everypony dropped their breath and looked around for the voice as the wendigo's head tattered back and forth.
Indigo Frost’s head stopped in a certain direction and he sniffed around for a few moments. He turned toward a group of children hiding behind their father and mother. He took in a deep breath of cold air through his mouth and slowly smiled before walking closer to them as one child tore up and even cry. The parents let go of their fright and stood ready, despite the sweat quickly covering them.
"Good show of bravery," Indigo Frost commented. He leaned downward as the father tightened his fist. The wendigo sniffed around more until suddenly his copper-red eyes widened, spotted the teary face of a certain blue earth pony colt among a town of batponies.
Indigo Frost straightened himself and narrowed his eyes at the father. The child was adopted. He could see the anger growing in the stallion's face. Indigo Frost opened his bony jaws, showing his razor-sharp teeth. The stallion put up his guard upon this, but then his eyes widened at something else.
“I’m truly sorry, but you should teach even your adopted children to be better.” Indigo Frost’s voice was much calmer now, with suaveness and even a hint of sincerity as he placed his hand upon his chest before raising it to his deer skull. He bowed, regarding the stallion's bravery.
All the ponies began whispering to themselves; confusion bewildering them all. The mother of the children backed away, taking the children as far from him as possible. The father stayed behind and tried to stand his ground.
Indigo Frost rose back up and looked toward all the other batponies around the road. His frown toward all of them did little to halt their confusion. “I knew most of my kind were barbaric and even insane. Is it that surprising to hear one speak with such kindness?”
None answered back. In fact, most of them even went back to silence. This time, though, it was a freezing silence that stank of hatred. Indigo Frost frowned, "How disappointing." He looked back at the father, seeing the rage all over his face intensifying by the second. “All you ponies are so...” Indigo Frost’s eyes drifted around to them all. “Racist.”
Suddenly, Indigo charged forward and grabbed the father’s face with his pale white hand. He pushed the father to the wall, cracking the rock with the force. "When I arrived you were perfectly fine being afraid of me, but since I spoke you had this pit in your stomach saying that I couldn't be a monster." He pressed down on the stallion's head, making him scream in agony. "And yet you still ignored that pit, chose the easier path of hating me."
All the batponies grabbed their mouths in horror. “However, your child is right. I am a monster. All species are born with a monstrous side; they just choose to hide it. While I choose not to hide mine.” He squeezed the father’s head tighter, making the stallion twist and squirm. The stallion’s hands raised to Indigo Frost’s hand and squeezed. Indigo Frost smiled at the stallion's reaction as his last words slip out of his mouth and slivered over his lips. “I embrace it.”
He pulled the head back as the stallion struggled more. He pushed forward once again, beating the head back into the wall. The stallion twisted in agony as he pulled back again, clearly leaving blood on the wall.
“Please stop,” the mother’s pleas broke out of her silence.
The wendigo stopped and brought the father’s head close to his own. Blood dripped from the back of the stallion's skull as his hands weakened. Indigo Frost smiled and leaned in closer. He licked the blood coming from the wound before whispering into the stallion's ear, “For your bravery, I grant you the ability to say goodbye to your children.”
The stallion refused to answer as his fist tighten. With all his remaining strength, he raised and punched Indigo Frost across the face. "Wasted effort."
The mother couldn’t stand this anymore. She rushed forward to stop the attack. The children reached out for their mother’s hand as it vanished from their grip.
They flinched as they heard her roar. Suddenly, the roar was cut short as they felt liquid spray over their faces. The children twisted and shivered as their eyes tried to open.
“PLEASE DON’T!!” the father yelled to his children as tears pour from his eyes.
The mare’s body swung back and forth upon the wendigo’s spiny tail as the blood continued to splatter. Her body jolted as his tail tore more and more through the flesh of her stomach and chest. Soon her struggling stopped as the blood poured out even faster. Indigo smiled as his eyes glowed. Ice shot outward from the wound and slowly crept over the mare’s body until she was completely frozen.
Once Indigo finished, he looked back at the stallion in his hand. “It's a shame that these children will lose both of the ones that love them the most… like I did.” He leaned in closer, licking the blood that was pouring down the stallion’s face. “Only my family was taken by a twisted king!”
In those last words, he pushed forward again and punched the stallion skull deep into the wall. The stallion wailed in agony as his skull cracked. Indigo Frost’s smile grew bigger at those sounds and pulled back once more, only to punch it back in again and again and again.
After several hits echoed through the town, the stallion’s screams stopped, soon followed by his struggling. All his body would do was twist and jolt as each hit. Indigo Frost kept punching it as blood splattered more and more over his hand until the stallion finally stopped, even twisting and jolting completely. Indigo Frost licked his jaws as he pulled back his hand one last time. He released his gripped and the stringy gooey remains of the stallion’s skull fell loose from his hand and shattered on the ground. The remaining blood poured like a fountain as pieces of the skull followed with it.
Indigo Frost licked the sticky tissue from his hand as his eyes wandered over to the frozen mare. He took up his free hand and pulled out a cloth from his pocket, moving it over and cleaning his bloody hand until it was pale white again. He turned fully toward the mare and placed the cloth back into his pocket. He finished by punching the clean hand through the mare’s chest.
Cracks crawled over the mare like spiders, and soon she shattered to dust. His hand remained, holding her frozen heart. He brought the heart over to his mouth and bit down. Munching down, he walked toward the children. His eyebrows raised to the blood sprayed over their faces.
He leaned downward and bent his knees so he could be at their height. He grabbed out a new, much cleaner cloth and raised it to their faces. Much to the shock of all, he cleaned the faces of the blood that he had sprayed upon them. Once he was finished, he placed the cloth back up. He looked at the heart that was still in his hand and moved it away from the children so they couldn’t smell it. After all, they still refused to open their eyes.
His eyes scanned over them all until he found the blue earth pony colt that had called him a monster. He reached outward and grabbed the chin of the colt. He pulled the child out of the crowd of the others and lifted the child's face toward him. “Open your eyes and look at me.” The colt didn’t respond. Indigo Frost narrowed his eyes at him and lowered his hand down to the colt’s throat. Pushing forward, the colt’s eyes shot wide open upon the choking. Seeing the eyes open, he released his grip and moved his hand back up the face slowly.
“Do not cry.” his fingers ran over the tears on one side of the colt’s face. Indigo Frost smiled at the child. This smile was a much kinder one, filled with great sincerity. “You need to be strong and take revenge, eventually. Now that you are all alone, you can’t let yourself falter.” With those words, his tail rose and struck forward.
The colt froze in shock as the blood of his siblings were splattered on the surrounding ground. Indigo Frost pulled back his bloody tail and stood up straight. He turned to the rest of the batponies, them all still giving him fear and rage.
He lifted his head to the sky and screamed out a name, "Thule!! Spare only this child."
Out of nowhere, millions of vortex opened up and tentacles spewed out, grabbed the other batponies, quickly ripping them apart with little regard where they were or the amount of damage they brought to the surrounding things.
Indigo Frost looked back to the earth pony colt and asked for his name. The child shivered in place but soon enough answered, "Cobalt--"
"Blue," Indigo Frost interrupted. "Your name shall be known as Cobalt Blue from now on." With that, another vortex opened behind the colt. He feared for his life, but the tentacle that came out of it gripped him softly and gently pulled him as Indigo Frost gave one final regard. “I expect to see you again, son. One day soon, when you take vengeful victory.”
******
Morning arrived in Geländehorn. The capital grew quiet with somber tones without the soldiers and Princess Platinum there. So blinded by her rage, she left for the mountains with all her forces, leaving the city open to all, especially Twilight.
Though, the mare wouldn't instantly know that, as her body was still so tired from the giant monolith she had summoned below. So weak from such output that she couldn't even leave the spot she was in, wrapped tightly in the arms of a siren.
Cold Blue knew this action was purely from her tired form, so he kept a calm demeanor and waited for the light of the day to finally hit her. He simply leaned back and looked over the land. It was so calm, to think so much had happened yesterday and yet the survivors fell asleep just as quickly.
As the light reached them and unveiled the shadows, he strengthened his guard upon seeing an extra shadow that hadn't been there before. He feared the possibility of it being Rex and gripped tightly to his falcata.
He lifted the weapon's point toward the shadow, his abrasiveness fell reaching Twilight's subconscious as he aimed and spoke, "Show yourself--"
"Calm yourself, Cold Blue. I am not here as a foe." The voice was surprised.
"Stygian. How long have you been there?" Cold Blue held a better guard as Twilight pulled back, her mind still in a daze from yesterday's events.
"Long enough to see you both have quite vivid dreams."
"Stygian..." Twilight barely said, "As in Rex's master, the legendary Shadow Pony."
Stygian smiled at her answer, "So even in the future, my legends are well known."
Twilight pushed through her daze and tightened her cloak right back around, getting her guard ready too. "Did Rex send you?"
"Please, he once served me, not the other around." The shadowy unicorn shredded some of his shadows to reveal his face. "I came here after seeing this monolith rise at the central point between three very familiar magical signatures."
"Three?" Twilight questioned. "You know of Clover and Clovis?"
Stygian narrowed his eyes at her words. "It seems some of my legends have fallen apart, but I should be glad that those two children should get more credit than I."
"So Blood Diamond didn't send you?" Cold Blue questioned.
"No, I hadn't considered that he would use the time traveler to his advantage. He and Starswirl have similar plans."
"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned.
"Starswirl has brought the other time traveler to meet with Lord Red."
Hearing the name made Twilight jump better to her senses. She stood up better and demanded, "Where is this Lord Red?"
"He will arrive soon." Stygian's eyes narrowed more on Twilight. Turning back to Cold Blue, he questioned, "Why are you two after him? Wouldn't that prove too dangerous?"
"What do you mean?" Twilight coined,
"It doesn't matter. We can search up other leads until he arrives." Cold Blue interrupted her.
Stygian leaned back against one finger of the mighty hand and gestured to Cold Blue. "If she wishes to be helpful to both you and Blood Diamond, then she needs to know the full truth?"
"What is he talking about?" Twilight questioned. "Cold Blue?"
The siren's eyes lowered as he assumed this information would only slow her down. These details he deemed pointless. "Twilight, let's go find that alicorn that Dim mentioned."
"..." Twilight could see the distress in his eyes and chose not to question anymore. "Sure, lead the way." With that, the two fell into a puddle and flowed over the monolithic hand and back to the ground.
Stygian gave an annoyed sigh at these actions. However, he stopped upon seeing the rapier they left behind. He recognized the rapier from the picture of Princess Platinum's mother. He was surprised to see that it arrived here without being harmed at all as if it was being protected by some form of magic.
He placed his hand upon it only for maroon red to spark from it, leaving him even more confused. "This is very interesting." With a snap of his fingers, the weapon fell into its shadow. "Blood Diamond was right, something is strange in this city indeed."
******
Back at the titan airship, Rex and Clover entered, disappointed at their defeat. Clovis and Silver Pear had elected to stay behind and continue to find a way through the monolith's barrier. Rex had returned, seeing the battle as pointless now with Princess Platinum's decree. "Fredricson, get ready to leave!"
"We can't go... What about Twilight?" Clover questioned.
"Really? Because from what I've seen, you've wanted none of them around, including Twilight."
Clover was shocked by her words of defense for Twilight of all ponies, but truthfully she also feared for the safety of her brother and the other unicorns. Though he wasn't fighting alongside Princess Platinum, both he, Silver Pear, and Twilight were still in the unicorn princess's crosshairs. She knew they had to play things carefully with her proclamation, or Princess Platinum might just turn her weapons and armies off them.
Clover argued her reasoning to stay and Rex refused, walking off on his own. The umbrum gave one sign of hope, "Your brother's master will be here soon, so he will be fine." However, the soon arrival of Lord Red only intensified Rex's concerns. "We will be gone before he arrives and that's final."
"Neither of you listen to a word I said," Fredricson interrupted, "The engines are still not ready."
"They are fixed, right?" Rex questioned.
"Yes, but untested!"
"Fire them, if we burst them I'll teleport us out of this forsaken city without the airship." Rex reached into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.
"That's won't work for all of us!" The captain's words proved fruitless.
"He knows that..." Clover answered. "I think he just needs time to accept... defeat."
"Defeat?!" Fredricson was shocked by her words. "He hasn't faced defeat since..." The captain's eyes went wide, "I see, he's still mourning my son as well."
"In his way, either burying himself in work or winning battles. Fighting Cold Blue and Twilight proved to be too much."
"Both? they were working together!"
"Yeah, I'm unsure of Twilight's motives but she stood beside him, even used dark magic against us."
"Wait, they are the ones responsible for the monolith."
"Yes, unfortunately. It's like that previous village all over again." Clover looked back at the monolithic hand in the distance. "Only their collide was so much stronger as if they meshed."
"Meshed?"
"Clovis's words, not mine. It was as if for a single moment their powers were as one. He said it's never been heard of for two creatures to be so ensync after such a short time." Clover stopped and her eyes widened. "Twilight is from the future, right?"
"That's what Starswirl said."
"And her magic is like others of this time."
"Yeah, that old wizard never clarified who?"
"Because he wanted to know for sure." Clover ran back to the living room. "There are only three things that could answer similar magic--" she was stopped by finding Rex already in the room with the scroll in hand.
"I heard what you said, yes there are three."
"Linage, teaching, and destiny?" Clover questioned which one could Cold Blue be for Twilight.
"Yes, this scroll lets us see the areas where the alathar might be." He rolled it out for her to see. "But it does this by sensing large amounts of dark magic that emanate from the alathar."
"If we could slightly expand the spectrum to see other strong dark magic users as well, it could answer this question."
"And give us an early warning system of the wendigo's whereabouts." Rex raised an eyebrow and unwrapped his horn and his chest to reveal his curved blue horn and the dark alicorn amulet. He closed his eyes and spoke of the amulet. It blinked a red light back to him several times. "Damn it, you old goat. I don't care if Starswirl calls this cheating. We need answers now more than ever!" Rex argued back.
After a moment, the blinking stopped and red light shined outward and filled Rex with a large amount of dark magic. Using his horn, he channeled it into the scroll, and the map's dots glowed brightly. Clover slowly stepped closer and narrowed her eyes on the city they were in, hoped that it might work.
Soon enough, six new dots appeared, "Wait, that's too many and one of them's blue."
"I might have made the spectrum too wide... Wait," Rex's eyes went wide, "How many blue? Are there any outside the city?"
"What are you getting at--" Clover stopped as she saw one at Rage Mountain. "Blue is light magic?"
"Yes."
"One at Rage Mountain must be Blood Diamond so this one still in the city must be another--" Clover jumped to Rex's side as the use of this dark magic was taking a toll on him. "Careful!"
"It has to be another alicorn!"
"The one that Starswirl encountered, maybe?" Fredricson answered.
"Yeah, we'll worry about him later." Clover pointed to the map. "Fredricson, find any dark magic users who are extremely similar--" she sneered in pain as the dark magic flowed from Rex into her. "Hurry!"
Fredricson rushed over and scanned the map. "Let's see, there's Geländehorn... another one is forming."
"I fucking know that!!" she screamed in pain, "If I break the connection soon I'll be free from that path, now hurry!!"
"Right, right?" He went back to scanning, "There are three similar and two outliers, discounting you of course, and the dark alicorn amulet."
"How similar? Cutie mark shape is for a linage type? The exact match is destiny type!" Without warning, Clover was thrown to the side by the dark magic and the dark alicorn amulet lifted Rex and the scroll into the air and away from them.
"I see it, Rex, let go!!" He shouted as he took cover.
Rex opened his eyes and broke the connection as the entire titan airship shook. He fell to the ground and puked out everything he could until blood flowed. "Fucking damn it!!" He screamed in pain. "Clover, are you okay?"
"Wow," she puked some herself. "I never want to go on that ride ever again!!"
"I completely understand." Rex picked himself up and looked back at Fredricson, expecting some answers, since he was the last one to see the map before the connection was broken. "What did you see?"
"Five red spots, all of them matched one of those in their way?" Fredricson grabbed out a piece of paper and drew out each coordinate. "Two for the titan airship, not counting Clover's almost change."
"Yes, when active the dark alicorn amulet and its user stand as their dark magic users, as well as anyone touching them," Rex demanded more details on the dots. "What about the other three? The outlier that matched one of those parameters."
"You don't understand," Fredricson cleared his voice. "Rex, you are one outlier, for cutie mark similar to--" Rex held his hand up to the captain.
"Similar to who?!" Clover demanded, her eyes turned back to Rex, only to widen at his shame. "Your cutie mark matches Twilight's."
"Yes... as I feared, she is from my lineage..."
"No, that can't be!" Clover argued back. "That's impossible." She turned back to the captain for confirmation, only to see the same look in his eyes. "Twilight is of your line... our--"
"Enough," Rex interrupted. "Captain, you said there were two other outliers?"
"Yes." He pointed to the coordinates above where the monolithic hand would most likely be. "They two match so perfectly, as if they are one."
"So the mesh explained. Twilight and Cold Blue are connected by destiny."
"Which mean?" Clover questioned.
"Anything, a connection of destiny through friendship or even love, or even." Rex gritted his teeth. " Connected possibly through even a... destined death."
******
Back in the town around the old ruins, Sage and Vanity landed through a vortex and found Thule finishing the killing of the remaining bodies. "Why are we here?" Vanity shivered from the bodies.
"Because this shall be our new base for the many that Sage has been recruiting."
"So this will be our Dark City," Sage lowered his eyes in disappointment. "I followed him under the assumption he would bring us great power."
"Yes, sinners like you and Vanity have crimes that keep you at the lower ends of the world and through the unity this city shall provide, great power shall follow." Thule gave his answer while unhindered in his mission to rip apart every batpony there and spread their blood and limbs into a giant circle around the town.
"I want to hear that from his voice alone. Where is he?" Sage demanded
"He had to arrive back before she awoke?" Thule answered.
"She, who?!" Sage barked back.
"You will learn of her and her purpose soon enough." Thule hesitated in his carnage long enough to point out to Vanity, as she had remained quiet this whole time. "If you show fear now, we will gladly give your half of Sage's mission to Carnival Carnage."
"Please, no, there are many reasons my way of conversion will never mix with his way of conversion." Sage countered.
"Monsters are monsters no matter the form; whether they are sinners seeking a better place in life like you and Vanity or people blinded by perceptions of good so strong they don't see their actions as monstrous."
"Why did you bring us here?" Vanity finally questioned. "Why bring my brother's remains?" She held out the container of ash.
"Because we will need it once the circle of blood is ready." Thule pointed out the ruins beyond the city. "Enter the ruins and place it in the center upon a familiar pedestal. I'll give more details once you arrive there."
The morning light hitting Starlight's face was the first thing to bring her back to reality. Her mind had spent so long on a trace to where, from her perspective, the entire night had only lasted an instant. The morning was here, and she needed to confront the possibilities of what would happen upon their arrival back in the Unicorn Capital.
The ideas of war were always around them since they left the village, but Starlight felt as if she could ignore them before. However, now they were haunting her in full force and the need to decide she swore she would never make again.
Though she never made it clear to her teacher, Starlight was deeply afraid of pressure, especially after being trapped in this timeline. It was better to simply let life flow around her than ever confront it. Things were so much easier but this. She had such big plans back then that fell apart upon entering that portal.
She gave a small chuckle at her failures. She stole the spell, activated the portal, and leaped through time, all in a bid of revenge. Yet as they travel through timeline after timeline she found her vengeance had faded into complacent.
It wasn't like she wanted it back. She had grown much since those days. What she desired now wasn't revenge, but the willingness to not standstill. She had become too soft in this position as a student to the Princess of Friendship. Her former enemy had become her teacher.
She cared for her teacher and the friendships she had forged in this world and timeline. However, all of that was being tossed into danger she feared would consume them all entirely. She felt as if she was a child again and her connections were being taken away by every random happenstance she ran into.
This Lord Red, a being she felt she couldn't trust at all, had made a dire proclamation just as terrifying as the war and Princess Platinum's threats. Starlight feared he wouldn't hesitate to kill Twilight upon arriving. And Starlight feared she wouldn't be able to stop it at all.
She had to do something, anything, to change the outcome slowly arriving. Could she stop this Lord Red with words or force? Was she even strong enough to stand in his way? She felt so useless now, more than ever.
And the greatest fear of all was, what if he was right? Starlight looked back at the transformation her teacher had taken. Not just once, but twice, had her teacher fallen into this Pale Mare's will. Twilight had summoned two dark magic monoliths in only a month. How much more would she fall into the darkness? Was Twilight already beyond reach?
"No," she slapped the ground and stood up. "I can lose her, she is my teacher!" She ran out of her room only to be stopped by Starswirl the Bearded standing in her way.
"Where are you going?" When Starlight didn't answer, Starswirl repeated his question. "I asked, where are you going, Starlight?"
Starlight turned her face away and commented, "To stop this ship."
"That would be a terrible idea..." Starswirl puffed a cup of chocolate milk into her hand. "Drink, relax and wait until we arrive."
"What?!" she argued back. "Why would I do such a thing?! You heard his threat!"
"You can not stop, Lord Red." Starswirl turned away. "His power is far beyond you and even Twilight herself."
Starlight's eyes went wide. She couldn't understand what he was saying. She and Twilight had faced many evils long before reaching this timeline. There was no way Lord Red could be stronger at all. "Then why won't you face him?"
"I have nothing against him." Starswirl smiled back. He could see the shock on Starlight's face only grow greater. "Let me explain. Why I wouldn't want Twilight dead, I can not simply stand in the way of Lord Red's command."
"Why? He wishes to--"
"End the war, nothing more." Starswirl was quick to correct her assumptions.
"However, he thinks killing Twilight will succeed in this venture. This I can not allow.” Starlight faced forward with firm determination. "I refuse to let Lord Red kill Twilight Sparkle."
"You wish to kill him or stop him?" Starswirl questioned.
"..." Starlight was at a loss for his words. Obviously, both options would be the same no matter what wordplay he used.
He frowned at her lack of an answer. It was clear she would not listen anymore. She had accepted what she needed to do. Inverse he needed to do the same. While he could never agree with Lord Red's methods, one thing was for sure: he had to let things play out. "Fine..."
Starlight's eyes went wide as she felt an incredible pressure push her to the ground. She pushed back as the magic of Starswirl hit back into the room. "Why? Why would you stop me?"
"I am saving you."
Starlight's eyes widened more. "What? Why would you save me? Why won't you save her?!" Magic flowed from her horn.
"Because fighting Lord Red would make things worse for both of you if you stood in his way." Starswirl held out his hand as the magic blast reached him. He blocked it with ease. "Twilight has brought great fear to the alicorns, therefore she must be removed from their fear. Lord Red is simply offering an olive branch of kindness to her."
"Kindness?!?!" Starlight blasted more magic, pushing Starswirl back.
"Yes, once he deems her gone, the war will be quickly ended." Starswirl pushed her blast back into her.
"Do he really think that will stop the unicorns--" Starlight's body filled with so much pain from the rebound. Her magic had been changed purely from coming into contact with him. It was as if it was laced with chaos magic now. It was a strange and yet painful feeling that pushed her to the ground completely.
Starlight gritted her teeth and attempted to fight back as tears pooling in her eyes. She looked back at her thoughts of before.
She had wanted things to go back to normal, but what was normal now? A time before the war began? A time before arriving in this timeline? A time before entering that portal? A time before stealing that scroll? A time before meeting those five friends and Twilight? A time before she took over that village of markless? A time before she left home? A time before she lost her first friend?
Starswirl could see her thoughts race around through her head. At this range, reading her mind was easy. Though normally he would refrain from such spoilers, he couldn't take such chances with her currently reckless. he smiled at her endeavors. "Your aim is admirable especially for a time traveler but pointless if Lord Red kills you."
"I don't care," she stood up and charged magic back at him. "I can't give up, she is my friend."
"Huh, your friendship is truly incredible... Friendship itself is truly the greatest confusion of all." Starswirl smiled, "I thank you for this knowledge--”
A chaotic shockwave tore throughout the entirety of Lord Red's airship. Starswirl turned toward the direction, only to sense Starlight's teleportation in his moment of distraction. He turned back around and frowned upon seeing her gone. "Foolish filly. I brought you here to understand you and your connection to Lord Red, not lose you to him."
******
Crashing through a large hole in the side were familiar hippogriffs. They smiled in wicked victory upon seeing several soldiers charging toward them at high speed. The stronger brother flipped around, grabbed one soldier after another and smashing them to the ground. The thinner brother took his time moving through, grabbing any nearby soldiers and sucking all the magic out of them.
They two were quickly making work of as many of the forces as they could. They were in a hurry, as they didn't want to be spotted by the leader of this airship. While they believed they could certainly handle even the strongest of unicorns, they weren't insane enough to handle him. Besides, they had a far greater target to search. "Yo, where to be the teacher that showed us the lights only to bring us nothing but smites?" the stronger brother quipped.
"Unclear, but remember we aren't just here for him, but that ominous unicorn as well." Though his words were still so horsed through his respirator, they were as clear as another listening in.
"I'm sorry, but I won't be an easy catch." Starlight charged in with a flurry of magical blasts. Her gentlemare sword clashed head-on with the claws of the stronger one. "Who are you two, anyway? Who sent you?"
"A certain wendigo did. He wants you far away from his greatest bid!" the stronger one continued with his poor attempts to rap.
"Greatest bid? Indigo Frost wants Twilight for something too." Starlight jumped in fear upon seeing the thinner one absorb her magical blasts with ease.
"I thought that would be obvious after her reaction in that small town," the thinner one posed. "She has quite the storage of dark magic, from what I hear. Oh, how I would love to feast on her soul..." He released back Starlight's magic in a beam of energy that tore through the room.
Starlight jumped back and forth, dodging the laserlike beam. "Impossible?!" She was shocked at just how easily he could manipulate her magic against her.
"No, very possible," the thinner one narrowed his eyes and vanished in bright light, appearing right behind Starlight, "And I don't just steal your strength, but your speed as well."
Starlight barely blasted another spell off, knowing he would absorb it, but give her enough room to dodge his gloves, assuming they were the source of the absorption. "Fucking damn it," she switched to her sword style, swinging forward. The hippogriff ducked and closed his gloves, punching her in the gut. Starlight's eyes widened at the amount of force as she felt her insides bend.
"Did you not hear me?! I can absorb both strength and speed." He laughed in victory as she puked over his feet. She didn't care and threw her head up, punching into her respirator, knocking him back. Free, Starlight twisted around and kicked him in the arm and the head, throwing him into the ground.
Starlight pinned him with her leg and magically pulled back her gentlemare sword. "Surrender, or I will end you." She looked at the brother, hoping he would heed her warning.
"I see Twilight taught you well." The thinner one leered at his brother and the stronger hippogriff rushed at Starlight without a single hesitation, tackling her to the ground.
"Sorry, Starlight, but we are here for another fight." He punched down upon her over and over only to find her shielding her body from attacks. "Damn it, Night Fiend," he dropped his rapping in a desire for help.
"Night Sting, can't you ever handle things on your own?" Night Fiend held up his hand and began pulling magic out of Starlight.
"Said, the one who got their ass kicked in the end," Night Sting resumed his rapping.
Starlight screeched in pain as she could feel her shield weakening. These hippogriffs made no sense. They had knowledge of magic that seemed unheard. Magic and soul-stealing were far beyond the levels of a novice. It felt very similar to the old-world magic she used to steal cutie marks. It was painful but also terrifying to relive memories of mistakes she had long put behind her. Her eyes widened, and she realized what she needed to do. She gritted her teeth, knowing her teacher would not want her using such magic ever again, but if they were doing something similar, maybe she could reverse it. She winced in pain as the first punch reached through her shield. She knew she had to move now more than ever.
However, before she could, the two brothers were thrown off by another magical spell. Starlight coughed hard with relief as she was picked up by Starswirl the Bearded. "Good thing I arrived just in time." He pulled her to a wall and faced the hippogriffs with disdain. "It has truly been a long time. You still have not learned respect after all these centuries?"
"You cursed us to these years of endless torment." Night Fiend's breathing got worse.
"Fiend, I didn't curse you--"
"Enough!!" Night Sting charged forward at full force.
Starlight attempted to lean her horn forward and lend support to Starswirl, but she was too weakened by the battle. She didn't understand any of what she was seeing. Did they know him? As she watched the three of them fight out, she gave herself several mental screams of annoyance. Earlier she had found herself useless in saving her teacher and now she was only proving her fears correct as she could not protect others. She had to give some sort of help.
Charging her magic up, a mix of black and white magic formed around her horn. She gritted through the pain and lifted her hand, aiming right at them. The black and white magic swarmed from her horn to her hand as a beam of condensed magic ready itself. "Forbid spell, left hand of..." Her hand dropped as the pain became too much. Her eyes waned back and forth as she looked up to the ceiling.
As shocking as the battle in front of her, there was a far more terrifying image appearing upon the ceiling. A massive shadow in the shape of a centipede slowly moved toward them. She turned away only to see the shadow coming from a figure at the fall end of the hall getting closer to them all. However, before she could see the figure's face, everything went black.
******
Miles away from that battle, another battle was underway. Princess Platinum stood ready as her soldiers fought bravely against the army of Prince Blood Diamond. She stared out at the battle with a mix of pride and shame.
"Why don't you stop then?" Dim answered her thoughts. "You are ashamed of this bloodshed?"
"Yes, but only because the coward above refuses to show himself," she roared out to the airship above them. "Here his soldiers stand, yet he remains hidden!"
"I know your sorrow," Dim grimaced, "But this could also be a chance to do things right. We lost soldiers left and right. Do we need to lose more just to prove a point?"
"I will not back down, not now, not ever!!" she roared back. "This will be my greatest victory!!"
"I understand..."
"... Dimitri," Mira spoke softer. "I can't give up now. My soldiers need their leader. We need our revenge!" Her rage returned at the end in full force.
"Revenge... fine..." He stood forward with his axe ready. "Revenge is what you should have."
******
Above them, the sounds of explosions echoed under Blood Diamond as he studied the picture of Lady Mass Hysteria intently. He had a strange feeling that everything about this war led back to this picture and its meaning. He rarely cared for gut feelings, but this felt so strong. It was as if the answer was screaming at him and he was deaf to all reasons, even while seeking a reason.
"How goes things down below?" Stygian's words were the first thing to bring Blood Diamond out of his trance.
"Unclear." Blood Diamond held his hand over one of the many crystals to show him the battlefield below them. "The princess continues to put up a clear fight but without knowing who lured her into this assault, such a battle proves pointless to us."
"So you will let your forces fall without faltering?" Stygian questioned.
"If they fall, it will be purely from their fault, not ours."
"Such selfishness from an immortal alicorn." Stygian made his judgment clear. "If you are unsure of the motives of this fight, then why continue to spark the flames of it."
"Better to see the source of the flame rather than snuff it out completely before the source can be truly gauged," Blood Diamond answered back. "If we don't figure out the source, then another war will spring out from another species and another species until everything is covered in flames."
"Unless that is the point?" Stygian questioned. "What if war is the point of these battles?"
"Possibly, but what is the greatest tribute to war, other than learning from one's mistakes."
"Seeing the evils in plain sight." Stygian's words confused the alicorn and demanded an expansion of that thought. Stygian smiled and pointed out one key detail. "Whether the ones behind these wars are good or evil, one thing is for sure, evil itself, even in its most basic forms, cannot hide forever in a warzone."
Blood Diamond was impressed by his answer. As always, the shadow pony spoke with the knowledge and grace of an alicorn or beyond. "Truly, evils, no matter the greatness or insignificance, can only hide so long in such chaos of pain and bloodshed before unveiling themselves in the filthy mud of it all."
"Indeed." Now that point was settled, Stygian turned back to the true reason he was here. He presented the rapier to Blood Diamond. "This weapon was once wielded by Princess Platinum. I believe the evidence upon it will prove most useful in unveiling the truth."
"Really?" Blood Diamond brought over the blade and scanned deeply with his magic. "Interesting. It holds a large amount of magic. How did you get a hold of it?"
"It was impaled through a dark magic barrier formed by both Cold Blue and Twilight Sparkle."
"That is incredible. Very few beings, including ourselves, can stand against a barrier formed by him let alone him combined by another, even if it's from a fake such as Twilight Sparkle."
"It's far greater than you think." Stygian posed. "This survived a barrier created through a meshing of magics."
"Impossible." Blood Diamond was completely taken aback by this claim. "But in order to do that, this blade would need to be powered by more than just a single unicorn's power."
"Oh, much more than that." Stygian pointed back to the picture. Blood Diamond's eyes widened in realization upon spotting the darkened blood veins over her hands and arms.
"Of course, why didn't we see it before. It was right in front of me. The reason for the war, Princess Platinum's actions, and the wendigo's role in all of this make so much sense now." He stood up from his chair and walked over to a platform as the echoes of the explosions were at their strongest.
"What are you going to do now?"
"First, we lay the bait." His eyes glowed and the crystal floor below the platform opened revealed a massive drop to the mountain battlefield below. With little regard for where it landed, he dropped the rapier down to the area. "Then we clear out the unwanted catches."
"That's simple, huh?"
Blood Diamond unhinged his chest plate and held out his hands over the field and smiled. Crystal magic grew over his fingers like claws. "This place was chosen by Twilight Sparkle because of the massive damage it received in the future. She said it took thousands of years to form this damage. Yet she was looking at it from a future's perspective." He leered over the gorgeous fields of grass and stone. "She never once considered this place's name."
"Rage mountain..."
"Yes, history states it was given this name by an alicorn. it makes sense that another alicorn shall resume its eternal pain." On that last word, Blood Diamond drew his claws back and tore into his exposed chest, unveiling his crystal-lined bone structure that lied beneath. Stygian was not only surprised to see such a strange curse of Blood Diamond's unique biology among alicorns, but also witnessing such a forbidden spell.
Blood Diamond's eyes glowed a deep blue as light magic moved over his exposed organs and he spoke the name of the spell, "Dual magics of light and crystals, Forbidden Crystal Spell, Diamond Dust Rebellion."
With that, trillions of blood particles flooded out of his exposed body and floated down to the battle below. Deep within each of these blood cells was single crystal quartz. In an instant, they glowed the same deep blue color before expanding to an incredible size. Within seconds, these trillions of cells had transformed into trillions of giant diamond shards that rained down upon the mountain.
The explosions of magic were quickly replaced by bloody screams of agony and death.
*******
Screams of agony and death reaped through the battlefield as none were spared. Princess Platinum twisted in pain as a crystal tore through her arm and leg. Regret filled her mind at such a drastic lack of such calculation.
Her eyes wandered over her soldiers, many severely injured... most giving their last breaths as giant shards or randomizing size had fallen down and torn through them so easily. Her waring forces had been crippled so easily.
However, as more blood poured over her face, she could back away in fear and shock. "No... no..." Above her, Dimitri, her most loyal guard, had acted like a shield. Where only two crystal shards had hit her, several had hit him.
"Mira..." He broke formalities as more blood poured from his mouth.
"Don't rush yourself closer to death." She rubbed his face. "You have fought bravely and courageously--" A loud crash beyond them interrupted her. She grimaced to see her enemy, bathed in smoke and crystal dust.
Finally, after a full month of fighting, the confrontation was here. Princess Platinum and Blood Diamond met face to face for the first time. The alicorn prince bowed in a show of respect to the princess unicorn.
"So we meet at last."
"Yes, and this shall be your last." Princess Platinum removed the shards from her arm and leg and stood to the best of her abilities. Taking her loyal guard's axe in her hand, she stood ready for the battle she had been preparing for, for long.
On Blood Diamond's airship, Stygian was both perplexed but also sneered at the sight of the gore below him. He was impressed by the amount of crystals Blood Diamond could summon from seemingly nowhere while so high in the air. But he was ashamed of his fellow kin down below. The sight of them being ripping apart as the crystals fell was truly appalling. Some being injured, others just dying right on the spot. It truly was a mix of emotions.
When Stygian was called upon by Blood Diamond, the shadow pony had been just watching the chaos and rage of his ponies from afar. Thousands of years ago, when he gained this darkness-fueled form, he already long distanced himself from other unicorns, let alone the civilizations of unicorns he heralded from.
The only ponies he let in his heart were his ally unicorns in magical mastery: Starswirl the Beard and Lord Red. Though it wasn't until the most recent century had Stygian even attempted to make minor connections with the unicorns, but this was pure loneliness that led to the birth of his children. The offspring of which he rarely visited at all.
Stygian gave up caring about the unicorns long ago, so why was there shame in his eyes now. He waved his head back and forth and turned away from the bloodbath. He needed to think of other things. He knew none of these unicorns, anyway; they were mere infants to him. No, not even their oldest relatives were as close to infants to him.
It was times like this that made him wonder if immortality for the lesser species was truly worth the pain and turmoil. So much knowledge had been gained from this process and so much more had been lost. He thought back to something else and held up his hands to the surrounding shadows.
The image of the titan airship appeared. With a wave of his hand, the inside of the airship was shown. The image of Clover and Rex came into sight. It appeared as if they were about to leave for somewhere important. "Clover the Clever..."
Clover turned in the image and faced the shadow. Her eyes widened at the image and she stopped in her tracks completely. Gripping Rex's shoulder stopped him in place as well. The umbrum bowed, "Master, why have you appeared?”
"I am near Rage Mountain where Blood Diamond is fighting Princess Platinum. I was curious if you two were going to join the fray, and if so, which side?"
"No, I refuse to help Blood Diamond, nor side with that unicorn." Rex looked away. "I have another mission."
"Oh yes, Topaz Silk spoke of your hunt for the alathars just before I left to work with Blood Diamond."
"You're helping the prince?!" Clover was taken aback by his words. "Is that what Clovis meant?"
"Possibly. I'm unclear what your brother has told you." Stygian smiled at hearing that name from her. "I did not know he had arrived yet."
"So you knew what he was coming here to do." Clover stepped closer. Sadness couldn't hide in her voice.
"Clover..." Stygian raised his hand to the image of her cheek."I always know what duties have for you and your siblings." He noticed his words didn't decrease her sadness. "However, something else aches you now that I'm completely unaware of."
"You could say that..." Clover kneeled closer to the shadow and lowered her head completely. "Stygian, the legendary Shadow Pony, first of the shadowmancers..." She bit her lip and cleared her voice, "Father, I have learned something truly incredible, but also disheartening about the time traveler."
"She shares a connection with someone in this timeline," Stygian answered. "Lord Red already suspected a few possibilities..." His eyes widened, "You think Twilight is--"
"I know now that Twilight is of my bloodline," Rex was quick to answer, but apologized for his interruption.
Stygian smiled, "And you are now curious what other bloodlines she might share?"
"Yes, which is why we are going to confront her in Rage Mountain." Rex held up his hand to the shadow.
Stygian stopped him. "No, she is not here. That was a ploy for Princess Platinum and Princess Platinum alone. Her armies alone are here as Blood Diamond desired. Exactly as the ascended alicorn planned."
"This was Twilight's plan!" Clover questioned.
"Where is she?" Rex demanded.
"Twilight is back in the capital."
"Why?" Clover asked.
"She is searching for the true mastermind of this war."
"Cold Blue is with her?" Rex dropped his hand and questioned.
"Yes, I suppose he is," Stygian concluded. On that, Rex walked off, but Clover stayed. "He hasn't lost his impatience after all these years. Like a rooster with his head cut off."
"Dad, please don't mock him..." Clover laughed. Her eyes wandered back to Rex as she asked her father. "You never clarified why you are contacting us now?"
"It's just this war behind me, the blood and turmoil, the shame, remorse, and rage of everyone down below." Stygian purposely left out his own shame. "I wanted to see something brighter, like you and Rex."
"Dad, you could always contact..." Clover stopped herself. "No, that wouldn't work..." She couldn't hide her regret and questions now forming in her head after finding out the news, such questions that were once old and forgotten but now were filled with such curiosity more than ever; "Father, do you miss them? My mom, Clovis's mom and--"
Stygian leaned closer and reached his hand through the shadow, grasping at a tear now pouring over her cheek. "Clover, I have had many lovers, both wives and husbands alike, and many children on this path of mine. But you have chosen a path that beings like me would be truly terrified of." He picked up her head and looked her directly in the eyes. "You were always far braver than your siblings." He grimaced at her and Rex in the background, getting ready. Clover was still so young. Rex was nearly as old as him. "If you wish to stand by his side, I cannot stop you at all."
"Father," she dropped another tear and spoke softer to ensure Rex didn't hear her words. "I don't want to be like my mother nor Clovis or my other siblings..."
"But?"
"But I want to stay with him... for as long as I can." Clover attempted to pull her face away, only for Stygian to hold her in place.
The Shadow Pony leaned completely into the shadow and placed a small kiss on her head before pulling away completely. "My dear daughter, you are not the first to chase him and I doubt you will be the last, but if you must chase him, chase him to your final breath." His daughter smiled brightly at those words and thanked him for listening. Stygian let her go, and she left the shadow.
The Shadow Pony watched as she chased after Rex. As they got further from the shadow, their images became blurry and faded completely. Stygian smiled brighter. He had not expected to learn so much about what was originally planned to be a quick call. "My children need to take time to learn... just like these unicorns below do." He faced the picture of Lady Mass Hysteria and leered back at the distant image of Princess Platinum on the battlefield. "Family's lineage is truly the greatest source of immortality. The next generation can both shock you and inspire you with their determination and stubbornness. Truly, when one passes on their work, it is carried by their later generations even when it wasn't meant to."
He narrowed his eyes on the picture more, curious about what Blood Diamond saw he didn't. His eyes soon froze on the weapon on her hilt. Bringing the picture closer with his shadows, Stygian grasped at something that was there, or what was once there.
The Shadow Pony held up his shadows and the rapier he found upon the monolithic crystal had shown itself. He looked back and forth between the picture and the rapier until he was certain. Bringing the rapier right up to the image of the Lady's weapon showed it was the same weapon, with one major difference. Markings were missing upon the blade itself, marking so small only not even a clash would ever see them no matter how hard they fought. However, the wielder could see them so perfectly.
The image upon the past version was hidden some from the picture's framing and placing the blade within the picture. The present version of the image shows a powerful unicorn ready for battle. However, the picture had pieces of the unicorn that the current version did not. The horn was bigger; the mane was long, almost as if it was flowing.
However, the greatest fault came in the fact not enough of the unicorn could be seen in this picture compared to the blade of the rapier being in plain view. "Why? Why would you alter such a small thing as horn size and mane length? You aren't matching Princess Platinum, nor her mother and father... So why?" He held the rapier upward, "Just what are you hiding?" His eyes stopped a smug around the back of the unicorn. "Could that be it... no it is what he saw... the true ruler of the unicorns..."
******
Back on the ground, Blood Diamond took in a deep sigh of victory as his chest closed, sealing away his exposed crystal bones. His eyes moved over the battlefield as many of the enemy soldiers were beyond repair. Their defeat was certain. All he needed to do was complete the measure.
His eyes fell upon Princess Platinum. "Do you like my spell? It combines crystal magic with light magic to create an incredible and terrifying effect." He waved his hand through the shiny dust in the air. "Blood cells filled with crystalline structure found with my bones. Usually, we spread the dust as an agonizing poison with crystal magic, but when sped up through time with light magic, the microscopic structures expand to their greatest sizes, ranging from a few feet to several meters."
She simply gritted her teeth and charged forward, swinging her axe right at his face. Mira was shocked to see crystal form from the dust around him and catch her axe.
"Do you think that was my ego talking? No, we told how the spell works to make this easier for you to accept defeat." With but a movement of his eyes, the newly formed shards rushed at the princess. She jumped away from the furthest one and knocked away the closer one.
Clashing with the final one, she channeled magic into her horn and her feet. To prevent it from stabbing her into the ground, she pushed forward with as much might as she could muster. Blood Diamond simply narrowed his, and the shard pushed back with just as much force as she could return.
"Your defeat is here, accept it." The other crystal shards returned, aiming for her arms.
She formed a shield of magic and used it to grab and turn the crystal shards on the final shard, them all. She jumped away from the explosion and switched to an offensive. She shot several small beams of magic toward the dust around Blood Diamond. Once she displaced enough, she swung a wave of magic from her axe.
Blood Diamond ducked under it and smiled, forming crystal blades from his arms, and rushed in. Princess Platinum barely had time to react to his speed and knocked him back, only to lose her footing. He flashed back in stabbing the ground, where she fell to force more crystal shards to grow out, aiming for her back.
She flipped around and threw out another magical wave, this time in the shape of a sharp spine. It wrapped around Blood Diamond. She kicked the ground and aimed her axe at his neck. His eyes glowed as a crystal shard rose from his collarbone, blocking the attack.
"Damn it!" She screamed, hitting harder on that. "What kind of magic turns your bones into crystal?"
"A unique magic," his eyes glowed brighter, and more crystal shards shot out like bards from each opening in his armor, breaking the magical wrapping she had him in. "This battle will be far harder than you think!"
Dim watched on in horror. His body was in so much pain but fear quaking his heart, far worse at the sight of his princess on edge. This wasn't like the arena fight with Twilight. Blood Diamond had far more control and experience with his power and species magic.
Princess Platinum wasn't fighting a wild monster, but a master with far more experience than she could even muster. And the worst part was she was already losing ground. "Damn it, looks like I will have to use it..." She gripped at her chest and flowed as much magic out toward him to stop his advance.
******
Back at the hospital, a magical puddle arrived. It stopped once it reached the back end of the hospital. The pool’s surface shivered and a lavender hand reached out, followed by a head. The ascended alicorn crawled out with the siren following as the spell ended. Twilight’s gasps for air were heavy. She had used magic to keep clean air in her lungs as she was not used to this form of travel. It felt like she was in the water, so she made a reasonable reaction.
“I am sorry,” he apologized, “I was unaware if you are used to this form of travel.”
“No, your assumption makes sense with me hanging around Rex and Clover.” Twilight clarified. “Rex is a master of shadowmancy. Also, it doesn't help that Starlight is one of the greatest masters of teleportation I've ever seen in the future.”
“My form magic isn't like his shadowmancy.” Cold Blue clarified back. “His power allows for instantaneous travel through shadows and viewing through them like scopes of the sort. Mine requires a bit more movement. Each spell has an advantage and disadvantage, such as Rex needing to know where he's going, whereas I do not.”
“Inverse Rex can go practically anywhere as long as he knows where it is well you have to travel,” Twilight caught on. “Which brings up the question of why he would need the titan airship.”
“That's more of a preference for his unicorn than I always suspected. Shadowmancy can be stressful on the bodies of nonusers such as that unicorn.”
“Clover? That makes sense. She's not known for her teleportation skills. Even in the future.” Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Which makes me wonder why the future has her and her brother mixed up, given that he is a master of teleportation.”
“Speculation for another time,” Cold Blue surmised. “For now, we need to find this unknown alicorn of light.”
“Then found him you have,” a voice spoke up.
Twilight turned around, only to narrow her eyes in fear and shame. The one that approached her was a small siren filly that seemed all too familiar to her. The siren filly had a blue form with a long ponytail that was darker blue with navy blue highlights. She wore a magenta shirt and a pink short dress with long socks of the same color.
“Starswirl was right, you stole the bodies of the siren sisters.” Twilight carefully phrased her words. “I didn't think you would be the alicorn we would encounter.”
“Oh, you are allied with that wizard,” a male voice spoke from the filly’s lips. The filly rubbed her chin. “Yet you speak of their grouping like it was a title to you once.” Twilight mentally slapped herself for the phrasing he gave. He laughed at her reaction, “So the vassals of Indigo Frost speak the truth, you are from the future.” The filly’s body took a step closer to them. “I don't need his words, meeting you face to face: you stink of light magic but you are not the light magic user who cast the spell, nor do you have light magic in your arsenal.”
Twilight felt trapped by his words. He saw through her so easily within only seconds of meeting her. “How can you tell so much? Where do you get your knowledge?” she readied herself. “Indigo Frost does not know of my power.”
“Actually, he does. That is why he desires you by his side.” The filly narrowed her eyes. “Well, that's what he claimed to me. But power alone eludes me as to the real reason he desires you. Speaking of eluding, you two have yet to tell me why you are searching for me. It's certainly not because Starswirl defeated me.”
“So, you lack the vanity of most alicorns,” Cold Blue finally answered.
“Not true. I have lived for long enough to know that vanity in such a form is pointless.” The filly presented herself to them. “This form doesn't even have the same gender as I and lacks the age and experience. However, a useful form for stealth and travel it is not one I would choose willingly.”
“So your alliance with Indigo Frost is on uneasy ground,” Cold Blue quipped back.
“He seeks my knowledge and is an enemy of my enemy, nothing more.”
“Then will you help us?” Twilight question.
“Help? That eliminates the possibility that you are here to seek this body back.” After confirming his suspicions, he turned the filly away and let his guard down. “If you are not sent here by Starswirl, what do you seek?”
“Information about the alicorns, unicorns, and the naga.”
"Why? For what reason do you think this information will be helpful to you?"
"I wish to understand the war.” Twilight made her words clear.
“You wish to understand, but you are from the future?" He questioned, “You think the war should have ended earlier?” He raised the filly's finger and pointed out, “No, such knowledge would not end the war early. You are seeking the cause… No, the orchestrator of this war.” The filly turned back, disappointed. “History is truly lacking in your time.” Seeing her reaction to those words, he rephrased himself, “Or maybe things aren't going according to plan.” The filly's smile grew bigger.
“History is written by the victors, so history is not clear when you are living among its lesser details,” Cold Blue answered both their questions. “Blood Diamond believes someone in this city is orchestrating this war.”
“Your search has led you to believe there is a connection between this war, the alicorns, the unicorns, and the naga.” The filly’s sight lowered to the ground. “If you truly desire this information so much, I will need insurance.”
Twilight gritted her teeth and tightened her fist. Deep down, she knew this move was very wrong, but she was from the future, after all. If what Cold Blue was saying about history was true and if this alicorn's words proved useful, she had reached a very dangerous impasse. She looked to Cold Blue for an answer, but his face gave a stern resolve to whatever she accepted. Conceding, she turned back to the filly and answered, “Your position will not be reported… to Starswirl or any of his allies.” She gave herself a mental scream of no but a mental argument back to yes. This needed to be done, even if she would grow to regret it later.
“Such bitter words can only be spoken by an alicorn of old age or lack of experience. Which are you, I wonder?”
“Says the alicorn hiding within a child's body,” Cold Blue fired back.
“Enough said, enough said,” the voice conceded. “Even a being as old as I know when I’ve overstepped myself.” The filly turned to the right and pointed outward. “Truthfully, your timing is impeccable.”
Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight of the hand monolith. “What does that have to do with what's going on?”
“You don't know, do you? That was formed by a powerful clash not only a day ago.”
“I know,” Twilight gritted her teeth, “I am the one who forged it."
"Alone, that would be quite the feat."
"Actually, Cold Blue did part of the work."
"Wrong," the light alicorn spoke up louder to clarify what was a plain sight to him. "Even looking at the level of power he has, I know the amount combined with yours would still be nowhere near the strength needed to forge a monolith of that size."
"What are you saying?!"
"There was another source of dark magic present during the combining. One that couldn't mix at all with your power or his and therefore sent out the warning beacon to the alicorns."
"… Another dark magic user." Twilight was left in shock. However, things were far from done as the surrounding ground shook. No, the entire capital shook with a familiar form of magic.
“Yes, and if you wish to know answers about who is orchestrating this war, then you must learn the truth of that other source of dark magic. Or rather the line, but has descended from it. One of which connects all your answers toward the alicorns, unicorns, and yes, even the naga.”
******
Back on Rage Mountain, a similar form of shaking was happening. Though from above, it might not seem as if those two events were connected to the ones upon the battlefield, the obvious was clear. Dimitri, with his strength barely holding on, turned away from his princess in shame as the maroon veins came into sight over her body.
"Damn it, I was hoping to rely on this when I faced your father." Princess Platinum boasted back with surprising confidence. Even though her body was now screaming at her, she couldn't let herself lose now.
"We see, you have another power you are afraid of using."
"Now, claw forth... forbidden spell..." She fell to a single knee as the pain wracked her chest and throat. Memories echoed through her mind. Of a hospital bed, the many hours and days of testing before the process could be complete. "Forbidden spell!!" Maroon blood spewed from her back and she screamed aloud, "Dark Evolution Spell, Blood Soaked Wings."
Blood Diamond jumped back as massive maroon-colored wings swarmed outward from the princess's back and attempted to grab him like claws. His face filled with frustration at the form she took. "Wings, like an alicorn. You dare mock the species with such blatant fallacy--"
His roars were cut short as Princess Platinum reached him within a blink of an eye and slashed down with her blood wings. She smiled as his blood hit her face. "Oh, look I cut you!"
Now Blood Diamond was on a knee. A massive tear was across the left side of his face and down through his armor. He frowned and sent in more crystal shards. However, despite the close range, the princess could dodge and send in her own attack, slashing at his arms, severing the crystal blades from his limbs.
Blood Diamond narrowed his eyes and summoned far more than just two. Princess Platinum jumped back as hundreds of the crystal shards formed and flew at her. "Maybe we should knock it up to thousands of larger shards!" Blood Diamond narrowed his eyes more, and the hundreds became thousands of shards, far larger than even the ones that took down Princess Platinum's army.
As the princess dodged each one, Blood Diamond formed crystal blades from his wrist, forearms, his elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, feet. Rushing in with his thousands of crystal shards aiding Blood Diamond clashed with her axe and her blood wings.
Each one would gain ground and quickly lose it. But the longer they fought, the more confused Blood Diamond became. If she always had this power, then why didn't she use it against Twilight or the fake Twilight? That lesser alicorn pushed her far harder than he had and yet she will go this far with him. Was this meant as a mockery or more?
"You don't see it, do you?" A voice echoed through the battlefield. A voice unheard by anyone else but Blood Diamond.
"What could you possibly mean?" Blood Diamond shouted at the voice. Princess Platinum didn't know what he was barking on about or to whom, only that maybe if she pushed it more, she could actually win.
"Look closer, Blood Diamond..."
"We are fighting her so evenly." He barked back. Was he finally losing completely? The princess had to push further.
"Yes, but soon she will catch up and even surpass you."
"No, she won't!!" He pushed her back completely.
Princess Platinum was in shock now. He wasn't talking to her at all but to someone else. "You spoke to me of my mockery of your kind, yet you are receiving help. The legendary Blood Diamond!" she barked over the voice. "I will defeat you, with a power that is completely my own!!" Her blood wings refined in form into perfect feathery shapes as she rushed forward for the last attack.
"Completely on her own? Her words say it all," the voice argued back. "You are the reason she is fighting with this power. You differ from Twilight, and why?"
"Why... why?" Blood Diamond was completely stopped by his own thoughts. Not even the princess' axe tearing through his chest could bring him back to reality. Blood Diamond's eyes glowed a bright green and his irises changed into knives. The voice spoke openly to where all could hear it so perfectly as it echoed from Blood Diamond's mouth. "Because like us, she is half of what I am!!"
"Half of what?" Princess Platinum trembled in place. This wasn't Blood Diamond's voice at all, but something far more insidious.
"Oh, you princess, are half alicorn!!" With that proclamation, blood splatter from the princess's arms and chest as she was tossed back with ease.
Rage Mountain shook with a twisted cackle of laughter booming from Blood Diamond's mouth, "Oh, this is rich, truly incredible. A mountain shattering revelation and your enemy knew it first!! The princess and ruler of the unicorn race are none other than a half alicorn!!" words that didn't belong to him at all.
Princess Platinum was knocked back as blood flooded through the air. Her arms, completely severed from her body, bounced on the ground like twigs long before her body did the same. Her chest bounced around as her ribcage hanged open, gushing with blood like a fountain.
Dimitri, her loyal guard, watched in utter horror and shock at the scene. His attention drew back to Blood Diamond as his laughter echoed louder and so much colder. This wasn't the joys of victory nor the dreads of defeat, rather the ecstasy of laughter itself alone.
Things were far from over, for it was as if the alicorn were now transforming. His fur lightened to a very light, almost skin tone pink and his mane shed its teal colors for a silvery, luscious mane. His blood veins became visible through his armor, shining a deep blue, and his wings twisted almost backward. Finally, a third eye opened upon his forehead.
"Just like Twilight?!"
"No, no, no," the figure shushed the naga's assumptions. "I am not as weak as that lowly pale mare." His knife-like eyes moved over to Princess Platinum. "Blood Diamond, Blood Diamond, you complete lost soul of Insanity's womb!!" The voice openly mocked the mouth it spoke from, as if it wasn't his own. "You have been fighting with a half-breed this entire time. A freak of nature, just like yourself." He smiled at the life still within his enemy's breath. "Despite the wounds that I have just given her, she is still ready to fight, yes fight on to her very death!!"
"Half-breed..." Dimitri reached out to his princess.
"Yes, half alicorn, just like Blood Diamond, here." The voice presented the vestige that was once Blood Diamond. "Blood Diamond had his suspicion for some time, as her dark magic reserves were well hidden even during her fight with Twilight Sparkle. However, as soon as I saw the picture of her mother, the connections became so clear."
"The truth through his eyes." Dim questioned, "And what does that make you? Are you like the dark ascension Twilight used!"
"Did you not hear me! I am not the Pale Mare, nor am I akin to such a being. Where those forms are more of a darker reflection, I'm more of an extra host of Blood Diamond's power!"
"Extra host, fine then," an unfamiliar voice entered the area through Princess Platinum's own mouth as her eyes glowed a bright maroon red. "I shall defeat you too and bring glory to the unicorns." Mira stood up as if her blood wasn't flowing out like a fountain.
Blood Diamond's knife-like eyes narrowed at this. "I see you have another similar problem to Blood Diamond. I am assuming this is the voice that told her to orchestrate this war. Hello, Lady Mass Hysteria, your name suits you well."
Princess Platinum's eyes narrowed in return and the voice echoed from her mouth much like Blood Diamond's. "I am not her mother, just a lingering memory that helped her to do the right thing. And you are...?"
"I am no memory. I am an ally Blood Diamond can always trust, Hollow Prince." With that, he lifted his hands out and finished his transformation with his armor, switching out for a fine green suit and blue tie. "Yes, much better."
Her eyes widened at the green glow that had accompanied this last move. "What is his other half?"
"Nice try, but that's my little secret. I will tell you that, like your little Mira, he gets it from his mother." Hollow Prince straightened his suit. "Now seal up those wounds others so we can get onto the final round."
Doing as he asked, Lady Mass Hysteria closed up her eyes and sealed up her wounds with dark magic. The flesh fused close, but unlike Twilight, no scars remained. Channeling dark magic into her bloody wings, they changed shape into large gooey claws.
"Not as refined as I expected, but it will do for this finale!" Hollow Prince rushed forward with his bare fist.
As they clashed in blood and magic, Dimitri watched from just meters away with a combination of shock, fear, awe, and, most of all, shame. Here he could not stand beside his princess, blind to the living memory of her mother that had been manipulating her moves and this whole war from the very beginning. His mind raced back to where this whole thing started, with the death of Mira's father...
******
In the past, alongside an all too familiar funeral procession, alone filly walked. Her back continued to irritate her during these storms, but it was this day's crisis that brought her the most pain. Despite the others, besides her carrying the coffin to its resting place, she was completely alone in this pain and sorrow.
Little Mira, now Princess Platinum, a ruler of her citizens at the young age of five years old. It was agonizing. Her inner thoughts screamed at the body in the coffin as much as they screamed at the pain in her back.
Soon enough, they arrived at the spot. She sat quietly and ignored the sermon. The funeral passed so quickly and before she knew it she was looking upon the gravestone, the body now buried.
Her loyal guard stayed by her side the whole time, but where she was now, he might as well not exist at all. Her entire world was gone. Her mother had left her so long ago and now her father had joined in this abandonment. She was completely alone, so enraged that she couldn't even cry for her father, for her citizens, or even for herself.
Her back ached again from the rain. She slapped her legs and arms, anything to push the pain away from her back and to her face, wanting so desperately for this rage to be replaced with tears.
"Its hurts, hiding them for so long." A voice echoed out. "He died saving you from them, from your mother's curse?"
Mira's eyes wandered up to see a strange being standing before them. Her guard was already holding up a weapon to protect her, but she had been so lost in her pain she hadn't even noticed the protection nor the being's appearance until he made himself known.
"Who are you?" She questioned carefully while keeping her eyes on his form. The being looked so old, almost deformed. She pulled back in revilement as the smell finally reached her. It was as if he was rotting.
"I know beings like you." He lifted his wings out and used magic to unveil her own... alicorn wings from her armor. "Such beautiful wings, almost pure white, with tents of blue and red throughout. Unlike the wings of my current host, dying and decaying."
"Host? You are no alicorn, nor a half-breed!" She held up her rapier. "You do not know my pain, they are hideous!" She screamed back. "They are damned--" blood foamed in her mouth. She fell to a knee and her guard attempted to help her.
"Because you are unstable with them? Or because you are fearing what they are doing to your body?" The rotting corpse approached her.
"How do you know such things?"
"You are not the only halfbreed in existence. There are other half-breeds, some are mixed with alicorn blood and some are mixes of far lesser blood."
"Lesser blood?"
"Yes," the rotting corpse stopped as her guard's weapon stood in his way. "I know of another who suffered similar pain."
"Suffered, as in he is free now?"
"In some ways, yes. I believe you know of him. He helped your father." The rotting corpse held out an orb of ice.
Mira narrowed her eyes at the orb, as she knew it well. "Yes, him... he helped my father..." Her teeth gritted and memories screamed at her mind. "My father wanted to save me from my pain, save me from her curse. My father left on a journey that killed him!!"
"I know," the being answered with a saddened voice. "My ally, the halfbreed, was with him. He couldn't save him."
"Your ally, my father's friend..." Anger fueled her voice, "C. C. Frost... was his name..."
"Yes, the child of Indigo Frost."
"The wendigo king of legend..." Mira's voice was now filled with regret. "But, he's dead."
"Yes, just like your father is now. Both Frost could not save." The rotting corpse put away the orb. "My ally wishes to help you again. You and he are alike. Where you are half unicorn and alicorn, he is half wendigo and a half... something else."
"What possible help could he provide me now?!" Mira demanded back. He had been pinning her with questions and answers. She felt as if she needed the same in return.
"Closure and freedom, but most of all command!" His eyes traced over her wings. "All he desires in return is for you to be ready for the year of Hearth's Warming."
Mira's eyes widened, "Hearth's Warming... my mother spoke of those words at once: It's happening?"
"Not yet, but soon, soon." The rotting corpse turned away from them and held his hand outward. The flesh opened to reveal tentacles. They traced over the air and summoned a portal. "It is your choice now."
Mira's eyes tracked back to the coffin. Her eyes were now heavy with decisions and reasoning. She feared what this path might hold, but she also feared what the lack of action might hold. Clenching her hands tightly, she turned back to disagree, but then she saw her guard's face for the first time since the funeral started. There was anger, but deep within his eyes, there was hope. "Dimitri... you shall stand beside me in this fate!" Her voice was loud again.
"Yes, your majesty!" He stood ready to follow her.
"Good," she faced the rotting corpse. "What is your name?"
"My name is Thule, and I shall be your light in this darkness." He presented her along the way, and the two followed him into the portal.
******
The crashing sounds brought the naga back to the present as Hollow Prince pinned Lady Mass Hysteria down. The ground itself was ripping apart at this attack as Hollow Prince roared like a wild beast at her. This was in stark contrast, as before, while he had been laughing with a cold cackle. It was with the impression of satisfaction. It seemed the longer he stayed out, the more monstrous he became, just like Twilight's Pale Mare.
Dim's sight was now nothing but the eyes of a scared little child. The adult was practically in tears at such a defeat. His body refused to move, but his mind didn't care. Mental screaming echoed at his legs to move, charge forward and save the body of his princess. No, the mare he loved, even if she was being used as a host for another. He had to save her, and now.
"Pitiful, worthless, insult to alicorn kind," Hollow Prince mocked, "My father had the right idea long ago about handling such beings. I can't believe it was an alicorn that stopped him all those years ago." He lifted his hand and aimed a flat palm at her face. "I will not falter, not for Blood Diamond, not for Emerald Teal, not for Topaz Silk, and certainly not for you." He smiled, "Forbidden Spell, Left Hand of the Light"
The ground around her head shook erratically, as if it was in total fear of such a spell. All the air around her face and in her mouth shewed away like a demon escaping Tartarus. Lady Mass Hysteria could only feel two things, the absolute fear as time slowed around her and the growing pressure pushing off his hand.
Dim, the loyal naga couldn't hold back any longer as he jumped forward as time slowed even more. The ground around Mira's head gave a loud crackling sound as her name moved out of the way from the sheer pressure. Dim reached out to his princess, willing to do anything to stop this and save her. However, what he hadn't realized yet was the most agonizing question of all. Why hadn't the spell activated?
This was answered tragically with a single leer from Hollow Prince. With a flick of his hand, the spell was channeled out, not through Princess Platinum's head, but right through the naga's chest. A beam of pure light magic ripped him right open.
A loud boom echoed out and the thud of Dim's body hitting the ground followed as time flowed back to its original speed. The naga's body was unmoving, a gaping hole where his chest was. His blood stopped flowing and his mind was in pure blind shock as death took him away from his post.
Hearing his breath fade was all it took to bring Mira back to reality as she screamed his name in horror, "Dimitri!!" Her loyal, no, her beloved guard, was gone in a single move.
"Hmm, that was easier than I thought. You are back, which means I no longer need to stay..." Hollow Prince's hand twisted erratically from the force of the backfire. "Still not as good as him at such a move..." The limb twisted until it snapped completely. With such a surge of pain, the form of Hollow Prince faded and Blood Diamond's form returned. His knife-like eyes turned back to normal.
Blood Diamond fell to the ground, heaving in pain and agony. All he could do was stare back at his hand in horror. "You could have fucking warned us!!"
"I didn't have time," Hollow Prince's voice echoed in Blood Diamond's head. He looked forward to seeing the image of Hollow Prince bowing to him. "I apologize for such rudeness. Take back command." With that word, he faded from the alicorn's sight.
"Dim... Dim..." Mira whimpered to her beloved's lifeless body. As her gooey limbs faded from arms to wings and to just blood lying upon the ground, all she could do to reach him was kick with her legs toward him, pushing her body forward across the ground.
It was truly a pathetic-looking sight. "Such a shame that you suffer the same fate your father did upon this mountain." Blood Diamond looked upon Rage Mountain's entirety. "You know why this mountain is called rage mountain?" She didn't respond and continued her track. "We originally knew the tale of an alicorn dying here in front of her beloved, but after how your mother will reveal herself so easily... It became clear this was her resting place, her death, as your father helplessly reached out to her. Just like you reach out to him now."
Mira didn't care about his words, only seeing her beloved. Reaching him, holding him, never letting go of him at all, never ever giving him up. She gave tears, agony, sweat, and blood for him. He stood beside her all these years and now he was gone. No, he couldn't leave her now!
"You lost him, just as your father lost me..." The image of her mother appeared to her. Mira dragged her body past the image and continued her pointless track. "You can't lose now, you cannot give up!" The voice screamed at her. "You are my daughter, you are now the ruler of your unicorns! You have a duty!" Tears flowed over the image. "Now complete your duty!"
"No!!" she screamed at the voice. "I... I... I don't know what to do anymore?!?!" She reached the body of the naga. Dim still refused to move. All Mira could do now was wale in agony and sadness over his corpse. "Please, tell me, Dimitri, I need to know what to do? Answer me!!"
"Such is your name, Platinum. The taste of platinum is like that of the most beautiful poison.” Blood Diamond raised his other hand. Crystal shards fell around the two, getting closer with each drop. However, even as some tore through her body, she refused to let go of her beloved.
"Claim your victory!!" her mother pleaded with her.
"What is victory now without him?!?!" Mira clutched tighter. "Dimitri, answer me?!?!" The corpse was blank of all answers.
"Fine, if you won't make the choice, I will," her mother answered. With that proclamation, a gooey hand-formed from Mira's back. It didn't reach out to Blood Diamond or the loyal guard's body. Instead, it reached into Princess Platinum's pocket and pulled out an icy orb. "Indigo Frost, you left us this orb, now we will use it."
"No, mother! Don't do it!!" Mira screamed as the orb was crushed. A soft whistle echoed out from it that didn't end.
"What was that supposed to do?" Blood Diamond ignored the sound but didn't ignore the roar that soon followed. "A wendigo..." Before he could process the possibilities, the scream of Mira brought him back to reality as the princess vanished in a puff of red snowflakes.
The swarm of red snowflakes flew into the air and around the prince before leaving him utterly confused and flying away from the mountain entirely. His eyes widened as they expanded in size and their speed increased as they charged right toward the capital!
******
Twilight fell back in fear and shock as she had been told the full story about Princess Platinum's past and her mother's true form. Despite all the words that had been said, two words echoed over and over in her mind. The impossible had become reality. "Hearth's Warming... Those words, that event..."
"Twilight?" Cold Blue questioned.
"Are you certain this being that Mira spoke to said those words... Hearth's Warming?" Twilight pulled herself back. "Tell me!!" she demanded.
"Yes." He smiled back at her. "You asked for the truth. The answers that connect the alicorns, unicorns, and the naga. Princess Platinum hid her form from you by removing her wings stayed in place, waiting to return at the right moment."
Cold Blue grimaced at his words. "So they gave her a spell to access their power without the need of having them--" he stopped as his ears flicked at something.
"That's not the point now. Hearth's Warming... those words shouldn't exist--" She was stopped at the light alicorn laughed within inside the siren filly's body.
"You are from the future. Tell me, what does the future say about these words?"
"I... I... " Twilight stopped herself. She knew if she spoke further, it would only bring more danger to the timeline. "I can't say..."
"You refuse to say so. That only means three things. One, those words, their origins are very important and their origins for you either lie in the past or the future." The light alicorn turned away and held out his hand. The ground shook without warning and an airship appeared.
"What?" Twilight took up a stance. "Where did that come from?"
"That doesn't matter. What does matter is you find the truth, right?"
"Yes..." Twilight curious what he meant by that.
"If you knew the origins of Hearth's Warming, wouldn't make things easier for you?"
"I..." Twilight stopped again. She knew the origins of it in her timeline, right? This was the past, this was supposed to be the origins of Hearth's Warming right here, right now, right?
"A better question is why is it called Hearth's Warming?" The light alicorn presented her with a question she had never been considering in the slightest.
"Yes... the origins. That would give me the answers I seek." Her eyes lit up as her mind raced. "If I were to find the answers, I would have the greatest advantage."
"Then take that advantage!" The light alicorn snapped the fingers of his siren filly host and the airship opened. "Let's see where it all began, young time traveler."
"Yes, yes, yes!!" she cheered, "Cold Blue--" Her joy was stopped at the face he made. The siren male was looking in the other direction as if he was hearing something. "Is something wrong?"
"No..." He spoke calmer, "Go, you need your answers, I will follow soon."
"Okay," she boarded the ship.
The light alicorn hiding in the flesh of a siren filly didn't follow at first and instead stared deeply at the other siren. "Hmm, are you as sure as she is?"
"Yes, but I need to deal with something first.” Cold Blue's ears twitched again with annoyance as a sound buzzed by that only species of his kind could hear.
"This body hears it too, a soft whistling..." The filly turned away. "We need to leave now!"
******
Back in Lord Red's airship, Starlight was awakened by shaking. She lazily turned away from the sight of Starswirl the Bearded. She felt truly betrayed by the events of before, and that battle only brought more confusion.
Starswirl didn't even attempt to mend things with some chocolate milk or cotton candy. He simply sat by and spoke softly, "We have finally arrived back in the capital."
"Why?"
"What?" he leaned back in.
"Why would you bring me if you were still going to allow this?"
"I never brought you here to ensure Twilight's safety. Her safety is her choice." Starswirl cleared his voice as he noticed his choice of words was only making things worse.
"Then why?"
Starswirl leaned forward and composed himself for a better answer. "You wield such things like dark magic and light magic, yes. And you do it with none of the repercussions like transformations or distortions of the body. Do you know why?"
Starlight faced him with utter confusion. "I was told once that I have a unique family line."
"Yes, but that's not just it. You wield both and could even blend them with enough training. This is completely impossible, even for the greatest of wizards and magus."
"Why?"
"Because the beings that have been using dark magic and light magic have been at war for millions of years. Grogar and Realta brought these magics into reality but never once had lines carrying these magics crossed until you appeared." Starswirl's voice filled with joy as each word was spoken.
"What does that have to do with me meeting Lord Red?"
"Everything!!" Starswirl shouted.
"What do you mean?"
"You might have not noticed it yet, but Lord Red is one of only a few users of corruption magic. It is a form far more dangerous than either light or darkness. In fact, he is a master in its usage."
"And!" Starlight was now sitting up, annoyed that none of these words were giving her the answers she sought.
"Such users have only one enemy, an omnious pony." Starswirl calmed his joy and made his next words more clear. "You are an omnious pony, a wield of both light and darkness, therefore Lord Red's greatest enemy."
"And yet you stopped me from confronting him? Why?"
"Because if you face him now, you will die. Despite what the prophecy said, you are nowhere near his level, let alone a level to challenge him and defeat him."
Starlight looked down at her hands. Magic pulsed in black and white. "I am an omnious pony, but this doesn't answer why you brought me here still."
"It does completely, but not for you. Lord Red gave me exactly what I needed to see."
"What do you mean?" Starlight raised an eyebrow at his words. "What did you do?"
"I did nothing. It was him that made the surprising move." Starswirl smiled. "After the battle with the Night brothers, he healed you, without a second thought."
"What? But why? He wishes to kill my teacher!"
"Indeed, why did I do that?" a fresh voice entered the room. Starlight was shocked to see Lord Red watching the whole thing. "I have many reasons I saved you and we shall talk about them after you help in my mission."
Starlight’s eyes were wide at his words. “Help you? Why would I help you kill my teacher?”
“Incorrect. I wish for you to help me bring her to justice?” Lord Red stopped at the bed and helped her up despite her refusals.
“No, did you not hear me? I refused to help?!” Starlight fought back and picked herself out of the bed.
“I know you have reservations against my mission,” Lord Red explained. “But you are still not listening?”
“I am not listening?! You are not listening?!” She pushed him away. She charged her horn with magic.
Starswirl attempted to stop her, but she blasted away. The magical blast reflected off of Lord Red easily without him needing to lift a single hand. Starlight blasted it again, and it still did nothing. She jumped back and summoned her gentlemare sword. She swung, and he blocked. She swung right, and he blocked again. She's thrust forward with her blade, launching herself. However, he jumped clear over her with ease.
Once behind her, he wrapped his hand around her mouth and lifted her into the air. "Such a young mortal need to listen more often. I wish for you to complete this mission with me, but this mission is not for me to kill Twilight Sparkle myself. Simply bring her to justice.”
“What?!” Starlight spoke as she was dropped to the ground. “But you said--”
“I said I would bring her to justice and that would lead to her death. I did not say that I would be the one committing the deed.”
Starlight's eyes narrowed at his words. “No, I will not help you.” She lifted her blade and struck forward again, only for him to catch the tip in his own hand. Seeing the failure, she fueled the sword with magic and pushed back harder. No matter how much magic she fused into her blade, he did not budge an inch. Reaching the last resorts, she held out her hand into a palm shape and spoke the words, ignoring the warnings, “Left Hand of--”
Lord Red's eyes widened at those words. He stopped her instantly with a punch to the gut. “You dare use one of my own spells against me.”
“Your spells?!” Starlight could barely breathe after that attack.
Lord Red lowered himself to her height and whispered to himself, “The hand spells are all mine, every single one.” He turned away and commanded, “You will follow…”
“I will not--” She stopped as her body lifted on its own. Her legs moved forward and followed him out of the room. “Enough… Let me go... How are you doing this?” She fought him every minute down the hallway. With every step she took, it felt like she was being pulled by a string. “Is this magic?? your horn doesn't glow?”
“In all the many millennia I have known him, it never has once glowed, at least not in how most horns glow?” Starswirl commented as he followed them. “Sure, it might glow when he's casting the simplest spells. But when he's casting far stronger ones, there is not a single glow at all, not even a spark. It is as if he is drawing on a power vastly different from any pony.”
They stopped at a door in the hallway. With no movement, the door open as if being pulled by the same unknown feats that were pulling Starlight. Starlight was stopped in front of the door and she was presented to the opening to the sky. As strange as it seemed, the pressure from outside didn't affect them at all, as if Lord Red was holding it back with ease. Starlight's face was forced to turn towards Lord Red and look upon his hand.
Lord Red held his hand out in the same form that she did and spoke the words she could not finish, “Forbidden Spell, Left Hand of the Light.” A perfect beam of pure light magic shot out. He held out his right hand and spoke again, “Forbidden spell, Right Hand of Darkness.” Another perfect beam shot out, this one of pure dark magic. As both spells stop, Starlight could no longer feel the tug of the strings upon her as it did not stop her from falling to the ground in defeat.
Lord Red turned to face her before taking a moment to let her absorb all that it just happened. After that moment passed, he spoke softer, no rage in his eyes or his voice, “I know this Twilight Sparkle didn't teach you these spells. You speak them with such refinement and lack of knowledge. Such things can lead to recoil of limbs, breaking or even complete reverse of such attacks.”
"What are you saying?"
"You didn't learn them from her, right?"
“No,” she didn't argue with him. “I've somehow always known about them with faint memories.”
“Memories of what?”
“My actual parents, they were masters of the spells. Or at least that's what I was told by my adopted father, Firelight.” Starlight sat down and twisted her fingers upon the ground, not wanting to look at these memories. “I was never told why they left me with him, only that these memories and these hand gestures would one day be useful to me. Truthfully, I never attempted to feel magic into them until I saw someone else use the spell during our travels through time. That someone nearly killed me.” Starlight held her hand to her face and then her eyes. “The user said he could see something different about me purely through looking at my face and eyes. He spoke about how I had an immunity to the Glare.”
“Hmm, the future holds plenty of strange things.” Lord Red pondered aloud. “The Glare is a spell I haven't yet perfected, but it is good to know it works, eventually. It is no surprise you were immune to it. The Glare spell and the Hand spells are worthless against the omnious pony.”
“If the omnious pony is immune, why forge such things?”
“Simply put, an extra alarm system. Such spells are devastating, even lethal to normal beings, but not to an ominous pony. If the spells work, I get rid of a pointless opponent, but if it doesn't work, I know who I'm truly dealing with.” Lord Red looked back at the old wizard. He could see Starswirl’s thoughts so easily. “You truly are a tricky one, you old wizard. You knew I'd get along with her just fine.”
“What? No? Me?” Starswirl laughed.
Lord Red turned his attention back to Starlight. “I will still bring Twilight Sparkle to justice, but if you can convince me differently before the execution day, I might save her from her death.” He held out his hand to Starlight.
The unicorn’s eyes lit up brightly at his words, and she took a hand in agreement. “Thank you, thank you, I will convince you.”
“I'll need plenty of convincing.” With that, he closed the door to the airship and left to prepare for their arrival. As they left sight of the door and windows, a gust of wind blasted by with a single red snowflake.
******
Down in the capital, things were moving slower. Clovis and Silver Pear had been walking along a path filled with many unicorns, searching for Twilight and Cold Blue on their own. Or rather, Clovis wanted to search alone. "She must really mean a lot to you, earth pony."
"Not really?" Silver Pear brushed it off. "Lovely cares a lot more about her than I do, she's her teacher after all."
"Oh, so you have feelings for the other unicorn," Clovis commented.
"So what? You want to make something about it?!"
"No, no, no. I just assumed you were the funny best friend." Clovis smiled at Silver Pear's reaction.
Silver Pear fired back, "Are you going to really pull shit on me?! I won't be fooled easy!"
"I do not know what you're talking about?" Clovis replied. "I just want to search on my own. I don't need an earth pony lackey."
"Well, deal with this lackey." Silver Pear laughed back.
Clovis rolled his eyes, "I don't mean to be insulting to your kind--"
Silver Pear jabbed him in the chest, "Insultive to my kind, you haven't even attempted to be racist yet," he laughed openly.
Clovis ignored his comment and pushed him away. "I am here to find Twilight Sparkle." Clovis narrowed his eyes.
"Even if it means leads to working with me," Silver Pear laughed harder. "You cannot kill her. She's far more powerful than any unicorn. And far beyond where you could ever measure to and the same goes for my lovely. They could easily outmatch you and your master."
"You're almost right," Clovis commented. "They are from the future, after all. So it would make sense they could outmatch a unicorn like me but outmatching my master is far beyond possible”
Silver Pear turned away from that answer, "Unlikely, I don't care how powerful this Lord Red is. He holds no candle to the power of our family.
"Your family! All I see is an earth pony with little to his name and little to no reason being here." Clovis stopped upon seeing Silver Pear's reaction to that. The earth pony's eyes were lowered as if in shame. The unicorn stopped at the turn and took a breath. He knew his master would be here soon. Even if his master was annoyed at not finding her, he would find her instantaneously.
Seeing Silver Pear stop as well gave the unicorn a chance to pester, "So why are you even with the group?"
Silver Pear was surprised that the conversation had turned on him. "I'm not sure." he never thought of his reasons that much until now.
"What do you mean by that? I'll repeat myself: why are you working with Rex and Clover. I understand why you're working with Starlight Inn Twilight. But the other two are vastly different."
"How so?" Silver Pear questioned.
"Rex is a former criminal who has done many evil things in his past. Now he serves royalty as penance for those sins." Clovis pulled out an old wanted poster as proof. "Clover, my sister, is not even that favorable to her own family, and don't even get me started on that old wizard." Clovis left enough room for Silver Pear to catch up.
Instead, the earth pony barked back. "You will not mock them! "They're helping me!"
"Helping you," Clovis went wide eye to his answer as he could see Silver Pear wasn't lying. "You are in the way. I see no reason they should help you at all. What could you possibly need from them?"
Silver Pear lean back against a tree and answered more carefully, "To defeat Indigo Frost!"
"Really? The wendigo! You want to defeat it? That's preposterous!" Clovis couldn't hide back his laughter. "For what reason? Why would you fight him?"
"Because he took my mother..." Silver Pear's words cut right through the conversation in an instant.
The unicorn went silent. Such an answer was shattering. Finally, after a long pause, he spoke back, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that my mother is missing," Silver Pear answered. "One of that wendigo's allies took her when they attacked my village." He stopped at the sight of Clovis' eyes. They were shaking. This made no sense.
"Silver Pear, I never thought someone like you would feel similar pain... to me," Clovis spoke softer. "At least your mother is alive." His words were so cold. They sounded so broken as if he had accepted them long ago.
Silver Pear was taken back. "Clover mentioned nothing like that?"
Clovis smiled, "Of course she would not. It wasn't her mother that died." Clovis's words put things into perspective.
Silver Pear was taken for a loop of thoughts and reasons on why he would say that then it became clear. "Just how many... how many siblings do you have?" he asked
Clovis answered more harshly, "Two hundred half-brothers and three hundred half-sisters. Each one has their own mother and even families. What we get for having a father who is far more ancient and older than Rex by several more millennia. Clover will still stand beside those creatures even as she grows older, and they do not. Silver Pear, you are a mortal and yet you live upon a ship with gods who will outlast even your ashes. You wondered why I laugh at such efforts."
"Clovis, you don't mean that, even about your own sister?"
"And my sister's idiocy? She has the excuse of loving one of them. Do you have an excuse?!"
"Do you feel better now?" Silver Pear smiled at the unicorn's answer. "It feels good to speak the truth of your heart. Honesty is a good code to live by." Silver Pear held his hand out.
Clovis took it and smiled back. "Yes, I guess it is good to talk about this. Even if it's with somepony as lowly as you."
Silver Pear laughed at that answer. "Again you continue to mock me."
"No, I understand now, you are just trying to help, the only way you can," Clovis corrected. "I will help you find Twilight Sparkle and Cold Blue. Whatever my master does next is on him. I am simply following orders."
"I too understand such things." Silver Pear answered. "Just know that I will stop him."
Clovis laughed as hard as possible at such an answer. "You, stop him, " He laughed harder, "That is truly an incredible joke!"
"Hey!!" Silver Pear bark back in laughter. "I could try. I'm one of the best fighters in my village. I trained alongside my brother!!"
"Yes, but training even with another earth pony will not help you against Lord Red. However, I would love to see you try." Clovis gave his last comment before resuming their search. Now the two were laughing up a storm and were practically friends.
Silver Pear always had this way of anypony. Even if it was for someone hunting down one of his other friends, he would still willingly be a friend if given the chance. They stopped as they noticed everyone else around them going silent.
"What is it?” Clovis asked.
"I don't know.” Silver Pear shivered. "This feeling is so familiar." The earth pony was stopped as a loud roar echoed out.
"What is that sound?" Clovis stopped as Silver Pear backed away in fear. "Silver Pear, what is this?"
"It is happening again. Why here?" The earth pony's eyes went wide. He pointed out above them.
"What is happening--" Clovis was stopped at the sight of red snowflakes swarming down around them, no, around everything. He turned away only to see Silver Pear run off toward the center of the capital. Clovis narrowed his eyes at the sight of an airship landing in the same direction.
******
In the center of the capital, Lord Red's airship finally came to a stop and landed. The ship opened up. Starswirl, Starlight, and Lord Red exited. Lord Red was surprised to already see a duo ready to meet them. With little scan needed he spotted an umbrum, and unicorn at the front.
"Hello, I am Lord Red." He stepped off the platform and presented himself, curious why they were here and Twilight Sparkle was not. "I am here to bring Twilight Sparkle to her execution."
"I know.” Rex's horn glowed brightly and the dark alicorn amulet shined just as bright, fueling him with dark magic. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to take her." His shadow expanded outward from his body and overtook the entire area. This made any background ponies scatter in fear.
Lord Red's eyes narrowed in shame at that answer. "So be it..."
Rex fueled his shadowmancy, preparing to do the unthinkable as tentacles reached out and grabbed Lord Red by the legs. Clover stood beside Rex, knowing after what he's learned he would accept nothing less right now. She pulled out her bow staff and charged forward. With the help of Rex's shadows, she slipped beyond Lord Red and pushed Starlight and Starswirl far away from him and into another shadow.
Starlight and the old wizard landed out of the shadows on the far side of the area. The unicorn attempted to reach out to Rex and Clover for answers, only for Starswirl to stop her. "No, they need to handle this on their own."
"And what if they bring more danger to my teacher in the process?!"
"It's too late for concerns like that. We will have to wait and see what Lord Red does next."
Lord Red was surprised at the speed of the shadowmancy. While still not on the level of Stygian, it was still fast enough to catch him off guard. Now he was trapped in place with an enemy at the front and an enemy at the back.
He knew he had to play this carefully to ensure a peaceful resolution. "Why do you wish to stop me?" Lord Red questioned.
"I do not wish to stop you," Rex cleared his words. "Rather, I wish to save her!"
"What does Twilight Sparkle mean to you?" Lord Red poked for answers.
"I don't know what she means to me yet. However, I will protect her!" Rex replied with a shadow swarm of tentacles. "Dark Alter, Shadow Spell Thirty-Two, Tentacles of the Kraken!!"
Starlight ignored Starswirl's warning and charged her horn with magic. She attempted to stop Rex only for Lord Red to lift his hand and stop the tentacles before they could reach him in an instant. "Wow," Starlight pulled back. To her eyes, it was as if every tentacle was being held in place. There was truly surprising since she couldn't sense any magic being used by Lord Red at all.
"Do you dare to defy me?" Lord Red twisted his hand, and it appeared as if the tentacles were being squeezed by an unknown force.
Rex sneered at the sight and readied more tentacles, fueling them with more dark magic. "No, I will defy you. I will defeat you!!" He flew the tentacles forward and dropped into his shadow. Clover rushed back in from behind.
Lord Red broke into the shadows, holding him down with ease and jump above Clover. He yanked his hand back and pulled Rex's tentacles around Clover. He leered his eyes around for Rex but couldn't find him.
Rex smiled at this as he fell out of the shadow of a building nearby and wrapped his chains around Lord Red. Landing on top of him, he kicked the enemy in the face several times until they landed.
Lord Red was again surprised to see himself pinned to the grass. However, he still knew this would do little to deter him. Finally, magic could be seen pulsing from his eyes, but it was too fast to see the color as it vanished with a spell's activation. "Gravitational Retribution!" He needed no number nor a spell type as it pushed away Rex completely, throwing the umbrum back into the building.
Rex didn't have time to react to such a spell as the glass of the building tore through his back. Feeling the pain did little to stop his efforts, and he rushed back. This time, he dropped his chains into his shadows and flew forward with his razor string. He knew he couldn't hide such a thing, so he didn't. He fueled it with as much dark magic as he could muster. "Dark Magic Spell Number Fifty, Condensing Exposure!!"
The group was surprised by such a move as the ground shook erratically. Starswirl turned away in shame. It was far too dangerous to clash two gravity-based spells in such a populated area, but Rex was just as determined as Lord Red at this point. Neither would fall easily right now.
Clover knew this too, but stood beside Rex in this battle. She pushed her strength to her limit, breaking free from the controlled tentacles. She fueled her body with magic and bounced with her bow staff to throw her at Lord Red like a missile.
Lord Red admired their efforts, but he was getting annoyed. He closed his eyes and magic rose around him. Starlight found it strange as none of it came from his horn or eyes. It was as if the power was coming from the very world around him. The magic was strange orange-like power with pieces of black and red.
Starswirl saw Starlight's attention. It was almost like admiration, even if it was for someone who was best considered an enemy to her and their allies. "Corruption magic is what we call it," he answered her questions so quickly. "We only call it that because we fear its incredible powers of distortion and absolution. Despite its name, much like Harmony and Chaos, it is still one of the building blocks of the universe itself."
As his enemies got closer, it was as if time and space were slowing around Lord Red. "I am one of the oldest beings in creation itself. I am here not to judge for myself nor for my ends alone, but for others above all else." He opened his eyes as the full force of the spell was unleashed. "Corruption Spell Number Ten, Binding Order!"
A mighty force threw both Rex and Clover to the ground. This form might have seemed simple on the surface, but the force of the movement completely ignored all laws of physics. Starlight was in complete shock. It was as if the universe simply stopped working for either of them.
"I am here to bring Twilight Sparkle to justice." Lord Red turned toward Rex as his shadows faded.
Rex was just as surprised as Starlight. He suffered no wounds, but his body refused to stand. It was as if his will was no longer his own. "I still refuse," his voice spoke proudly.
Lord Red smiled at that answer. "And why do you continue to refuse?" He raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "What have you learned about this Twilight Sparkle that is unknown to me, Starswirl or Starlight?"
Rex gritted his teeth. He didn't mean to make it that obvious, but with this information, he couldn't easily stand by and do nothing, not again. Lord Red could see through it easily. Fighting him only made it even easier, so Rex stopped hiding it and gladly smile, speaking proudly. "I am here to save my daughter!!"
Clover was just as surprised as anypony at Rex's actions overall. She had never seen him filled with such joy and pride. She wondered if it was her father's words before that had brought this to the surface. The knowledge of who Twilight was unsettling, but something both needed to accept. Clover could only smile brighter than Rex, even if it was against Lord Red.
Before any others could process Rex's answer, Silver Pear and Clovis arrive on cue as several snowflakes swarmed out from behind them. "We've got a problem!!"
The group was stopped in their fight as thousands of red snowflakes swarmed around them all. Lord Red, now incredibly annoyed, wasted no time turning his corruption magic away from Rex and Clover to the red snowflakes. With little effort, he could ascertain the full scope of things, but not the source. "It's quickly covering the city... And Twilight Sparkle is nowhere in sight." He was certainly with the entire city now in his scope.
"What?" Starlight questioned. "Where is Indigo frost? Did he take her?!"
"No, it seems she left on her own with... Cold Blue. As for Indigo Frost..." Lord Red changed his spell from scanning into a different form when he realized the true purpose of this formation. The same colored magic now flowed out of his horn for the first time and swarmed around the entire area. "Time is too short to save them all."
"Save all?" Starlight questioned.
"Yes, all..." With that, Lord Red pushed out all the red snowflakes from the area they were in. This created a dome of safety that no other could enter or exit until the opposition's spell was complete. The red snowflake swarm got bigger and thicker by the second, until the entire outside was nothing but a pure red color.
******
While that chaos was being unleashed there, another form of chaos, twisted dark magic, was about to be released from another place far from their sight. Far away from the capital, in fact, far away from the Unicorn Providence altogether was an all too familiar Dark City. Deep within the fields beyond the newly formed Dark City, Sage and Vanity did as they were told.
They brought the ashes to Vanity’s brother, but they were still unsure why they needed to do such a thing. They had stood there for nearly two days without an answer from Thule or Indigo Frost. In their impatience, anger had grown in both of them. However, as the sun reached its highest point, Thule finally returned. He appeared in front of the pedestal that they were told to wait at.
“About time!” Vanity screamed.
“Indeed, I've indulged this idiocy long enough. Why are we here?” Sage questioned.
“Idiocy? Since when does time have a semblance of smart or stupid?” Thule threw his rotting hands out to show the decay with each movement. “Time does not care for your impatience, nor does it care for your indolence. I should know this better than most. I've been around for a very long time.”
On that cue, his head split open and tentacles poured out. They wrapped around the pedestal, feeling every crack and crevice. They reached over the writing and slithered through every single letter.
“The alathar is not here!” Sage answered. “We searched for nearly two days and never found it anywhere near this pedestal.”
“Of course not. This alathar is known as the Heart of Darkness. It is no mere gem and is near impossible to find unless you descend from the right race.”
“Then what race do we need to herald from?” Vanity questioned.
Thule smiled at her words as his tentacles dropped to the ground. They dug into the blackened dirt that surrounded the pedestal. "You don't realize what this is, do you? If you had, you would have realized what I needed you to do so much sooner.”
“This blackened sand is everywhere, not just near the pedestal!” Sage argued.
“Please, Thule, clarify why we are here? If the alathar was never here, then what is its purpose?” Vanity held tightly to her sibling’s ashes.
“Poor Vanity, you hold the truth in your very arms.” Thule pointed to the jar as his tentacles pulled out several white shards from the blackened dirt.
“It's been shattered,” Sage made a drastic assumption.
“No, those aren’t the pieces of the alathar.” Vanity's eyes widened in horror. She looked down at the jar in her arms. “They are organic shards.”
“Organic shards?”
“It's a term doctors use when they are dealing with cremation,” Thule’s words brought the same shock to Sage’s eyes. "It refers to shards of bones, horns, and organic matter that survived burning to ash."
“Impossible! That only means one thing,” Sage’s eyes traced over the field seeing the black and sand everywhere, and the more he realized, the more his jaw fell agape.
As if on cue, a faint glow surrounded as thousand of unicorns appeared. "Looks like your backup has finally arrived."
"What is this? Why are these things happening in the Dark City?"
“Yes, Dark City, you see. Here is the thing. I was never the one to call this the Dark City, nor did Indigo Frost. This city was called that by its citizens. In order to find the alathar, we must find out what happened to this city. And it all connects to these ashes, the same as the ashes you hold." On those words, he pulled out a final shard that changed everything in an instant. The shard was of a horn, knife-like in form; a horn only wore by a single race, “Welcome to the Dark City, or as it was known by others as the lost capital of the umbrum race!” He laughed evilly.
A sound echoed from his pocket. The rotting corpse pulled out a device that seemed strange to the two others. In fact, one might say it looked far too futuristic for this time. "Is everything going according to plan?" He spoke into the device.
"Yes," a voice answered. "Exactly as planned."
******
Back in the capital, the red color settled enough for them to see past the barrier. Rex was the first one to come to grips with what he was seeing. His eyes widened but the sheer emptiness of everything. Just mere feet away from this area, there were many unicorns, but now there were none.
Starswirl dropped his eyes in shame. He knew all too well what that spell was. Starlight beside him dropped to her knees in sheer fear and loss of words. Being a unicorn, she could sense the sheer emptiness of unicorn magic in the whole capital and it was terrifying.
Clover noticed the sheer emptiness of the joy, sadness, grace, and fear of her species. There was nothing but the echoes of them. She gripped ahold of Rex for answers, but he had none.
Silver Pear was the first to finally speak, but his words only brought more fear and shame. "Where? Where is everypony?"
"I don't know," Lord Red answered. "I sensed a source of large magic and summoned a shield. I did not expect the opposing spell to be this big." With a wave of his horn, Lord Red scanned as far as he could reach. His reaction only answered what they were all fearing.
"Every single unicorn in the entire capital is gone. The city is empty of all life." Rex answered.
Clover pushed away from him at that answer. Such an answer made no sense to her at all. She looked to her brother for confirmation, only for him to nod in agreement. "No, no, this can't be!"
Clovis couldn't believe it himself, but Rex's words were correct. He was left in utter confusion at such a bold spell. He had teleported many sizes in his past but never on this scale, never this many at once.
Starlight was in a wreck of denial. Even in the future, no spell existed that could make an understanding of what was going on. Despite her denials on the spell, there was one thing she couldn't deny. One thing that all of them came to accept soon enough.
While they were so busy fighting a war, fighting enemies, and even fighting each other, they had found themselves on the wrong side of the board. With a single move, they had lost, utterly and completely, with no chance for reprisal.
"Rex, what are we going to do?" Clover question.
"I don't know," Rex gritted his teeth. Just mere minutes ago, he had all the answers. He was ready to fight one of the most dangerous beings he thought he would ever encounter, but let his guard down to the most obvious opponent. It was truly a cruel twist of fate. And they fell for it so easily. They lost and Indigo Frost had won.
*******
A red glow could be seen over the capital. It faded slowly to the eyes of Cold Blue as he watched it. He knew exactly what it was... He turned away to Twilight. The alicorn was still so distracted by her thoughts. So distracted that she didn't even notice blasting magic around the capital. She faced the direction of their course. They were both leaving the capital on a ship piloted by the siren filly.
Cold Blue considered telling the truth, but he could tell Twilight was too deep in thought to listen. He wished not to bring fear to her. She had made a bold choice and needed all her thought on the mission. He knew Rex could handle himself and Blood Diamond was not even in the capital. Both were tough warriors in the end.
Cold Blue faced the filly, the light alicorn hiding within the flesh of a child, and asked. "If we are to trust you, then what is your name?" He pointed, "You, not the filly you hold hostage."
"My name is Aitym the Abandoned." The light alicorn faced them. His eyes narrowed at Cold Blue's words about his current vessel. Seeing the lack of trust in his eyes, the light alicorn turned his filly eyes to Twilight. "Such thoughts shouldn't plague you, purple alicorn," Aitym questioned Twilight, keeping her attention on the front. "Stand bold!"
"I can't, there is still so much more to do..." Twilight spoke quieter. "I need to finish this."
"Unfinished work is something completely impossible for any normal alicorn. Of course, you are far from normal."
"What do you mean?"
"I can see it in your eyes. You are not akin to the alicorn race either."
"What do you mean?" She channeled powerful magic. "I was given large amounts of power in this form, just like them?"
"Yes, but you are far from the strongest of unicorns, right?" Aitym laughed. "You might look like us and use the same magic as us; you might even have access to darker and more powerful spells than many other beings." The siren filly's hand reached into her magic ora. "But your magic wasn't always of the alicorn." Twilight was surprised at how easily he dispersed her magic. "You don't contain the wisdom of the alicorn."
"Blood Diamond said the same thing once."
"I would say you haven't even reached past the age of mortals yet, unlike me and Cold Blue--" He was stopped as Cold Blue stepped between the two.
"I am nothing like you and your kind," Cold Blue spoke boldly for the first time. Twilight was surprised by this move.
"I can see that, but you two have a lot in common as dark magic users."
"Therefore, I had to leave with you, no leave with both of you." Twilight clarified. "I need to master this dark magic if I am going to stand a chance to unite the lands and fix the future."
"You need to find where this 'Hearth's Warming' originated from?" Cold Blue questioned.
"Yes, that will be the finale of my answers, but I need power first." Twilight pointed to Aitym. "You are a user of light magic, from what I've seen."
"What do you need?"
"Time displacement."
"I see. This won't return you to your time."
"I know," Twilight replied. "It's been used on me before, during another timeline. Do you know of the Sky Sanctuary?"
"Yes, you could say I know of it intimately.” The filly's face smiled brightly and boldly at such an answer.
"Well, one of my former masters said its time displacement abilities were forged by a powerful alicorn of light. I wish for you to recreate those conditions, here on this airship--"
Aitym laughed even more boldly. "Are you mocking me? To recreate such a powerful spell!!"
"Are you saying you can't match him?"
"Match?! Again you mock me?" His laughter dripped with annoyance.
"Enough, just tell me--"
The siren filly held her hand to Twilight as the male's laughter calmed. "It will be effortless. However, know that I am not fully attached to this siren filly. Rather, only the brain is under my command and the body moves like a puppet on string."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that pushing his light magic will affect her brain, much like dark magic affects your body," Cold Blue answered.
"Exactly, she will become, shall I say, less adaptable."
"Fine." Twilight tightened her fist. "In my time, she was never the brightest of the three, anyway. Do it! Make each day on this airship until we arrive at last..."
"One hundred years, that is the limit this brain can handle."
"Agreed--" Twilight was stopped by Cold Blue.
"Are you sure, Twilight? I understand you need to learn dark magic, but the batpony canyons are two weeks away. Once you do this, there will be no turning back."
"I... I..." She stopped, such a gap of time finally hit her. "I don't know what I'm doing. I took this path to learn the truth. Now, I know somepony is altering time and what's worse they have knowledge of the future, my future, my timeline." Twilight cleared her throat and attempted to explain while keeping details as vague as possible. "Me and Starlight have been traveling through multiple timelines for a long time, while we never reached this type of displacement... I... I..." She stopped "I... need to take more chances... now more than ever--" She stopped as Cold Blue stepped in front of her and placed his head onto her head.
Aitym backed away at the sight of magic-filled water, moved back and forth from Cold Blue to Twilight. In an instant, their minds twisted together and memories flowed back and forth. Cold Blue could see her fears and doubts.
"You two were trapped by a spell forged by the old wizard. At first, you thought Starlight was the one arranging your travels, but as your travels continued, she tempered herself. Eventually, she didn't trap you. You both had been tricked."
Twilight dropped to one knee at his answer. "We have lost so much time. What would be more time if it brought us back home, back to our friends and family."
"Family..." Cold Blue broke the connection of the mind-meld. "Losing such a thing must be painful." His words were filled with pain too, but it felt more like the pain of longing.
"Cold Blue...?" Twilight was stopped as he took her hand.
"Tell me more..." He nodded to Aitym to begin.
The light alicorn in the body of a siren filly held out the filly's hands. The muscles twisted from the fingertips, up the hands and arms, to the shoulders, and finally to the face. A deep blue glow traced back from the brain down the shoulders, arms, and hands. Reaching the fingertips, the very ends of the nails tore open as blue goo flowed around the two.
Twilight looked at such a thing with fear. "Wait, you are going too--"
"You wish for answers, so take them." Cold Blue brought both her hands together with his. The male siren sat her, and he followed. Channeling magic through his body onto her body to ensure the magic would affect them both.
"Once inside, neither you will age, but fourteen hundred years will pass for you, while only days will pass for me," Aitym clarified. "Once there, you two will move freely."
"No, you wish to be trapped with me?" Twilight interrupted, looking with shame at Cold Blue. "Aitym, please remove him?!"
"No! You will need as much knowledge of dark magic as you can get." Cold Blue refused her decision.
"But, I can't do this to you?" Twilight answered.
"You are doing this for family, right? Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike..."
"The mind-meld--"
"Showed me your feelings, your pains, and your sorrows," He smiled back. "He said you do not have the wisdom of an immortal, but you have the loss of one... Just like me." He caressed her hands more gently. "Now please, tell me, what do you believe and tell me about them?"
"I... I..." Twilight finally gave in. She wasn't sure how, but she knew she could trust Cold Blue with this and everything. "Starlight only wanted one place to travel to. The other places were arranged by somepony else. My assumption is that somepony had altered the spell before Starlight ever got a hold of it. Their purpose is still unknown to me." Twilight stopped as her shame and regret were now replaced with sad memories of her friends flooding her mind.
As her mind raced, Cold Blue's eyes traced over the blue glow quickly surrounding them. Soon they would be encased. He knew what he needed to do and leaned his head forward, placing it against her. This time he didn't mind-meld and instead listened as she continued. "You've lost things, but they won't be gone for long. Your friends, your family, tell me."
"Pinkie Pie is always so cheerful with laughter. Applejack is grading with her honesty but a stable ally in any endeavor... Rarity's generosity knows no bounds... Fluttershy's unending kindness could shake even the gods... Rainbow Dash's stubborn loyalty could hold me up forever..." Her sadness was slowly being replaced with happiness as she traced each thought. "I know them so well that I even made magic mimicking their elements. I created spells akin to their magics." As Twilight spoke softer, a grin grew on her face. "With laughter magic, generosity magic, honesty magic, loyalty magic, kindness magic. I forged them with the fear of their loss, but also hoping to see them again. Such great power and magic so they would always be beside me..."
Soon, the blue glow encased them up to their heads. Aitym spoke, "It's time. Light Magic Spell Number Ninety-nine, Time Displacement."
Twilight closed her eyes as the glow engulfed them. "I'm sorry Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy." She gripped Cold Blue's hands tighter, as if she was begging. "I must find my answers and then I will find my way back home. I promise to all of you. I miss you all. And I'm sorry Starlight, that I have to miss you too..."
"Together, we will find the truth of Hearth's Warming!" These were the last words spoke by the two as the blue glow encased them in an egg-like form.
Once they were inside, Aitym smiled again and turned away, keeping the spell going while facing the wall. He carefully tapped the wall three times and a futuristic terminal unfolded out. He typed a few things before an image appeared.
"Is everything going according to plan?" a voice echoed back.
"Yes," Aitym answered. "Exactly as planned. The bait has been taken. We will arrive in the Dark City soon. All three of us."
"Good, may the light shine over your darkness," Thule answered.
"Of course, it will, because I am the light!!" Aitym laughed evilly.
Two weeks is what she was told and Twilight didn't waste any of it training hard. Time inside the egg seemed to move faster, despite the anomaly in one hundred years per day. Her friends were moving to find her. Starlight didn't know where her teacher was, but she would not give up on searching for her.
Rex and Clover searched for Twilight in other ways. Rex scan through all the shadows he could as far as he could reach. Yet no matter where he looked, Twilight was nowhere in sight. Clover could see the anxiousness growing in his eyes slowly being replaced by anger. He could sense that icy blue was connected. He was often looking through the map for hours on end, wondering.
On the other side of the board, things were changing too. Thule gathered together the unicorns that arrived and put them to work in the ashy wasteland of the Dark City. They bent to his will, be pulled not by his strings but by another.
He questioned this reasoning at first, until he ran into Mira among the crowds. The former Princess Platinum was running around like a frightened child screaming the name of a naga. Hanging over her like a cloak was the image of her mother. Where before lady Mass Hysteria had used her daughter to manipulate the war, now she was just frightened of her daughter's state of mind.
She took her away to save her from Blood Diamond and the fearsome Hollow Prince. However, leaving that loyal guard behind only brought more pain to Mira's mind with each passing day.
Thule concluded that since Lady Mass Hysteria could not control her, she was instead controlling the surrounding unicorns, hoping to keep her daughter in line. The rotting corpse could only see shame in her actions. He had brought her back from the dead to help Mira. However, now all she was to doing was making her worse.
With a snap of his limb, he broke the mind control over the unicorns. Yes, they would repeal against him, but such mind control would prove only pointless to his plan and the plans of Indigo Frost's child.
Despite what the light alicorn told Twilight, he arrived in the Dark City far sooner than the two weeks allowed. However, he kept Twilight and Cold Blue within the time egg, blind to the rest of the world.
Thule was at least glad to see this part was a success and ordered Sage and Vanity to start work on the minds of the unicorns. Mind control would not be needed if they could bring them to their ideals. For that was the true reason the heir of the wendigo wanted these creatures on his side. Not as his slaves, but as his new people. The purpose of the Dark City would be a throne for which he would lay a waste of any opposition in their way and unite all creatures under one crown.
Thule would be the shining light in their darkness. Aitym would bring that light and shine it even brighter. Sage would teach of the darkness in one soul. Vanity would show the darkness and their lives. Carnival Carnage with praise for their darkness and their light. The heir of the wendigoes would sit upon the throne guiding the light through this darkness.
Twilight herself, the greatest role of all, their heart of darkness.
By this season's end, the two weeks would not fully reach completion. However, many things will change completely for all and by the time Twilight steps out of the egg, her world will be all the stranger. And her place will be all the more realized than ever.
Blood Diamond walked across the snowy mountainside. His footsteps were the only thing cracking through the silence. The battle was over. He had won. Though it only happened days ago, he still felt the pain. It wasn't the wounds of the battle that tortured but the distrust that had been placed within him during that battle. He looked upon his hand, now healed. The memories are still fresh. Someone else was using his body to fight. They took down the enemy and saved him. Using such incredible power to bring down any opposition.
"Forbidden Spell, Left Hand of the Light!" the words of the spell echoed in his head. His mouth but someone else's words. No, this is not the first time, but this was the strongest moment he could remember in a long time. Blood Diamond was uncertain to be scared or happy. This voice it's saved him, but at what cost.
He bit his lip, knowing what he needed to ask. Taking a big gulp of air, he shouted out to the empty snowy wasteland, "Hollow Prince!!"
There was no answer at first, so he repeated this time more softly. "Please answer me, Hollow Prince. I... I need to know you're okay." he didn't speak with the royal tone saved for the ones that were never close to him. His cousins, his family, even his father never heard this tone before or ever would. "Please answer me," yes there was rage, but it wasn't intense. It was as if he was longing for an answer.
Finally, after enough time had passed, an image appeared in front of him, slowly but surely it fully appeared. Despite the battle they had both shared only but days ago, the image came in perfectly, as if he had never been harmed at all. Hollow Prince's suit was still so fine, as if it got finely pressed. He always believed in looking his best.
The image was silent, as if it didn't want to answer Blood Diamond, but it still appeared to him. This action made Blood Diamond happy. His rage faded to a softer, saddened tone. "After the attack you sent out, I had feared that you were lost forever to Saturn's scythe."
"It'll take much more than that for the titan of death to claim me," Hollow Prince's pride finally shined through his own hesitation. "I'm sorry I needed to take your body to win."
"You should be. Our alliance has lasted for so many millennia because we trust each other." Blood Diamond stepped closer. Now he seemed hesitant to make a move.
"Our alliance." Hollow Prince's words were cold to that line, but he was stopped as Blood Diamond placed his hand on his cheek.
"Don't say it like that. Say it as I do." Blood Diamond smile and stroked the cheek.
Hollow Prince couldn't help himself anymore, falling into Blood Diamond's chest. Blood Diamond took this moment to remove his own hesitation. He wrapped his arm around the image and enjoyed the blissful warmth of the tears. "This must truly look awkward from afar."
"I am the only one that can see you." Blood Diamond pulled him closer. "Touch you and hold you. You are merely a myth to them, much like the other ghosts of the old and forgotten. You exist to me..." Now he couldn't hide his own tears. "Long ago, when I first heard you. You were but an echo in the mind of a child."
"You were just as broken. The defective child born of a dead mother and tyrannical father, suffering the abuse of such a harsh royal family." Hollow Prince didn't mean to make it sound so harsh, but the truth was over them both. "I stayed with you all this time because I wanted to help you." He cleared his throat. "I stepped in during this battle to save you."
"Which is why I felt so hurt that you didn't trust me." This time, Blood Diamond was the bold one.
"Your hand--"
"My hand is healed now, but my heart hurts from your actions," Blood Diamond corrected him. "When you took command of my body, you did it to defeat the enemy and you saved me. However, you also showed you don't trust me to save both of us when you committed that last spell." He pulled Hollow Prince off his chest and looked him in the eyes. "You did wrong, you know that."
"I knew what she was hiding from you. I knew what she was planning to do." Hollow Prince threw his arms out. "We defeated her army and yet she got away. Maybe I should have acted sooner, moved quicker."
"Is your distrust that emboldened?" Blood Diamond's words struck back even harder. "You chose not to trust me with the information. You acted instead of telling me the truth."
"I... I am sorry. I have been an image alone for so long."
Blood Diamond gripped his arm. "You have been wandering for eons, screaming for someone to hear you, until you found me. Just an image unable to be seen by anyone else. You saw kingdoms fall, families grow and die, but had nothing of your own."
"You gave me so much, I just wanted to give you just as much." Hollow Prince sneered in pain.
"We have been united for so long. I thought you would have gotten better. Instead, you hurt yourself to save us both." Blood Diamond could sense the torture of the spell it brought upon the image. In fact, from the moment he saw him again after the spell, there was as if there was static over the screen. "I am not injured but you are in grave pain."
"I cannot die--"
"That doesn't matter!!" Blood Diamond screamed back. "Your pure endless immortality gives you no right to make such a move. You have no right to take yourself away from me."
"I... I see... I have overstepped." Hollow Prince's words were filled with sadness. "You are the leader, forgive me." Hollow Prince leaned back in and wrapped his hands around Blood Diamond's head.
Blood Diamond didn't stop the kiss, instead closed his eyes and let emotion take over. The image was always more to him. He could fill every aspect of the breath, moving back and forth between the two. He enjoyed the feeling of his hands running through the image's mane. However, as he gripped ahold of Hollow Prince's arm, he felt them fading. His heart filled with disappointment.
Hollow Prince, despite his fear, kept the embrace for as long as he could until his image was no more. He faded back into the mindscape. Blood diamond is right. He needed time to heal. However, he vowed he would return to Blood Diamond's side soon enough. They needed each other. They are each other's half and together they made each other whole.
******
In the distant future,
The pale mare awoke in a deep sweat. The explosions in the distance had died down in loudness; they had not stopped as their soft quakes shook the icy bed and maroon crystal walls. She gripped tightly to her blanket, hoping in failure it would end, but it never did. A scaly arm reached out to her. She tentatively rubbed her face on it and calmly spoke, "I'm sorry I woke you. It was just a nightmare, one I wished had ended upon waking."
"As selfish as this sounds, it will not end until a choice has been made." the scaly monster reached over and pulled her closer into his embrace. "As much as I don't want to force it, they will make you choose!"
" I don't know what to choose anymore. I've made too many choices already. And I've lost so many things over these millennia as I wander through these dreams." She laughed softly to herself. It was a merry laugh, but a sad one filled with regret. "I remember once when we could have had the chance to have many more millennia to ourselves without choices needing to be made."
"That's not true. You made a choice more brazenly back then." The scaly monster regretted his words. "But if it hadn't been for your brazenness and you and I would have never..."
"No!" she stopped him, "You and I would have been united, eventually." She wrapped his arms around him and smiled at his cooling breath. "As much as Rex wants to fight us now, one thing he cannot challenge is the fate he saw that day." the pale mare couldn't help but tear up at her words. "Despite the choices we made to get to this point, we were always meant to be this from the first moment that our magics collided." As annoyed as she was with the conjuring of choice echoing from outside and within her nightmares. She knew all too true some choices that she made back then were brazen and beyond reason, but some could never be regretted.
The pale mare lifted her dark blue crystal arm upward. The scaly monster did the same with his own maroon red crystal arm. "Our Union is almost complete," the scaly monster answered. "All you need to do is make the choice."
"What is my choice?" The Pale Mare pushed away from the answer. “All I want to do is stay here with you in this darkness. That is the only thing I don't regret at all. Laying here in your icy embrace is the greatest happiness I could have." She couldn't stop her tears now. "You show me so many things. You've brightened my world. You have shined a light in my darkness greater than Thule could have ever estimated."
The scaly monster smiled at her words, "Together we both surpassed him, the great god of rot, and together we can surpass this!!" The scaly monster wrapped his crystal hand around hers and grip tightly. "We will surpass the Shadow Pony, Rex, and even Clover. You shall surpass the alicorns of both light and dark. Once you come to terms with your choice. Once you have made the choice, you desire truly deep in your heart, we will stand over it all as king and queen."
"You dare put such weight upon me."
"I do not dare do such a thing." He corrected himself. "They put the weight upon you. This world has put the weight upon you, Pale Mare." He softened his voice to make his words clear. "I will not force you to choose, but reality is making the choice for you if you do not."
******
In the long distance past...
The snowy day was interrupted as screams echoed in all directions of this once graceful land. The land lied just beyond the Batpony Canyons and the Pegasus Isles. It was once a land of darkness and silence and now it was filled with agony and torment. The only thing that dampened the pain was the raging flames and the only thing that drowned those torches were the flowing blood and the shadow of a mighty, gigantic unknown beast with millions of limbs.
This was the capital of the umbrums.
Bodies fell left and right as it ripped everything apart. Slithering through the dirt, sky, and buildings alike as if they were just air to him. His massive jaws shredding through every umbrum like they were paper. Their bodies shredded and minced to pieces.
No one was spared, and no fault was given. None knew at all what brought on this vicious attack or whom to blame, only that it wouldn't stop until they were all dead. As their screams became louder and more frantic, a lone young umbrum colt curled up under some rubble. He kept his tears and whimpers as soft as possible, as everyone he knew and loved was being ripped apart around him. He watched in horror and waited for his chance to escape.
Days passed before all the screaming stopped and the blood soaked deep into the ground. The umbrum child did the best he could to stop his endless shivers as the unknown beast made one last pass. He stared at the monster that had taken everything from him. Rage twisted the child to rush forward and fight the beast, but fear kept him encroached on his prison of horrors until the beast left his sight.
One final rumbling sound echoed out, followed by silence. It took several hours later before the child could stop shivering. He moved his body so slowly, as if fearing it would still return. Finally reaching outside of his prison, he stared in shock, broken to the image of so many dead.
"Is he gone?" an unknown voice echoed out.
“Huh, what was that?” the child questioned.
“Over here, child.”
He followed the voice, hoping to find some sign of life. “Here child,” the voice continued. He found his way to an old burning church. He took a breath and stepped inside. It was dark inside, despite the flames that surrounded everything. All except for the center where a patch untouched by the fire laid.
The colt moved carefully to the center as the old church began to slowly crumble around him. It wasn't as if he couldn't hear the collapsing or that he was truly broken from everything that had happened. Rather, it was as if something was compelling him to enter the circle. It was as if it was the only safety in the entire world.
It was a strange feeling to describe as his eyes came upon the pedestal in the center. A fresh skeleton of his kind laying under it, unable to make it before death, or simply unworthy to receive it. Its hands clutched tightly to the writing. The writing was so clear to the colt's eyes.
"The only one whose blood is soaked in the deaths of millions can speak the words and hear his incredible voice. Those who wield his magic will bend space to their command and make even the greatest darkness bow to them." The child couldn't stop himself from reading it. "Prove yourself and take power."
"Child..." a voice echoed from the object standing on the pedestal.
"I'm here as you asked..." His eyes wandered back to the outside world for but a moment. "Why was it killing us?"
"It wasn't killing you... It was saving you." The more the voice spoke, the more it sounded like it was forcing itself just to breathe.
"Saving me?"
"You umbrum are so unique... many would give anything for your... body."
"I..." the child teared up. "I don't want that, not at all. And yet I don't want to die."
“Then step closer to the pedestal, child," the voice called out. "Complete the circle." The voice became louder. "Release us from our prisons!" Despite the rage of the voice, the child felt no fear even as the church crumbled to complete nothingness around the circle. The voice, no, the presence within the circle, was in such stark contrast with the rest of the world. It was as if the outside were the evilest of devils. Right now, the child felt as if he was standing in the presence of God.
Doing as the voice commanded, he stopped in front of the pedestal and reached out to an amulet floating above it. He felt he could trust this voice. The amulet glowed brightly, as if it was calling to him. He could feel the power of the amulet reaching out to him and enveloping him in red light, wanting him to grab it.
“Reach forth and take what is rightfully yours. Let me save you by saving me!!”
“What is rightfully mine?” the colt questioned as he trembled from the force of the amulet’s great power.
“The right of power, the right of strength, and the right of survival.”
“The right,” the colt’s voice drifted as his hand took hold of the amulet. Unbeknownst to him, upon his touch, the fires were getting darker and darker. It was like the flames were suffocating from the darkness that was now pouring out from him. Soon the flames were gone, and all that was left was the smoke as it drifted with the darkness wrapping around the colt. The colt felt the grasp of the darkness on him and asked, “What are you?”
“I am the Dark Alicorn Amulet. And who are you?”
The colt’s eyes glowed as he brought the amulet to his chest. “My name is…”
Even after a week, the echoes of the war bounced through the empty city without end. The once graceful capital of the unicorns was no more but a barren wasteland now. Starlight was shaken by all of it as she took each step. She didn't want to be here. But she had to follow her orders. She didn't know why but she's been tasked to ensure that the city was completely empty; That the last moments of the war, the great teleportation, had been completed.
She wished now more than ever that she'd gotten involved soon. From her perspective, this was the past, and yet this was still a war for her kind. This was a war they would fail in, her teacher's words. However, with Twilight now among the ones missing, Starlight could only feel more regret.
Coming to the last stop, she remembered how just days ago this place looked so much different. The starkest view of past events contrasting with now was seen in this last moment. A cup full of coffee, sitting on a table, not a single drop drank from it. A coat laying over the side of a chair waiting for its owner to return, tossed aside so casually as if it was never left alone. A purse still standing up straight, full of money, photos, papers, and a few stray quills.
Starlight gritted her teeth and answered to herself, "They're all gone, every single one of them." She walked over to the table. The coffee had long mildewed. She knocked it over, wanting movement in this empty city. The echoing of the spill bounced across windows, buildings, and streets, only intensifying the horror of it all.
"We lost..." she whispered to herself before returning to the titan airship.
******
Inside the airship, Rex was carefully looking over the map. His eyes intensely moved over each coordinate, hoping for some sort of glow. Clover had left with Clovis, leaving the lone umbrum on the airship to ponder away. Well, he wasn't completely alone.
"If you glare any deeper into that map, your eyes will bend space around it." Lord Red spoke out.
"What?" Rex looked up to see Lord Red watching him.
"Oh, nothing." Lord Red stepped closer to the map. "So this is the map that allows you to see the truth about Twilight Sparkle."
"I don't know what you mean by truth? I simply tested a theory for something else and got far more than I bargained for." Rex moved the map away.
"That's certainly true, to find Twilight Sparkle and Cold Blue. You spotted not only them but connections they have with you and each other, right?"
"I have no connections to Cold Blue."
"And yet Twilight Sparkle has a far greater connection to both of you." Lord Red wandered to the other side. "She is from the future, so the surprise is mute. Blood Diamond was also told of his strange lineage with one of these time travelers, the one known as Starlight. Twilight knew details ahead of time, or at least she suspected." He cupped his face in thought.
"What are you getting at?" Rex demanded.
"If she knew about Starlight's origins, who's to say she didn't know her own origins?" Lord Red pointed so boldly. "With all these connections, it makes one wonder just how much these two will hide from us?"
"Starlight didn't know about her family line. It's unclear whether Twilight knew she was from my..."
"Not true." Lord Red dropped his hands on the table. "Though such unknown details around her are purely assumptions now. What is clear is who she is to you now?"
"What are you asking?" Rex narrowed his eyes.
"I am simply asking if she can be trusted?"
"Said you." Rex lifted the map over his face to show just how pointless he treated this conversation.
"I completely understand why you don't trust me. However, I still need to understand why you won't let me help. Why do you trust her over me?"
"How are those not the same thing?!"
"Fine, I'll be more clear." Lord Red walked around the tables. "I am here to bring Twilight Sparkle to face justice. I'm not seeking malice against her, nor desire to see her die. I simply seek a means to an end."
Rex dropped the map, realizing Lord Red was attempting to get a better look. "The war is over. The unicorns lost."
"If you believed that yourself, then you wouldn't be wasting so much energy trying to decipher that map on your own." Lord Red proposed, "Let me help you."
"How could you possibly help?"
"I am a master of many forms of magic."
"Yet you are not a master of dark magic." Rex narrowed his eyes.
"Neither are you," Lord Red pointed to the dark alicorn amulet. "Where did you get such a thing?"
"Don't change the subject. How could you help us?" Rex demanded.
"To see beyond seeing."
"What?" Rex pulled back in utter confusion. He was unsure if Lord Red was playing on riddles or being completely serious. However, there was no change in his opponent's sight. This meant that Lord Red kept his composure the entire time and kept his word throughout the entire conversation. If he was lying, he would have been from the beginning, but if he was telling the truth, the truth was evident.
"I mean the glaring you were doing earlier."
"Okay, now I'm completely lost. What are you talking about?"
"Getting lost must happen often with you." Lord Red stopped behind Rex.
"If you will not help me, then leave!" Rex stood up and faced him directly, making his demands clear.
"Since you won't listen or won't realize the obvious, I must apologize." Lord Red bowed to him.
"Apologize for what--" Rex was stopped cold in his tracks as Lord Red thrusted his hand into the dark alicorn amulet with no warning. His hand phased through the crystal as if he was a ghost.
"This..." Lord Red answered carefully as Rex's body twitched uncontrollably.
"What are you doing to him?" Silver Pear rushed into the room.
"Back off, now earth pony.” Lord Red's eyes were enough to send him flying back.
"No, answer both of us." Starlight's magic grasped Silver Pear in the air.
"Perfect timing, my little unicorn. Since you lack a teacher, please listen to this lesson." Lord Red twisted his hand and Rex's body jilted. "Do not worry, he cannot feel anything. I am simply changing the output of his amulet--" Rex roared in pain. "Fine, I'm lying about the pain."
"Output?"
"Yes, it seems he's discharging too much of it when trying to access its incredible power." Lord Red twisted his hand again, feeling around. "This was clear when Clover described the events that allowed him to better read the map."
"Are you sure you know what you're doing? How will this help?" Starlight demanded.
"It will increase his accuracy at reading the map. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"This is far too dangerous and reckless." Silver Pear pulled out his claymore.
"How do you know so much about this?" Starlight questioned Lord Red's actions and stopped Silver Pear's advance.
"Because he was there when all three amulets were created," a new, completely unfamiliar voice echoed through the room. Starlight backed away as the unfamiliar voice spoke from Rex's mouth.
Lord Red laughed, "I was wondering if an old goat like you was still alive in there."
"Do not mock me?" The voice answered him.
"Who is that? Let Rex go?!" Silver Pear called out.
"None of your business, child." The disrespect towards him meant nothing when compared to the force of the very space around the earth pony pushing him to the ground.
"What have you--" Silver Pear was silenced again as space pushed down harder.
"Stop hurting him?" Starlight charged her horn with magic.
"Temper your curiosity, my little unicorn. You both are in the presence of very ancient magic." Lord Red pulled his hand out to the dark, alicorn amulet. "The alicorn amulets hold ancient dangerous beings that no longer have bodies of their own."
"A minor way to describe my prison." The voice controlling Rex's mouth laughed in a mocking tone/
"True, though in this form you are more of a slave of the current owner."
"Rex is far from my owner," the voice's temper was rising. "And I am far from his slave. Speak your business so I can go back to communicating with only him."
"I wish to expand the output of his power."
"I told you his body is not ready for such an output."
"Please, his body is more durable than any other owner you've had," Lord Red argued with the voice.
"True, he's more durable than any umbrum before him and certainly more than any wendigo."
Lord Red raised an eyebrow that his answer, "Even better than the original king of the wendigoes."
"Indigo Frost? Almost certainly. And miles better than that half-breed child."
"Half-breed child?" Lord Red raised his hand, almost tempted to question more on that. "No, no, no. Save that subject for another time. The real reason I'm doing this is because of another dark magic user."
"The supposed daughter," the voice laughed. "Do you wish to kill her?"
"Damn it, I assumed you would listen more than him. I am seeking justice, nothing more."
"Oh, I was listening to every single word. You play your words well, but I don't trust you and neither does Rex."
"However, Rex wishes to find her?" Lord Red smiled at his victory.
"Fine..." the voice caved in defeat. Rex's eyes glowed brightly. "He will only have this sight for a few minutes." The voice faced Rex on the map. The dark alicorn amulet glowed brightly as Rex regained control.
Starlight sighed in relief as the pressure of space over her earth pony ally broke. She helped him up. "Are you okay?"
"My pride is injured," Silver Pear laughed.
"What happened?" Rex rubbed his head. "I can't remember a thing. Starlight, Silver Pear, when did you two get here?"
"No, do not look at him directly." Lord Red held his hand over Silver Pear as Rex faced them. "Rex, return your eyesight to the map before you hurt somepony."
"What are you talking about?" Rex demanded answers.
"I had a conversation with the voice in your dark alicorn amulet. Truthfully, this is not the first time I've talked to a voice without a body." Lord Red pointed to the map. "Time is short. Look while you can."
"What are you talking about--" Rex stopped as he felt liquid pour down his face. Starlight and Silver Pear both gasped at the maroon red blood pouring from his eyes, but attempted to not look at him directly.
"He was right. You are not ready to handle this power. Now, look at the map. Use the Glare."
Starlight's eyes widened at his words. While Rex was unfamiliar with the word, she was very familiar with it. This was the same spell that nearly killed her once long ago on her journeys through many timelines. This horrifying and incredible power was being used again, now in the past. "This is the power you will master in the future, Lord Red."
"Yes, and but for a moment I can witness it. Hurry, Rex..."
"You bastard!" Rex stopped himself as his body trembled. He faced the map, finally giving in. Much to his surprise, the map now looked very different. Where before he could only see the alathar and any nearby dark magic signatures, he could see every dark magic user across the map. "It's so much more clear."
"Yes, but to you alone." Lord Red floated a quill to him. "Before it overpowers your sight completely right what you can see so others can see."
"You mean if I overuse this I'll go blind!" Rex roared in rage.
"Yes, and no. Your eyes will melt away completely," Lord Red corrected him. "Time is running out for Twilight Sparkle and the war. It is unsure when the enemy will make their move so we must stand far ahead of them."
"Fine... I know where she's at. Or rather, where she will be." Rex dotted a line from the unicorn capital to the southeast. "Two massive dark signatures are moving right now."
Starlight stepped closer to the table and looked over at the map. "Wait, that's near the Batpony Canyons?"
"Then that is where Rex shall go next.” Lord Red waved his hand over Rex.
The blood stopped flowing, and the dark alicorn amulet and the umbrum's eyes stopped glowing. Rex dropped to the ground and maroon liquid spewed from his mouth and eyes. " Fucking... Damn it... You cold-hearted bastard..." Rex's voice was filled with vicious contempt.
"Your sight will be blurry for a few hours and puking will calm down then, too. It's better than losing your sight altogether." Lord Red turned to the exit. "Starlight, you and the earth pony will leave with me to the Pegasus Isles."
"What? We should leave with Rex!" Starlight raced over.
"No, we will pick up Clover on the way. She will go with him." Lord Red padded her on the head. "I need you by my side. You still have much to learn in this world and timeline. With your teacher missing, I must mentor you in her stead."
"I... I... I understand." Starlight bit her lip and looked away. While she still felt uneasy around him, she knew she could trust his words. Maybe she could learn a lot from him.
******
Miles away, above the ruins of Rage Mountain, Clover and Clovis attempted to contact Blood Diamond. He had been silent since the teleportation event. While he hadn't been captured, it wasn't clear why he was not answering anypony. The two unicorns had been there for only a day, but both were stopped in place at the sheer horror of the warzone in front of them.
It was just as her father had described. A mix of emotion flooded Clover's thoughts at the sight of it, but shame seemed to be the brightest in her eyes as she saw the many dead unicorns. Her people were slain so easily. And yet many out there were still missing, taken without warning by an unholy spell that her group had to undo.
"Is it clear yet?" a voice asked. From above, Clovis the Coward sat within an airship's opening covering his eyes.
"Yeah, there's no more soldiers here either," Clover answered. She often found her brother's actions confusing. Before he was so bravely willing to hunt down Twilight. Yet upon the activation of this spell, his cowardness returned in full bloom. He seemed so brave against the legend of dark ascended. Or maybe it was the lack of knowledge that made him so brave. Either way, it was clear after all these years he still hadn't grown out of the name, Clovis the Coward "Just get down here already," she commented.
"Fine, fine." Clovis teleported down to the ground. Once ready, he started scanning everything can get a hold of. The sight of the bodies sickened him just as much as it did to Clover, but he knew he had a bigger mission to handle. He was the only master of teleportation they had. It fell to him to find out just how this teleportation was completed. His eyes lowered as the scan spread across the mountain. "This is where it started."
"The slaughter of our kind." Clover's words cut so deep.
"The teleportation..." These were the only words that escaped his mouth as he stopped his scan. He took a seat on a rock and exhaled deeply. Both were stressed, but both had to be ready as more exited the airship.
The first to be spotted was Princess Celestia. She was already performing her own scans upon landing. It wasn't like she didn't trust Clovis, more like she was just as curious as he was. There were so many magics twisted through the land. Most of all, she could sense three signatures, "Alicorn magic, unicorn magic, and something else very unfamiliar to me. I believe that is the source of the teleportation."
"I realize that too," Clovis answered. "I don't know what kind of magic use the spell but I know it was very ancient."
"As ancient as us?" Princess Luna questioned as she landed. "This seems rather impossible as most alicorns are far beyond the age of most mortals."
" I am very certain of it. I compared it to the wendigo of legend, this Indigo Frost." Clovis pondered aloud. "While it is similar, there are certain details that seem off."
"The legend of Indigo Frost?" Clover question. "Are we agreeing that the one we've been fighting is the old king of legend? And how do we know he was even behind such a spell? I thought we settled on the assumption that Lady Mass Hysteria was behind this spell."
"We don't know if he's responsible at all or his connections to the spell. However, someone claiming his name can only mean more danger than good," Celestia clarified. "It's best to assume any large-scale attack during this war is caused by him."
"Plus there is the description that the Shadow pony gave," Luna concerned. "Princess Mira Platinum, leader of the unicorns, used a white orb and broke apart into maroon snowflakes. Just like the attack in the Griffin Kingdom a month ago that freed the Night Brother."
"The Night Brothers are free!" Clover jumped around. "We have to warn Starswirl."
"He already encountered them during this warzone," Celestia corrected. "They escaped but said that this supposed Indigo Frost wants them to play a few games."
"That aside, what is clear is Lady Mass Hysteria was working with him in this war, too. If reports from Cold Blue are also to be believed," Luna answered.
"Reports he gave shortly before going missing, like every other unicorn..." Clover concluded. "I don't want to trust his words any more than your words."
Clovis held his hand over his sister to stop her posturing. "Please, Celestia, could you tell us what you know about the King, Indigo Frost?" Clovis played his move well, knowing Clover always felt easier than trusting Celestia over Luna. He didn't know, but his sister always felt uneasy around Luna, especially when Rex wasn't around.
Celestia smiled at that trust. She was always ready for a story. "It happened over five thousand years ago. While I and Luna weren't directly involved in the battle, we did witness it from afar. Indigo Frost was the ruler of the wendigoes, and as far as we knew a powerful king who was both feared and beloved by his citizens."
"Citizens? I never knew such a word could be used for wendigoes," Clovis answered.
"Yes, even back then, they were nothing more but wild beasts to everyone else. Yet very few saw a sort of orderly system in their monstrous chaos. And at the lead of that system was Indigo Frost. In a little over a month, he forged all the clans of wendigos into a single army." Celestia held out her hand and formed an image above it with her magical horn. "Using their magic of ice, water, and sound, he forged a kingdom that glowed in its icy form with echoing loud spires of endless sound."
"It's beautiful..." Clover never would have suspected such an image forged by a wendigo. Four mighty spires surrounded a beautiful icy pyramid. She could see the winds swirl around and even hear the beautiful noise echoing in all directions.
"It was a shock to many that such monsters could forge something like this. Even the alicorns were awe-struck and power. However, other lands soon became jealous of this and pushed the wendigoes away. While a war didn't break out at first, such a sight would only bring one soon enough.``
"War eventually comes and changes everything, no matter when or where it might happen. This is clear even to us mortals..." Clover's eyes traced over the surrounding mountainside, matching it in her mind to what must have happened in the past.
"Not quite." Blood Diamond finally made himself known to them as he walked up. "We were there on the front lines. We saw what the wendigoes could do, and this was not their power. While we never fought Indigo Frost directly, we knew he was far from the monster king they all saw him as." He stopped by Clover's side and made a final comment that only shook her. "In fact, he was much like Rex, simply trying to find a place for him and his citizens."
"The Indigo Frost I saw attacking..." Clover's eyes fueled with rage. "Attacking that town more than a month ago was not like Rex."
"I will agree with this unicorn on that much," Luna surprised Clover by standing in her defense. "I know of Rex's action and he is no monster."
Blood Diamond only smiled brighter at those words, but there was a sickening hatred deep within his eyes. "Oh, we know all too well what you two see in Rex." He narrowed his eyes on Luna and questioned, "Have you talked to Rex recently?"
"No?" she looked strangely at his question.
"Good, our other half was curious, that's all. Of course, you know how dealing with one of those can be," Blood Diamond mocked Luna.
"Other half," Clover whispered under her breath, unknown to what he meant.
"Enough," Luna turned away from him. "Complete your scans and we will go to the next area."
"Fine, but know that Lord Red will soon arrive to trade a few allies with us." Blood Diamond leered his eyes at Clover.
"Oh, you will answer him, but not us!" Luna barked back in a rage. "We have been waiting in that airship for a full day!"
"Like that matter, Clover be ready to leave with Rex to your next mission. Clovis, you will return with Lord Red." Blood Diamond turned away from both Clover and Luna. "Meanwhile, we will move out to the next area."
"Next area?" Clovis questioned. Clover herself was also out of the loop wondering what they meant.
Celestia covered her face in shame, unable to answer them properly right away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but we were given direct orders by my uncle. I mean once we reunited with Blood Diamond we were to complete it as soon as possible."
"What orders?" Clover question.
"Our father has given the order to occupy the entire unicorn capital until they return to be conquered." Blood Diamond's words brought them all to attention and shocked Clover and Clovis both.
Clover stepped forward in defiance, "No, my father told me who was behind the war. You know who's behind this! It wasn't the unicorns!"
"Yes, while Lady Mass Hysteria pulled strings on Princess Platinum. That does not change the fact that the unicorns brought war to us. Therefore the unicorns must be conquered!!" Blood Diamond gave his final words as his horn lit up brightly with magic. He lifted his hands into the air and all the crystals across the entire mountainside lifted it upward. With a wave of his hand, they flew towards the unicorn capital.
The crystals impaled around it in the shape of a mighty giant circle. Luna and Celestia both sighed annoyance before lighting up their horns. In one move all light and darkness faded from the circle as if neither day nor night would ever come in contact with the mighty mirror buildings ever again. This massive three-way move cut off the capital from the rest of the world.
Deep within the endless mindscape, shocks and explosions echoed out. A flurry of dark magic swarmed in all directions as the lone alicorn flew across through a neon blue sky and several twisted giant maroon-colored pillars. The blasts started like fireworks before condensing into arrows flying towards the target. A lone siren upon a bold pink jagged ground stood ready as they advanced closer.
Swinging out his falcata, he slashed through the first attack, dodged the second, and jumping clear over the third as both tore up the surrounding ground. His last move stabbed deep into the fourth one, exploding in the air. “Condense them better!” He was surprised as two more blasts came out of nowhere and crashed right into him. He dropped his blade and grabbed them both with his bare hands. His eyes glowed a bright maroon, and he crushed them.
However, things were far from over as through the bursting darkness of the blasts the alicorn charging in head first. He only had seconds to catch her and throw her to the ground. “Was that better?” she laughed.
“A better pony would have defeated me.”
She gave him a wicked smile. “I did! I shot seven dark arrows!” With that, the last arrow hit her target with a giant burst of darkness that covered them both. The siren pulled back, blinded. He fought back only to be tackled down.
As everything cleared, the siren smiled to see the alicorn baring his own falcata against his neck. “So close...”
“What do you mean--” she stopped upon feeling his ocarina-dagger digging into her armor. “So it’s a tie,” she frowned and pulled back her attack. She threw the falcata to the side as he retracted his weapon.
“You are getting very good, Twilight,” the siren laughed. “You’ve mastered the dark arrows much faster than I expected."
“Yeah, maybe I should move to more advance stuff already,” Twilight dropped, completely out of breath. She was so tired from this fight she didn’t even note herself sitting on his lap. “Come on, Cold Blue... I can handle more.”
“Right, right? However, the Dark Arrows are a fine starting point for anyone wanting to master dark magic. The more advanced stuff will come naturally when you learn to control the flow of dark magic,” he remarked the older scar on his neck.
“Cold Blue, I how many times do I have to say sorry for transforming into the Pale Mare so many times--" She stopped as he rubbed her face. It was at this point she noticed the jagged flesh of her cheek showing she nearly transformed again. She retracted her face and took in a deeper breath. Concentrating, the pale scales moved back under her eyepatch. “I'm sorry."
"Why? You weren't raving mad this time?" Cold Blue brought back his hand and rubbed her smooth furry cheek. He slid his hand down her cheek and to her neck.
Twilight often found herself recently unable to stop him during these times, taking the gesture with much care, rubbing her face back into his hand. "I... I don't want to rely on that monster."
“You can call it monster all you want, but that’s just it. You are afraid of your form when it’s purely natural.”
“Natural!!” Twilight fell off of Cold Blue now more annoyed than anything else. “That beast takes over my will and body without warning.”
“That beast is you and you are her. There is no other way to put it. And the only way to truly master all forms of dark magic is to stop fighting the monster inside you.” Cold Blue sat up.
“Now you sound like that, wendigo.” Twilight got up and summoned a table and chair to sit on it. She had tired of the ground.
“And that’s a problem, how?” Cold Blue almost sounded offended.
“He... well evil...”
“To whose perspective. Your perspective? Rex’s perspective? Starlight’s perspective? Silver Pear’s perspective? He’s certainly not evil to Blood Diamond or the other alicorns. Rather an obstacle that needs to be conquered.” Cold Blue stood up, throwing his arms out.
“I... don’t want to talk about it anymore.” She summoned two drinks for them and another chair for Cold Blue. The mindscape had many uses besides training. They could summon anything they like from the realm in any way they desired. “Let’s just rest...”
“Fine.” He narrowed his eyes at the sight of the simple juice in the glasses. “How long was this session?”
“I don’t know, twenty-two days, I think. Wow, a fight that long could be near to impossible in the real world.” Twilight couldn't help but stretch her body out pointlessly. They were within the mindscape. Their bodies were only being minorly affected by these bouts of magical strength.
“Not what I meant...” With a wave of his hand, the drinks changed to something else altogether.
Twilight stopped and picked up the glass. The glasses had got thinner, and the drink was a deep bright blue hue. "What is this?"
"Blue apple wine."
"Blue apples?" Twilight swung the drink around in confusion. "There no such thing as blue apples."
"Not in your time apparently..." Cold Blue lifted his glass more carefully. "Though they are pretty hard to find in this timeline, too. They grow on the highest points of the cliffs that hold up the Pegasus Isles."
"Isn't that land found directly above the Batpony Canyons?" Now Twilight sounded more interested.
"Yes, the batponies and pegasus have a strange relationship compared to the stuff I've seen in your memories of the future."
"Yeah, that was the biggest thing I noticed in this timeline." Twilight smiled brighter. "At the bar, there was this pegasus named Rainbow Dartz. Apparently, he was a soldier during the last war between the pegasus and batponies..." She stopped herself. "He saw many things during that fight."
Cold Blue raised an eyebrow at her words. Even after seeing many of her memories in this place, there were a few things more curious about Twilight than anything he could ever see in any warzone. "Tell me, before traveling with your student through all these timelines, what was your life like?"
"Certainly different from now. Such I fought tyrants and monsters alike before, but..." Her words got much quieter. "Things back then were much safer."
"I see..." Cold Blue knew he was touching a tender spot in Twilight's mind. "Here, eat." He presented food. The feast was small but familiar to Twilight.
"Hmm, fried cucumbers, egg salad... is that stone muffins from the land of the griffins."
"Huh, griffins eat them in your timeline. During this timeline, they are mostly eaten but cyclopes. However, I find their tough bread a perfect pairing with the greasy fried cucumbers." Cold Blue took a bite.
"Yeah, well, spoilers, the griffins have a war with the cyclopes a few hundred years before my timeline," Twilight laughed. "Apparently one of their leaders took off with a griffin trophy."
"Oh yes, never get between a griffin and their treasure. That stigma is still prominent in this timeline."
"I'm assuming this was made from a really excellent memory."
"Not really an excellent memory, but good food." Cold Blue feasted on some cucumbers.
"Not an excellent memory, huh..." Twilight was shocked by his quick dismissal of it. "I see..." She took in more food before finally questioning back, "You've seen a lot of my memories, but I've barely seen any of yours."
"Maybe if you refine your dark magic, I could show you..."
"No, memory spells have nothing to do with magic type. I know this better than most!" Twilight spoke up. "I've been in other's minds before. Celestia and Luna, some of my friends even."
"You use so much power on ones you consider allies and even friends," Cold Blue questioned back. "Do you use them on your enemies?"
"I... I... that would be wrong..." Twilight stopped herself. " I have my friends' trust."
"And what about your enemies?" Cold Blue threw up his hands. "Just how many could you had defeated by simply looking into their minds. Discord, Queen Chrysalis, even this King Sombra." Cold Blue threw up images of each of them. "They all had something important to them, from their powers to their pasts, presents, and futures!"
"What are you getting at?"
He brought up an image of Starlight. "You used information of her to stand against Blood Diamond, did you not?"
"Yes..."
"And yet here you are traveling through timeline after timeline and not using the rest of the stuff you've learned to your advantage." He brought up more images, from Starswirl to Rex, Clover and the many others she met through her travels.
"Enough!" Twilight threw up her hands in annoyance. "I just want to rest... now. We've been in this mindscape for a very long time."
"Clearly not as long as you realize..." Cold Blue looked away. "You don't respect the surrounding stuff, the power you have!"
"The power..." Twilight mumbled to herself. "Maybe you are right..."
Cold Blue was surprised by her acceptance of this. He calmed himself down and looked back over the meal. He dropped the images. "I'm sorry..."
"No, I'm the one that messed up--" she stopped as he held up his hand.
"Actually, we should be more clear with each other." He pointed to her. "I see your greatest weakness now. The power... you don't respect it."
"Respecting power. What are you talking about?" Twilight's raised an eyebrow back.
"Fine, you'll need an example," he waved his hand and images flowed above them. Twilight recognized it as memories forming. She was surprised, but glad he was willing to finally share. Cold Blue cleared his throat, "While this wasn't a wonderful memory for me at all… but it helped me in respecting power."
The images were faint at first, but quickly came into perspective. It revealed a mountain all too familiar, too many, as it really changed over the millennia. The place was common to both timelines. Known in Twilight's timeline as the macintosh hill where only the toughest ponies would travel. However, in this timeline, the place had a different name due to two things; first it more uniform appearance in the past that acted as a perfect buffer between the lush lands above to the deadly desert below.
Its second and most important difference gave its name the most meaning, for this was the realm of the mighty centaurs.
******
It happened it was three thousand years ago. Back then, immortal anomalies like Cold Blue and Rex had to go through two thousand years of training before they could go on assignments with the alicorns. It was harsh training all around, but it was worth it to stand among the immortal, god-like being known as the alicorns.
Cold Blue’s first assignment with Blood Diamond might have seemed minor at first. It was just a dinner party, after all. However, it would drastically change his perspective on many things from then on. Above all things, it would change his perspective on power. Who truly has it. And how to truly respect it.
The two arrived early within the highest mountain of the centaurs' homeland. Blood Diamond wasn't one to really show patience during missions he considered dire. And this was indeed going to be a tough mission. They were to meet with the king of the centaurs, the tyrannical King Ixion.
They entered the castle with a loud booming echo and took a seat at the table without even greeting the king of the castle. Sitting on an ivory throne forged from the horns and tusks of many minotaur and cyclopes alike, was the king of the centaur race.
King Ixion stood thirty feet tall with a dark, almost brownish-red upper half and bleak gray lower half. He was old, yet his form didn't show signs of weakness at first from his oversized muscles and heavy black mane and beard reaching to the ground. While his body showed proud vigor, his throne showed the opposite. His throne was old, ancient, as if he no longer cared to clean it. Instead, several smears caked the surface from top to bottom of varying colors and mold levels.
King Ixion smiled upon their arrival and greeted them loudly. "Come in, come in!! I had my slaves prepare a meal for you, but I was hoping to know you first.” He attempted to make formalities of Blood Diamond. The alicorn refused to answer, so the king pulled on a chain by his throne. “Don't be so cruel, her kind spent so much work on it.”
Cold Blue’s eyes filled with rage when he first caught sight of a hippogriff chained and beaten bloody. “What is going on here?” The siren was cut off completely by the smell, as it was just as intense. He was completely sickened. This would be involved in his first mission. However, Blood Diamond held his hand up before Cold Blue could draw his weapon.
“Please, King Ixion, remove your... wife from our sight so we can proceed with this mission unheeded.” Blood Diamond’s words only brought greater sickness to Cold Blue’s stomach. “There is no need to bargain. The alicorns have sent us to listen to your demands.”
“Good, very good.” Ixion whipped the chain across her face and she sleeked back into the shadows. The king waved his hands over the food, presenting it. “Take your fill while I get to the point. I desire the wastelands to the north.”
“The changelings will not give that up easily,” Blood Diamond concurred as he took a sip of the wine. He bit softly into the stone muffin. "Hmm, I see your griffin slaves haven't lost their touch."
As Twilight watched the memory play out, she couldn't help but notice the familiar offering of food. The same blue apple wine, the same stone muffins, and even similar fried cucumbers.
"Indeed, and the pegasus and batponies are proving to be just as useful..." King Ixion laughed. "However, the stock is running low for the nagas in the deserts."
"Well, they united with unicorns long before you came into power," Blood Diamond posed.
“Which is why I had the alicorns send for you. I believe the changeling hives will make a much finer replacement for those worthless snakes,” Ixion purposed.
“We thought we were here to propose something of our own not to be tossed around like a bargaining chip of your desires.” Blood Diamond put down the food and turned away. "We glad seek war for you but Golden Williams is better suited for negotiations."
"However, you of all alicorns are better suited for handling the changelings!" Ixion roared out in defiance. Blood Diamond ignored his word and stood up to leave. King Ixion's guards held up their weapons, blocking their exit. The king gave a wicked laugh, "Did you forget I know plenty about the alicorns."
"And?" Blood Diamond couldn't see the point.
"I fought on the front lines in the alicorn's wars with Realta, Grogar, and even Kray. I came into power here because the umbrums fell from grace and sirens sleeked back into their waters." Ixion held up his hand. His guards followed his command and brought their weapons closer. "I know exactly what you blasted immortals will do to keep the peace. Whether by bargains just like this or even... flat out genocide!" King Ixion stopped his words as Blood Diamond and Cold Blue were brought back to the table.
Blood Diamond faced the king and narrowed his eyes, deciding to change the agreements. “How about we stand by while you do the negotiations with them? We’ll play a bailiff of both sides to see who has a better right over the land.”
“That will not work!” King Ixion was quickly showing his annoyance. “I must have absolute control over them.”
"Ha! Control?” Blood Diamond laughed. “Are these chains controlling the hippogriffs?” he pointed to the chains leading to the wife in shadows. “Is that dirty, stinking, and disgusting boney throne keeping the minotaurs and the cyclopes under your control?”
“These are power!!” King Ixion struggled but finally stepped off his throne. He yanked on the chain, throwing the hippogriff mare to the ground. “Look at her, the daughter of a wasted kingdom merely a saddle to my loins.” He kicked her to the ground, and she reached for something in her pocket.
Cold Blue could barely contain himself from the first sighting. Seeing it again with these words tossed around her only pushed him to the very edge. The siren rushed forward and aimed his weapon at the king’s throat. However, Blood Diamond’s wing stopped him in place.
“Did we give you an order, soldier?” Blood Diamond’s wing through Cold Blue to the ground. “We are sorry that he overstepped himself.” Blood Diamond’s apology only shook Cold Blue even more. “It is his first mission after all.”
“Keep him in line next time or I will myself.”
“Fine, fine. Please know that his actions are not in line with the alicorns. We see nothing against your bride nor your moves towards the changeling. If you must seek war, then we will help you with an invasion, but that is as much as we can do.”
“Not the agreement I desired..." King Ixion took a moment to think before finally giving in. he sat back on his throne rather quickly and gave his answer. “However, I guess seeking war will keep those changelings in line next time. As long as the other alicorns stay out of my way.”
“Good, shall we go over the paperwork?” Blood Diamond bowed. Cold Blue used this moment to charge forward again, only Blood Diamond to knock him out completely.
******
The images faded, leaving Twilight just as sickened as Cold Blue was in that moment. However, as she looked upon Cold Blue now, this present version of him only confused her more. “Why? Why would you show me this?”
“You didn’t see it the first time just like I didn’t.” With a snap of his fingers, the images reminded. Cold Blue held out his hand and stopped the image upon the hippogriff mare once more. “Look closer and you see what I could only see after the fact.”
Twilight’s eyes stopped at the dagger in the hippogriff mare’s pocket. “What? How long was she holding that?
“Apparently the entire time.” Cold Blue brought the image closer. “It is known as an azoth dagger.”
“Wait, as in the magic stealer.”
“Well, it has more uses than that, but yes.” Cold Blue took the drink in his hand and sipped carefully. “Blood Diamond saw it the moment we entered the room. From then on he knew where the true power laid.”
“Are you saying she was going to kill that king?”
“No, the weapon was meant for herself. And in that lied the power.”
“Power, what kind of power is suicide?” Twilight threw out her hands, “Kill that monster!”
“And let all his kingdoms fall into chaos, killing millions more.” Cold Blue words struck Twilight back into her seat. “She has that knife because she knows could save herself and even ruin everything he built. Her death would show him to be a weak king and bring doubt from all his followers. For if he couldn't control his own wife, what control would he have over his kingdoms? She holds all the power.”
A new image of Blood Diamond appeared with the words. “Having power is a right! Whether by loyalty, rank, boundless magic prowess, or the desire to protect the ones you love. Power is a right that must be held in high regard and respect."
"If I were to save her, it would show her as the weak one, not him. His death would go down in glory while my actions would bring nothing but more shame and war to the alicorns.”
“Then why did she just end her life a long time ago?” Twilight questioned.
“Because luck was on her side.” He moved the image to King Ixion. “You still haven't noticed the biggest piece of all." He held the image of the king.
Slowly be surely Twilight came to realize the truth. "He... was dying..."
"Yes, dying for some time. It seems his several wars and bouts finally caught up with the false immortal. Her knife was the backup plan to humiliate him." Cold Blue brought the image back to the hippogriff mare and lower the screen to her gut. "However, she was also pregnant. Siring those children would be the only way to keep the kingdoms stable after his death. All she had to do was wait. Soon he would be dead and her children could rule in their place. Her power was in her will.”
“I... I see...” Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. However, she was still at a loss why he was showing her all of this. “I must understand. What does this have to do with me?”
“Everything but most of all your power.”
“What do you mean?”
Cold Blue removed the memory and played through Twilight's memories, “Much like her, you are chained down by responsibilities like teaching your student, Starlight, and returning home to your friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. However, you also have a duty to yourself, much like her. To either continue this journey through war and darkness or end it all right now.” The azoth dagger appeared in his hands, this time just as real as the dinner platter.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“The biggest reason you haven’t refined your dark magic is that you are still in conflict with these choices.” He slid the knife to her. “I sense it every time we fight. You can’t choose between surviving until freedom is in your grasp or ending it all ever so quickly.” Water magic lifted the knife into her hand. “Denying that choice is you denying your power. Stop disrespecting that power and use it.”
Twilight took the azoth dagger and held it close. For a solid second, she nearly brought it to her chest. A second of thought almost told her to end it right now and stab herself. Another thought echoed out just as loudly, telling her to live until she was home. Both thoughts echoed back and forth as her hands fought with the knife, bringing it closer before pushing it away.
The more she fought the choices, the more her frustrations became louder in this mindscape. Cold Blue could hear every thought she was having. The roaring, the screaming, and even the crying. The truth was right in front of her. Twilight soon saw the chains that were over her mind move like the chains over the hippogriff mare. She pulled back, trying to fight them, trying her best to deny the realities that were always haunting her.
"Why not choose already?" She stopped at a voice. She looked to her left and jumped back at the sight of Fluttershy.
"Yes, dear, this is just too frantic," Rarity's voice echoed out as her image appeared to Twilight's right.
"Be truthful with yourself already?" Applejack's image answered behind Twilight.
"Stop overthinking it, egghead!" Rainbow Dash's image slapped her in the shoulder.
"Just let it out!!" Pinkie Pie cheered the loudest.
"Please, we will be happy with whatever choice you make..." Spike's compact form held her hands up.
Twilight was brought to complete tears by everything around her. She had made their image appeared many times in this realm and even imagined them in the real world just as much, if not more. However, never had their images felt so real until now. She couldn't help but tear up at this sight and these feeling.
"So, Twilight, have you made your choice?" Cold Blue waited patiently for her to answer.
Twilight's eyes fell upon the azoth dagger. She gripped it tightly. "I... I... I want to live!!" Twilight shouted proudly.
A bright light shined out and engulfed the weapon. "Good, then I didn't waste time on getting this." Cold Blue's voice did little to shock Twilight's touch more than the weapon changed shaped into something else.
Twilight stood up and held the new weapon up as the light faded. It was an icy blue dagger with a twisted ivy vine grip and a branch wrapped around the purple gem on the bottom. "This isn't a memory."
"Kind of, I have an ally in the mindscape who can forge memories into reality." Cold Blue waved his hand over it and its blade changed shape. "Its blade changes shape with the holder. A gift... for you."
"You want me to have this?" She questioned.
"Yes." He nodded back and stood up as the tables and food vanished. "You can't exactly keep training with me completely weaponless--" He was stopped, and she rushed in and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you."
"..." Cold Blue was now the one surprised. "You're welcome..."
The two found themselves unable to break the hug for a sold minute. Twilight was just glad to finally reached an impasse. She had made a tough decision in coming to the mindscape and an even tougher decision to trap herself here for several centuries. However, this decision had become her toughest by far and she never realized that she had been making it since the very beginning.
The road ahead was already hard. However, at this moment, she was just glad to have someone by her side. She could place what this feeling was, but she was simply glad to have Cold Blue right here with her.
After days of traveling, the two airships finally came into sight of the new land. Despite arriving in the afternoon, they quickly found their light darkened by the sheer size of the structure. A mighty glass feature entrenched in the depths of the badlands.
It stood taller than any mountain in nearby sight. And seemed to dwarf the mountains in the distance. Two mighty kingdoms, encased in a giant blue hourglass, separated by height alone. The top, a kingdom of clouds and bliss. The bottom, canyons and pits.
"What is that?" Starlight's voice echoed over the intercom of the Titan Airship. "I thought we were here to see the pegasi and the batponies." She was on the other airship and was forced to talk through the voice box to communicate with the rest of the group.
"We are here to see the batponies and pegasi," Lady Cat answered. "Haven't you been here before?" She knew better than more since she was a batpony, after all.
"No, such a structure doesn't exist in my future." Starlight's words puzzled them greatly.
"Maybe it exists in a distinct form from what you are used to in your time," Starswirl the Bearded took away the intercom, hoping to correct any missing details between the two airships. Also, to ensure there wasn't any precognition from Starlight's words. "This is the two kingdoms of the batponies and pegasi. The clouds above are forged through a mix of magic and ancient technology that the pegasi have kept staple for several millennia. All supported but the super spires of earth within the canyons below where the batponies lay."
"And this is where we split up." Lord Red took over from there. "Starlight Glimmer, Silver Pear, Clovis the Coward, and I will head over upward to the Pegasus Ilse and meet with the pegasi directly. Meanwhile, Starswirl, Rex Moba, Clover the Clever, Captain Fredricson, Lady Cat, and the remaining sirens siblings will head down to the Batpony Canyons."
"How do we get past the glass?" Starlight questioned.
"Entrances lie at opposite sides at the waist of the hourglass," Lady Cat answered. "Normally, defenses would be on high around the larger portions of the structure so it's best to go for the narrower path."
"I've contacted them ahead of time," Lord Red answered. "However, we still need to show them we can be trusted."
"Yes, constant warring with the griffins has made trust a rare luxury for both species, even with each other." Starswirl confirmed.
"Danger has arrived either way. War has affected the unicorns, odds are the pegasi and the batponies won't be far behind." Rex answered them. He grew tired of the back and forth and closed the intercom. "Enough questions. We need to land."
"Fine, fine," Fredricson took command. He moved the titan airship down to the first entrances. The group knew they had a lot of work ahead of them.
The titan airship arrived at a metal port strange still between the canyons below and clouds above. Clover was just as curious as Starlight. She was the first to exit.
Fredricson wanted to follow but was stopped by Rex. The umburm held up his hand to stop him and asked, "Keep watch over the ship. Both of you." He remarked to Lady Cat as well.
"You will need a guide in this land," Lady Cat argued.
"Don't worry..." Rex turned away before answering. "I remember the way."
Starswirl exited the titan airship and noted the surrounding. At his side was a case containing the alathar. For now, Rex and Clover had been assigned to hunt down Twilight and Cold Blue. The old wizard was tasked with watching over the alathar in their possession. It was agreed that the center of the hourglass was the safest place for the alathar.
The interior was made of much stronger metal than the outside and systems of powerful magic was setup to seal the room and even the hourglass completely if danger arose. This gave the feeling of being more like a prison than a wall of pure safety. "In Starlight's time, most batponies live in a place called Canterlot. Alongside other ponies, like it's commonplace." The rest of this room was barren outside of a few desks, chairs, and a large safe. Two doors on opposite sides. The three reached the main desk and rang the bell.
"Sounds like things are better in the future," Clover commented.
"I thought you didn't want spoilers, you old wizard," Rex commented.
"Considering the rush we are in, I was a bit more flexible." Starswirl laughed. "Though, I only asked for the need to know information."
"Are you sure about this, Master?" Clover questioned as Starswirl took a seat.
The old wizard puffed in some cotton candy clouds, several books, and some drinks before finally answering her, "The pegasi know what we have and agreed once you have entered the Batpony Canyons, this area will be sealed off entirely from the world and will only open again once you are finished." Starswirl sighed in content. "Besides, Fredricson and Lady Cat will be just outside if I need more protection."
"I... I understand."
"So no answers on if we save her or not," Rex popped back.
"Don't be like that, Rex." Clover encouraged. "We will find her and save her. We just have to have faith."
"Faith?" Rex raised an eyebrow. "This coming from the mare who didn't want Twilight or her allies anywhere near the titan airship when they first arrived, let alone helping in the plans to stop this war."
"Well, I guess you could say recently I had to become flexible too." Clover kept a smile, but deep down, she was filled with fear. Not simply for Twilight's safety, but what Twilight meant to them now. She was from Rex's future, his family line. Clover wondered now more than ever. If there was a future for him, was Clover in it?
Starswirl could sense the fear in his former student's eyes as she stared at Rex from behind. "Strange how many things can change. Time is the thickest of fogs. Never can one see all of it, but they know it's there always waiting for them to step forward. What is truly going to happen isn't simply up to fate. It falls to the ones willing to take the next step forward."
"... Thank you," Clover whispered to herself. Though it had been a long time since she was his student, she was happy to know there were still more things he could teach her.
"No matter who's beside you, as long your friendship is strong, they won't leave your side forever," a voice echoed above them, answering their questions.
Their eyes raced to the sight of an intercom on the ceiling and a camera nearby it. A count down echoed out, leaving them confused.
"What's going on here?" Rex's shadows rose in defense.
"This place didn't do that last time I was here?" Starswirl questioned.
The count down ended. The thicker walls opened up and spears poked out. They reared back as if they were about to launch. In an instant, they were surrounded. Rex and Clover ran up to Starswirl as Rex's shadows swarmed around them.
"Friendship, that's a fine word worth its weight in gold," an unfamiliar voice entered the room through one door. The defense systems shut down.
The three turned their attention to the owner; a dark blue pegasus with a rainbow mane in a thick, large coat. Before he could do anything, Rex wrapped him in shadows.
"What's going on here?" Rex demanded.
"Wow, wow. Let me go and I will explain." the pegasus attempted to mend things.
"Explain what?" Clover argued back.
Starswirl didn't do a thing. Instead, he sat back in his chair and munched on some popcorn. He watched the two work from afar. Leaning back on a pink cloud, the old wizard enjoyed a cold cup of chocolate milk.
"My name is Rainbow Dartz!" the pegasus clarified. "I am an ally of Starlight and Twilight."
"Why are you here?" Rex remembered seeing the pegasus from afar back in that old village.
"Outside of being a pegasus--" Rainbow Dartz dropped his snark as Rex squeezed his shadows tighter. "Fine, fine, I was called back into duty."
"Hmm, why?"
"Because I know Twilight and Starlight. The pegasi saw this as useful so they called me back in weeks ago."
"Weeks ago...?" Rex released his grip as confusion fogged his mind. "Impossible, we only told them about Twilight yesterday."
"But they have been keeping tabs on things ever since the Night Brothers' escape," Rainbow Dartz corrected. "They fear the griffins allowed them to escape the prisons to harm them."
"Unlikely," Starswirl answered. "But I have seen little of my former students since they attacked me over two months ago."
"So you sent the packing?" Rainbow Dartz questioned.
"In a matter of speaking. Though, I doubt they will stay gone for long." Starswirl waved his hands back to Rex, hoping to get the conversation back on track.
"Fine, now what is your mission here?" Rex questioned the pegasus. "As you can see, we are not allied with those foolish hippogriffs."
Rainbow Dartz held out a piece of paper. "Order, are orders." He gave them a moment to read the paper before answering them. "I, Rainbow Haven Dartz Blitz, am commanded to escort your group to the lower levels."
"We don't need a guide." Rex crumbled up the paper and threw it at the pegasus' feet.
Rainbow Dartz deadpanned at this action, but picked it up anyway. "This is a mission of the trust. I am here to see if you can be trusted. Follow me or not, I am here simply to listen."
"Fine, you will listen to silence." Rex gave no more words and entered the elevator. Clover gave a sheepish sorry and followed behind.
Rainbow Dartz caved and entered the elevator. He didn't want to be anywhere near these kingdoms, let alone guiding others through them. What he desired now more than ever was a beer, but he was given a mission... by his sister, and he knew he would have to follow it.
*******
Miles below, in another part of the two kingdoms, screams echoed behind an opening as a doorway swung ajar. Aitym, still attached to his siren filly host, entered the room. He smiled in victory at the sights in front of him. After all this time, he had come face-to-face with his ally. Within the darkroom, he saw the sleeping heir of Indigo Frost inside a glass container.
"So this is where you've been hiding," Aitym commented as he stepped closer. He admires the technology mixed with magic. "Incredible how far the lesser species have come along in manipulating the ancient technology since I walked among them with my actual flesh."
"Though, I am annoyed to return to these two kingdoms after so long," Aitym grumbled as he closed the door behind him.
"I'm sorry, I haven't clarified why I'm here," Aitym mocking answered a question that never came as he bowed to the sleeping beast. "I wonder how long you'll be sleeping and keeping me waiting. Oh, how things must feel from your perspective." He stepped right up to the glass structure. "I truly don't know the point of this device," He dragged the small frail fingers of the siren filly along its surface. "Thule says it strengthens you. All I know is it isolates you from this world."
The screams above intensity, making Aitym laugh. "Do you hear that, Frost? Those are your servants are falling your command. As we speak, they are near completion of the Dark City. Gathering quite a stockpile of soldiers and the dead."
Again, Indigo Frost did not give an answer. Instead, he stayed deep in his slumber. "How many do you desire for your army? How long will you continue to slumber under these travesties? And how long do you wish for me to imprison and manipulate Twilight Sparkle and Cold Blue?"
Aitym stopped the claws of the siren filly as the doors behind him reopened. Thule stepped inside, halting all advances. The alicorn hid deep within the flesh of his host against the sight of the rotting corpse's approach.
"I thought you were watching over the time egg?" Thule questioned Aitym's reasoning for being here.
"Once formed, the egg can maintain itself until hatching. All I need to do is scan it every few hours." Aitym tried to change the subject. "However, since I was free, I figured I could get some questions cleared up."
"What do you mean?" Thule posed, "Aren't we all the light in his darkness. The path needed to achieve his dream." He held his hand out to Indigo Frost. "For his father and mother, for the ones who raised him and the ones he leads into battle."
"And yet questions exist. I simply desire the questions to be answered and I will return to my duties."
Both Thule and Aitym were the oldest beings in the group by many, many millennia. They knew more knowledge than any other, especially with the plan and its effects on the group and the heir laying within the room. They needed to trust each other completely, yet Aitym found himself, the light in a darkness of unknowns.
"Secrets are not needed--"
"Exactly, so stop dodging and answer me these questions." Aitym made his frustrations clear and the rotting corpse finally gave signs of conceding. "Good, now first, why was I not told Twilight was an alicorn?"
"We wish to see her ascension to darkness. Her being an alicorn should have been obvious."
"Okay. Second, what about Starswirl's involvement? He cost me my previous host."
"That was a necessity because of his immunity to certain alathar like the Eye of the King."
"An item he could claim over me!" Aitym made his anger known. "Last question, and this is the biggest one."
"What?" Thule raised an eyebrow, wondering what he could mean.
"What purpose does Cold Blue serve?" Aitym smiled at Thule's hesitation. "Hmm, a strange answer to give. Is it because of his species...?" Aitym stepped closer and repeated his question louder. "What role does Cold Blue play in the plan? I know he's a siren and they all hold a certain disdain in the heir's heart, but why? I'm allowed to use these hosts in any way I please and yet you wanted me to bring in a siren I'm not even allowed to touch... why?" Aitym got right in the rotting corpse's face, fighting the stench and horror just to make his demands clear.
Thule kept his silence for a solid minute before answering. "The siren named Cold Blue is not important to the plan--"
"Good," Aitym interrupted, "Because I'll be needing a new body soon. Unlike you, I prefer to not let these things rot--" Aitym was stopped by a giant tentacle from Thule's back. "Careful, you don't want to rip that body apart already."
"I..." Thule calmed himself. "I wasn't finished."
"Fine..." Aitym stopped. "Continue."
"The siren named Cold Blue is not important to the plan, but he is important to Twilight Sparkle."
The eyes of the siren filly widened in confusion. "The alicorn. I know she is important to the plan but what does her feelings have to do with the plan."
"Her feelings?" Thule looked back at Aitym with even more confusion. "Do you know her feeling?"
"Through the time egg, I have been watching her for nearly fourteen hundred years. I've known her far longer than you have."
"And you know so little about her and the one beside her known as Cold Blue," Thule smiled more boldly. "If you cannot see the truth yet, then I can't help you. Twilight is an important piece in the plan, therefore the siren is also an important piece of the plan."
Aitym narrowed the siren filly's eyes and conceded. "Fine, I will return to my post. But I expect a new body soon, whether it's another siren filly or something else altogether." He walked out of the room, keeping his true thoughts to himself. He had far more questions to answer, but he knew he couldn't get them from Thule. So he decided he was getting them elsewhere.
******
Back above, the elevator slowly descended. The three stood in silence for a solid hour before the pegasus couldn't take it anymore. "It's been a long time since I've been down there." Rainbow Dartz looked up instead of down toward their destination.
"The pegasi don't visit their closest neighbor that often, or just you?" Clover questioned.
"No, more like it's been a while since I really had a reason to go down there. We keep connections with the batponies cuz they are one of the few that can face us evenly with the griffins. They are the ones we trust the most in our endless war."
"I didn't know that battles still going on."
"The battles can last from morning to night. Even after many centuries, the warring is far from showing signs of ending."
"They are far older than that," Rex corrected. "When I left these lands as a child, sparks of war echoed on all sides." He traced his fingers along the walls of the elevator. "Truthfully, I'm surprised the technology my species left your kind is still intact."
"Your species?" Rainbow Dartz questioned.
"The original owners of this giant hourglass. The umbrums." Rex's words silenced the pegasus's questions about him.
"Why would they kill each other for so long?" Clover changed the subject.
"Killing isn't the right word to put it." Rainbow Dartz posed. "The pegasus and the batponies cannot get along with each other, but to both of them the griffins are worse."
"Any enemy of my enemy."
"Exactly." They reach the bottom of the elevator and Rainbow Dartz presented them with the pathway, not even looking ahead. The others stopped in their tracks. Clover's eyes widened and Rex narrowed his sight at the oblivious pegasus. "When was the last time somepony visited the Batpony Canyons?"
"I was told around a month ago--" Rainbow Dartz finally faced forward and was stopped cold at the sight of a corpse lying in front of the elevator entrance.
On the far side of the giant blue hourglass, Lord Red’s airship came into sight of the entrance to the Pegasus Ilse. Starlight was so curious that she stuck her head out the window to take the winds and sights. A stark contrast from the heavy metal opening that led to the Batpony Canyons. Graceful light blues and kind yellow colors walls greeted them. While the lower dome was so foggy, the upper dome was so clear they could nearly see a mile inside it without even entering. Thousands of fluffy clouds held many buildings of ice as far as the eye could see.
“This place is even more beautiful than the Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus of my time.” Starlight covered her mouth of pure reaction. In the back of her mind, her teacher’s words were scolding her for speaking of the future. She stopped upon remembering she had already spoken of a lot more than her teacher would have allowed.
“Get your head inside!” Clovis the Coward complained. “Show at least some respect for the pegasi as we enter their lands.”
“Leave omnious pony alone,” Lord Red smiled at Starlight’s actions as she brought her head back inside.
While her thoughts of her teacher buzzed through her head, Starlight’s eyes came upon the one now advising her like a teacher in Twilight’s stead. Lord Red, the one seeking judgment for Twilight Sparkle was now helping her. She was still unsure about trusting him. But just as she found herself forthcoming with facts of the future so was he. For the longest time in her travels she never fully understood why beings in multiple timelines called her by these names: Omnious, Omni-pony, Omnious Pony. He spoke of her future, the clash of their fates but not what it meant to him or her, or what she needed to be ready for whenever that day finally came.
“Master, I don’t know why you are so kind to her?” Clovis worded himself carefully to ensure he did his best to not sound like he was berating Lord Red.
“Because she is a useful value,” his words varied every time, but he always put stock in Starlight completely. Starlight didn’t want to trust him, but his words brought such calmness to her especially lately.
Silver Pear was a different matter. As the entrance got closer, the earth pony found fear gathering in his spine. Starlight caught onto this pretty well, tapping him on the back, making him shake wildly. “Don’t do that lovely, we are about to… to…”
“Land?” Starlight’s answer for him was stopped as the airship shook. It connected to the entrance, and the doors opened. “Ha, ha! How the tables have turned?”
“What are you talking about?” Silver Pear boasted toward the doorway. “I’ve done fine in the airship plenty of times. Remember how I acted on the Titan Airship."
“Yes, but your fears aren't toward the airships at all but our destination.” She pushed him out and laughed at his falling.
Silver Pear screamed in fear, not realizing Starlight kept him in her magic the whole time. He stared blankly at the clouds and the soft floor of the entrance. “I don’t want to die like this?!”
“Calm down.” Starlight sat him on the cold floor. “You’re not even going up to the kingdom above.”
“I’m not.” Sliver Pear stood up in perplexity.
“Indeed, due to earth ponies' weakness to the clouds, my master deeded you would be the one staying behind to watch over the airship.” Clovis practically snarked as he passed by them, exiting the airship with no fear. A bold attempt at mocking them from the infamous coward.
“Don’t worry, he can hang out with us!” A green blur ran by and knocked Clovis to the ground.
A familiar griffin ran up and picked Silver Pear off the ground. “It is nice to see you, again. You have found some strange new friends since you have been gone from our sweet little town.” The griffin spoke so fast that Silver Pear could barely understand a single word.
However, the jibberish was clear enough for the earth pony to realize the obvious. “Hermes, what are you doing here?” Silver Pear cheered.
“We’re tagged along with Rainbow Dartz.”
“We--” Silver Pear was overjoyed to see Red Steel here as well. It was surprising at all ends.
“Wait, you said, Rainbow Dartz?” Starlight questioned through her own laughter.
“He was summoned by his sister to deal with something important,” Hermes spoke even faster, making Starlight slow down the voice with a simple spell.
“Could you repeat that?”
“I said, Rainbow Dartz was summoned by his sister more than a month ago!!” He screamed, not used to the spell. “We went with him, but due to me being a griffin, we have been stuck out here ever since!!”
Starlight rubbed her ears in annoyance. “Okay, okay. I heard you!”
“I guess I’ll keep you two company,” Silver Pear conceded.
“Come on, there is a bar in the waiting room!”
“What?!” Starlight was just as perplexed now, too.
Hermes dragged Starlight and Silver Pear away before another word could be given. Lord Red smirked at the actions and the complete ignorance of him and Clovis. However, soon enough, Lord Red followed slowly behind.
Deep within the hallways was something totally unexpected. Starlight’s eyes went wide at the sight of a luxurious wooden bar built into the side of the entrance. Standing in defiance of the graceful blues and kind yellows was the soft calming brown wooden establishment known as Crooked Wings. Named as such by the broken giant wings that adorned above the front doors.
Starlite felt anxious under them, yet she couldn't discern why. It was a strange feeling like something deep within her told her to both respect them and fear them. She moved carefully under them, following the others.
Lord Red also noticed them but for another reason. A sense of familiarity echoed within him as he caked the dust off. "Surprising how much time has passed since then."
Inside sound music played which matched well with the peaceful environment. Inside was a soft golden wood with small traces of green draping the top in the ceiling. Tables were a rougher darker wood and sitting beside them were many species. The arrangement almost reminded Starlight of her times with the Wolf's Apple. Joy filled up in her as she reached the front bar. Hermes waved over the bartender, " oh oh can we get some drinks?"
"We don't exactly have time for that," silver pear joked. "Aren't we busy with a mission?" He was in a much better mood to be on much more Solid Ground even if it was just wood.
"Yeah but..." Starlights stopped. Her eyes traced over the Lord Red.
"No, it's fine." Lord red placed down some money. " I'll cover the first round myself."
"Just don't overdo it," Clovis commented as he took a seat.
The bartender came over. It was a pegasus with soft gray hair folded all the way back and brown fur. He wore a white jumpsuit and red overalls. "Hello, I'm the Red Baron, the current owner of this fine establishment, but you can call me Peppy, and this here is my pet rabbit, Hare." He pointed a rabbit walking over to them with the notes the bartender needed to take their order.
"Peppy, Hare? Huh, what do you recommend?" Silver Pear questioned.
"The barrel roll: one and a half ounces white gin, one-fourth ounces spice liqueur, half an ounce pineapple juice, one ounce clarified coconut water and a few drops of vanilla bitters." The bartender took pride in explaining it. "Your griffin friend has already gulped down ten of them." Hermes's laughter echoed over him.
"Great..." Starlight laughed with the echo. "At least, he isn't drunk..." Her sarcasm with laid on thick. "I'll take just one."
"Same," Silver Pear repeated.
"Hard root beer," Clovis asked.
"And I'll take a Bloody Deacon," Lord Red answered.
"Wow, it's been a while since somepony has ordered that beast of a drink." Peppy left to make the drinks.
After a few moments, Starlight got curious about the strange name, "Bloody Deacon?" She questioned.
"Oh, a simple drink of hot sauce and absinthe with a stick of bacon to stir."
"Powerful stuff," Silver Pear commented.
"Yes," Lord Red nodded at the bartender as he brought the drinks over. "Stronger than my preference but I thought it was suitable to take in his favorite drink after seeing them."
"Them?" Silver Pear was now just as curious.
"The wings outside..." Clovis deadpanned as he took his hard root beer."
“Yes,” Lord Red confirmed. “Those are not pegasus wings."
"What? No way, I thought they were just a design choice, you know like the wolf head on the Wolf's Apple?!" Hermes's laughter echoed in the background again as he quickly gulped down another barrel roll.
"Close, very close," Lord Red was able to keep up with the griffin's quickfire words. "This place was once known as Red Angel High. However, things changed several millennia ago when those very real wings were mounted."
"Wow, this place is that old," Starlight took her first drink of the barrel roll. She quickly pulled back at its intense sweetness.
"An ancient alicorn, one of the oldest in existence had a laboratory near this area. He was in alliance with the pegasi, the batponies, the umbrums, and even the griffins."
"In fact, I head, it was this alicorn who helped the umbrum design the giant hourglass itself," Clovis commented.
"Yes, so the rumors say. He would come here every day and enjoy this same drink." Lord Red held up the drink, carefully mixing the bacon. "He would enjoy it with royalty, friends, and even common folk. All trusted and revered him." Lord Red took the bacon out and gave it a quick bite before continuing. "But, unbeknownst to the four species, the mysterious alicorn had been kidnapping ponies and committing experiments on them."
"All while visiting this hub of kindness and grace, drinking in the claiming wood as if it was normal. He was even praised among the patrons despite the horror he committed in the shadows." Clovis spoke with disdain toward the depiction as if this alicorn highly offended him.
"That's terrible," Starlight felt uneasy to the point that the sweetness of the barrel roll no longer bothered her.
"It is even believed by some that his experiments led to the birth of freak species like the changelings," Clovis gave his final comment.
"What happened to this alicorn?"
"A clever trickster leaked the truth to all four species. A war broke out so strong that even the other alicorns got involved. They hunted him down to this very pub fought him and defeated him." Lord Red pointed to the doorway and the sight of old rusted bolts hanging above it. "In the end, his body was chained down to the front of the bar and his wings were ripped off by the very pegasus and batponies that served him so loyally. Despite escaping, his body was later imprisoned within a blue crystal amulet with his soul left to wander the world. The alicorn... abandoned and forgotten by all." Lord Red held the drink up to the direction of the wings and took a drink in honor of it. "After that, the bar was rebranded. The wings were held above as the biggest victory for the pegasi and the batponies. From that point on the two species have been in an unbreakable alliance."
The ending of the story brought pride to Starlight. She was impressed by the two species' determination to never break something forged under such dire reasons. She held up her drink and nodded the others to do the same. "Okay, to that I suggest a toast to the pegasi and batponies." The others followed her actions. "They've faced far greater terrors than I ever had. Hopefully, the coming talk of peace proved to be just as fruitful."
"Yeah!!" They all cheered and toasted.
******
Down below in the Batpony Canyon, a soft beeping cooed out within a hospital room. The weak and frail Princess Platinum laid upon a bed unconscious. She was hooked up to several machines. Vanity, the loyal ifrit doctor to Frost's armies, was doing whatever she could to keep the unicorn alive. Never before had she seen such heavy wounds. "This is going to take all of my painkillers. And I need it more for myself..."
She examined the shoulders of the princess once more. Though the arms were gone, the shoulders had finally sealed up. "That's good, less work to deal with. Hopefully, she doesn't fuss. I should be able to remove the stitches now." She grabbed her scalpel and slowly cut each string before pulling out the staples with a pincer. The princess and her unconsciousness struggled in pain. Luckily the strap kept her down. "Careful! I'm not as good at this work as my grandmother was when she removed your wings."
The door opened, and another ifrit walked in, "I would like to meet this grandmother if she's that good."
“Hello Sage, are you done with your politics above?"
"Not quite, though things would be easier if I wasn't dealing with a bunch of mindless monsters."
“They're not completely mindless they just now have a different understanding than before." Vanity leaned back against the table, cleaned up her tools, and pulled off her gloves.
"I guess that's a better way to put it." Sage’s eyes wandered over to the vase filled with ashes. "Have you found a use for it yet?"
"Truthfully, I'm unsure why Lord Frost told us to bring it. But I guess it is better than leaving it with that family of mine."
"They never respected your sibling." Sage took a chair, walking around the city was getting tiresome on him.
"More like they could not trust her life choices?"
"Trust... ever since I've started working with Lord Frost, my perceptions on trust have changed greatly." Sage posed what they were both thinking. "I'm unsure whether we can trust him anymore."
"We owe our allegiance to him," Vanity clarified. "He said he would help us complete our dreams."
"Yes, he said we all will have a use in the plan." Sage crossed his arms more annoyed. "But what is my use? You fix up the bodies, Carnival spreads his will, but what is my use."
"I would assume the alathar. After all, it was your family that watched over our species' piece." Vanity's eyes leered over to a certain direction knowing that the pedestal was in that direction. "And yet we know nothing on the readouts of the current alathar."
"Thule knew where the Heart of Darkness was supposed to be. So why is it missing now? And if he knew about this one, why doesn't he find the others on his own?!" Sage's frustrations got louder.
Vanity walked over to Sage and cupped his hands in her's. "I understand your frustration. But, Thule is an ancient being far more ancient than anything we ever heard of," Vanity posed. "Many things might have changed between the time of them being placed and the time of our search."
"Some of them but not all of them. That makes even lesser sense." Sage pointed it out. "I'm unsure what kind of creature Thule even is. An octopus, squid, or some sort of tentacle abomination." He pulled it off in another direction. "And what's with that other being. The mysterious alicorn hiding in the flesh of a siren filly." Sage was sickened by the words he was using but it was a reality he had to accept.
"I'm unsure on that thing either I only know it by a name... a name that keeps changing." Vanity step around Sage and behind his chair. "What I do know is we can at least trust each other in this." She placed her arms over the sides of the chair. The closeness brought warmth to both of them. They were beings of fire, after all, they didn't exactly enjoy the coldness of these canyons but lately. They've been needing to depend on each other more than any other. "Let's forge a friendship, no, something stronger."
Sage conceited, "I will stay if you will stay."
******
Rainbow Dartz's eyes widened at the sight of a dead griffin of medium size in front of the elevator. The three carefully exited around the corpse. Rex inspected the griffin closely. He had seen plenty of grizzlier scenes through his visions of death, more than the other two but even this scene left him shocked.
The griffin wings were broken in many places and twisted into a seemingly nonsensical range of directions. A knife had cut both its arms and face up; the beak itself had torn off the jaws. Yet brutal force alone clearly didn't match the broken wings. "No grip marks..." He noted aloud. "His attacker didn't break these wings but clearly fought against the face and arms."
"What? That makes no sense at all.?" Rainbow Dartz was just was concerned. "Maybe they were broken through magic?"
Rex's horn glowed. "There is a magical signature, but not..." Rex stopped his scan and pulled back in fear. "Impossible..."
"What's wrong?" Clover rushed over as Rex fell back. She jumped as much as she felt the trembling through his body.
"Very ancient magic... Something I haven't felt for millennia." Rex adjusted himself and stood strong. "What happened here?" he demanded the pegasus to answer.
"I don't know?" Rainbow Dartz looked back and forth between the gruesome scene and the elevator. "We have been at war with griffins for so very long and yet..."
Rex caught onto what he was thinking. "If this griffin got in, what made him run away?" He turned his attention to the rest of the pathway.
The first hallway was just as opaque and clean as the upper hallway was. The only distinction was the body lying in front of them and the small smears of blood on the floor leading to it. Not much changed beyond it other than more hallways. Before things were empty, now this scene had presented more eeriness. Rex leered back at the pegasus. Trust had faded completely in his eyes. Even if the pegasus was telling the truth, there was no way to know if anything he said afterward could be useful.
"Return to your kind. I and Clover shall go on ahead on our own."
"Do you really expect me to leave after seeing this?" Rainbow Dartz argued back.
"Your mission is complete. Leave now."
"No, I cannot--" The pegasus was stopped when he saw Rex's chains flow out around him.
"We need as much help as we can get," Clover placed her hand on Rex's shoulder.
"He'll provide nothing and only slow us down."
Clover caved, "While I agree he won't have much information on this attack, he does have more information on Twilight than we do." She found herself hesitating at speaking the next part. "Despite having been around her for over two months, I'm ashamed to say we know so little about her... personally." Seeing her reasoning wasn't getting through to him she tried to rephrase it, "Rainbow Dartz, what would Twilight do in the situation?"
"There were others among us that knew her better. To me, it always seemed like she would scan every detail in a situation."
"I already have scanned every detail. You are not needed here." Rex turned away.
"And she would certainly not abandon a friend." Rainbow Dartz affirmed.
"... fine." Rex conceded and retracted his chains. "You will accompany us. However, if my visions prove your death I will not save you." the umbrum's words were so cold that it actually made the pegasus backtrack at least one step.
Yet Rainbow Dartz held his ground where he could. "Shall I continue leading you forward?"
"Please do," Clover asked kindly.
They made their way through the main building to the outside. Yet no matter which hallway they took or what rooms they saw there was more and more dead. Pegasi, batponies, and even other griffins. Just like the previous body bones were broken and twisted and had strange directions that made no sense at all. Their assortment was even more bizarre. They laid in random directions with an unclearness on whether they were running away or charging forward. They didn't appear to be slaughtered in large amounts, rather it was like they were each individually killed.
It wasn't even clear which ones were killed first, and which ones were last. Decomposition made no sense at all as some parts of their bodies were fresh and others parts were rotting and peeling away. The scenes were even arranged randomly in their graphicness, some more instant kills others were far more grizzly. And yet no matter how many they found they couldn't discern the cause or even if they were defending or being attacked. Deaths also varied, just like with the Griffin; some were broken beyond repair, others seem to be chopped up, some were stabbed over and over, and others were blunt force trauma, especially on the skull.
Despite the variations in all of them, one thing was exactly the same. This strange magic was completely unfamiliar to both the pegasus and unicorn, yet to Rex it brought fear. He knew he had sensed this magic before but he could not place where he had sensed it last. Nor could he place what this magic was even called. It was if everything within him was telling him to forget everything he saw and sensed. Not to run away, but to deny the magic's very existence.
Soon enough, they reached the exit. Opening the door revealed the outside was just as grizzly as the inside. Another thing that finally became more noticeable now than they were outside was the complete lack of sound. "No birds are chirping, not even crows and vultures are feasting. The wind is not even gusting and the air is stale with the smell of so much blood."
"Impossible," Rainbow Dartz noted. "There are vents throughout the giant hourglass that allows air to go through effortlessly. Even hurricane-like winds can sometimes get in."
"I know my kind created those vents." Rex looked up in multiple directions. "Vents in the north, east, west, and south." Each direction only brought more staleness to his nose. The smell of blood was almost getting poisonous like in its thickness.
"Could they be sealed?" Clover asked.
"Possibly, but that would take a lot of magic." Rex leered back of the pegasus.
"Especially if the pegasi themselves didn't know what was going on down here." Rainbow Dartz confirmed.
"Maybe they do know and you are just not told everything," Rex mocked. "You have been gone for a long time."
"... That is very likely," Clover agreed.
"Either way, we won't get answers from this city." Rex didn't need to scan much of the side of the surrounding building. "All of them are shredded and covered in bodies."
"We can't stay here long. We should find the nearest city with any sign of life."
"Which direction is the capital?" Clover asked the pegasus.
"Întuneric? Its..." Rainbow Dartz took a moment to think back.
"Ten miles due east," Rex answered for him. "It's been a few thousand years but am I still right?"
"Yes, more or less." With that last word the three left in that direction. It was unclear what else they might find. But what was clear was more chaos and even more darkness lay ahead of them. And yet they did not know what they left behind.
Back with the griffin, the first creature they found strewn apart. A soft echo finally broke the silence. It repeated with a more harsh echo. And then another far louder echo. The source was coming from the wings as they moved without warning. They twisted and broke even more. The movement was far more erratic and random, but there was some sense as they stabbed into the ground and pushed the body upward. Despite being long-dead the wings had unknown holds of strength still left. They pushed more and more, breaking with the force of the body's weight. The eyes of the corpse popped open and an insidious roar bellowed out.
The overall view of the Batpony Canyons was very different from most lands. Where other places had their houses, palaces, or even cities on solid flat ground, the batponies were forced to opt for a difference in structure, style, and especially placement. Every city, every palace, and even the smallest of houses were built into the sides of massive canyon pillars reaching several miles from the bottom of the misty crater that held the giant hourglass, to above the clouds. The only thing that stopped it was the halfway point of the giant hourglass and the thick icy ceiling that capped off the Pegasi Isle.
The batpony cities were found on nearly every surface of the walls, but never reached the top or bottom as those lands were owned by either the pegasi or the long lost umbrums. As such the batponies were split between two separate realities. One in which they were loyal allies with the pegasi or one where they lived in remembrance of the lost umbrums. Most didn't question their place and even less dared to wander outside of their city limits, let alone move across the many ancient walkways the umbrums abandoned.
Rex knew all these points well, but being away from this land for so long only made things more obvious. He couldn't rely solely on his memories anymore as they continued to find dead ends and broken paths. However, they continued nonetheless. Using Rainbow Dartz flight only when they needed to as they didn't want to waste energy. Clover posed entering some of the small villages along the way but every time either blockade of traps or the sensing of the strange magic would stop them. They continued onward with signs of hope quickly fading by the hour.
Their search for the correct path pushed them on longer than they wanted. But as they slowly got closer, they found more disturbing corpses. It was clearly not all the cities had been affected by this... attack, but the ones that were, completely void of life. And with the amount only increasing in the same east direction they were going, it quickly became clear to assume they were heading straight into the source of this evil.
"How much further?" Clover jumped over another broken pathway.
"Another mile at least," Rainbow Dartz assured them.
"That the same distance it was two hours ago," she complained.
"I can see the pillar attached to the city from up here. Reaching it is just the bigger problem."
"Agreed," Rex commented. "Neither one of us are masters of teleportations so simply knowing where it is won't help. Besides," He stopped at the sight of another body. "We should really confirm our assumptions before entering what could easily be a trap."
"Good point." Clover thought for a moment, "Why not bring the Titan Airship down here."
"Seems reasonable, but first we will need to take down the defense systems." Rex leered at the glass wall in the distance.
"That's impossible, those defenses have been up for thousands of years. And even if you could, that would be insane?!" Rainbow Dartz defiantly spoke. "Those are there for a reason."
"And what reason is that?" Clover questioned, "The pegasi are at war with the griffins, yet the titan airship lies on the opposite side." She faced Rex, "Can't you release it on just one side?"
Rex turned to his shadows. "My species were the ones who designed those defenses long ago. However, it was to keep a far greater danger out. I don't recall what the danger was, but it's clear now," He presented the body as evidence. "That this protection proved utterly pointless."
"So you can drop it?"
"Yes, but only for a moment."
"How?" Rainbow Dartz questioned, making his doubts all the clearer with his louder voice.
Rex narrowed his eyes at the pegasus... or rather his shadow. Rushing to it without warning, he stabbed his chain. "Pegasus, cast your shadow as close to the walls as possible."
Rainbow Dartz felt a twitch flow through his entire body, starting from the very point that matched up to where Rex had stabbed his shadow. "Fi... Fine." He strained his wings. He still didn't know what the umbrum had planned. Little did the pegasus know that the chain kept a tight grip over his shadow the entire time. The further he flew the more it stretched outward.
Clover gave a small laugh at the sight of it. "He looks like a dog on a chain."
"It's a form of tether magic. I needed to be as close to the walls as possible to shut the defenses down." He held his hand over his shadow and the black moved like water. "Now, Fredricson, answer me." The image of the captain slowly formed.
******
In another place within the Batpony Canyons, annoyance grew between two familiar ifrits. Vanity had been watching the monitor for Princess Platinum more closely as the hours went on. It's seemed like she was getting better at first but the last ten minutes had filled her machines with rabid noise. The princess didn't seem to be in pain but rather her mind and body were in constant movement.
"These dark magic users are so confusing." She noted every detail. Unfortunately, it was hard to keep up with the numbers as they were moving faster than any patient she ever had before, "This is madness." She tried to keep a smile.
"Being in this place is maddening. I hate it, all of it." Sage hit the window.
"You should embrace the madness. Lord Frost said you are just as monstrous as the rest of us."
"Like what?" Sage stepped closer, his rage increasing with each next phrase. "A clown preacher with a sex fetish, hippogriff brothers who feast on souls to survive, an ancient alicorn hiding in the body of a child, a tentacle abomination, a severe drug addict, or a dual gendered mistake." He pointed his rage at the vase. "I... I'm sorry," he quickly apologized for that last comment.
"See... you are a monster." She turned away from him, popping more of her pills regardless of what he said.
"How am I a monster?!" His rage returned in full force. "They forced me into capturing my friends, I was forced to watch them rip each other apart. I betrayed them."
"They weren't your friends, they were your tools," another voice entered the room.
Sage backtracked upon seeing their lord, and master's face imaged within red snowflakes. They had entered the room through the crack Sage made on the window. "Lord... Frost." His eyes widened as the words his lord said replayed in his head. "No, they were my friends... and you killed them."
"No, politicians don't have friends. They have tools to help them succeed in life."
Lord Frost's words struck to the core of Sage's mind. Scenes, actions, and things he had done throughout the years replayed through his head over and over. At the same time, all he could repeat was, "No, you're lying... You're lying... You're lying..."
"Think about it. Have you ever had a real friend?" Lord Frost flowed closer lowering himself to Sage's height. "The ifrits you met in your college, no, simply allies to get you the right places and meet the right kinds of ifrits with the much better power. The many wives you've had before, no, they were no different than whores to you." His words broke Sage down to his knees yet he wouldn't stop. "The sponsors you've held to keep your position and power, the children you've hugged to show off how good and kind you are so no one second guess you are the big mistakes you've kept hidden. How about the honest souls who voted for you, hoping your words could help them at every turn when all of it was just lies." Lord Frost presented the truth to Sage and it crumbled him down completely.
"That's not true!" Sage waled in defiance. "They were my friends..."
The wendigo presented himself, "I've had friends, Vanity has had friends, even Carnival in his twistness has had friends. But you Sage, don't have friends at all."
"No, that's not true," Sage fell back only for Vanity to catch him.
Lord Frost took the ifrit's hand and placed it in Vanity's before wrapping them both in red snowflakes. "Don't worry. You don't need to worry anymore. I will be your friend. Vanity will be a friend. See us as tools as much as you like but soon enough you will see us as friends." He clutched Sage's and Vanity's hands closer. "Take as much time as you need to understand real friendship. We have many things to teach you."
Lord Frost turned away from Sage when he was ready. Flowing over to the bed he looked at Princess Platinum. He noted her wounds and scars. Groups of snowflakes left his forms and flowed over where her arms used to be.
"What are you doing?"
"An experiment." The snowflakes carved into the flesh and reached the bones. The machine gave the louder buzz of all. "Hold her down Vanity."
"What?" The doctor barely had any time to process what was happening before the body shook violently.
"Now!" He roared.
"Right!" She rushed over and pushed the princess down. "Sage grab her legs." He didn't question anymore either and hurried over to help her.
"These snowflakes will connect to her normal magic and become her new arms until her dark magic stabilizes." He pointed out as the snowflakes slowly formed new maroon red limbs. "Once I am finished, bring her the time. He and her mother will take over from there." With that final word, the new arms solidified.
The wendigo again vanished back through the window just as quickly as he appeared. Sage and Vaniity got no more words from him on his reasoning or what he was even doing. They didn't even know when he woke up just to do this or why he left just as quickly. The strange quick interaction left them both very confused. Despite that, they took his words to heart and followed his orders nonetheless.
******
Back on the titan airship things were calming down with the siren fillies. Nighttime would soon arrive so Lady Cat was taking the last check on them. She entered the room quietly and admire the two. They were fast asleep, so cute clutching onto the picture of all three of them. A disheartened Lady Cat noted that Sonata Dusk was the only one missing. She could only hope this mission would bring them that much was closer to reuniting them. Lady Cat carefully removed the picture to ensure they didn't damage it in their sleep and replaced it with a goat plushie Starswirl had left for them. That old wizard was trying his best to reunite them so all she could do was wait.
"Burp!!" a loud belch echoed down the hallway. Lady Cat facepalmed and hoped the children wouldn't awake. She smiled at their silence and quietly exited the room. Once the door was closed, she stomped her way to the source of the echoes.
It was followed by slurping and gargling. Lady Cat huffed in annoyance and hurried down the hallway. Seeing Fredricson chugging down a beer rather loudly she was quick to remove it from his hands. "Will you quiet down?!"
"Sorry, I thought it was break time finally."
"It will be when you don't wake them!" She sat down beside him. Lady Cat smiled at him before stealing a drink from his beer.
"Not fair..." He grumbled and pulled out two more.
"Like you care what's fair," She gave a soft laugh and wrapped one arm around him. Taking another swing she relaxed. "I am starting to see what my sister saw in child care."
"Really?" he questioned.
"Yeah." She leaned her head against his.
"Yeah..." he grumbled, "I'm not giving you one."
"What?!" She nearly screamed. "Like I want one!"
"Oh..." He wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic there or not. The room got quiet as he clearly didn't get her other hint. Lady Cat huffed and crawled over him, straddling his belt. "Oh!" He hummed upon realizing.
"Not wanting one doesn't mean I don't want to have fun trying!" She laughed and leaned down to his lips. The two locked mouths and wrestled in the chair, pulling at each other's clothes. Not even waiting for everything to be off before the chair started rocking.
"Am I interrupting something?" another voice entering the room stopped them cold. "Fredricson, retreat or at least cover up!!" the voice roared bringing them to attention.
The two lovers slowly turned their heads to the source of the voice. It was coming from Fredricson's own shadow. Lady Cat went beet red and pulled her corset back up. "What the fuck? Rex?!" She screamed at the image of the umbrum.
"Your timing is horrible..." Fredricson took another swing of his beer.
"I know," Rex leered away from the image. "I'm about to use my connections to the old umbrum magic to disable the defense systems for a few minutes. During this time teleport the Titan Airship inside the Batpony Canyons side of the giant hourglass."
"What about Starswirl?"
"Leave him up there. The alathar will be safer there, anyway."
"According to the map details you left, there should be two alathar in the Batpony Canyons."
"Now I'm unsure on both accounts. Either way, bring the Titan Airship and the map to the land just outside the capital."
"What about Front Station where the elevator is?"
"Everyone in Front Station is already dead." Rex's words for so cold to them he sent out his arm and shadows flew off in every direction from him. Images they saw sickened both of them instantly.
"So are several other cities," Clover confirmed. "We are unsure how far the attack spread or even what happened. We need you to land just outside the capital in case we need more weapons and supplies."
"And hurry, things are getting more confusing by the second," Rainbow Dartz answered in the distance of the image. "We're closer than I thought."
"What do you mean--" Rex was stopped from asking the pegasus by an unknown sight just beyond him, "...Impossible..."
"What happening?" Lady Cat questioned.
"Rex?!" Fredricson shouted as light consumed the image.
"Get here now!" Those were the last words given as static consumed the image.
"... understood," the two lovers answered in unison. As the image in the shadow slowly vanished both of them grumbled loudly before forcing their clothes back on.
******
Meanwhile, Rex, Clover, and Rainbow Dartz were left utterly confused. The previous scenes had left them shaken and disturbed. But now they were left even more confused than ever. There was no blockade or traps anywhere. The pathway was now completely opened the moment Rex dropped the defense systems.
The capital was suddenly right in front of them. With not a flash or even a disturbance of the air, the image of the city just appeared. They arrived at the capital. However, there was no sign of carnage at all. The batponies were moving around peacefully unhindered and undisturbed by the insidious events just outside of their sight.
"How did we get so close?!" Rainbow Dartz shouted upon landing. "You two could have got that far in the few moments I was gone."
"We didn't, we haven't moved an inch since you left," Clover answered in disbelief.
"This makes no sense at all" Rex concurred as he stopped the message.
"But how?!" Rainbow Dartz stopped and raced over to the nearest batponies and ask them, "Sir and ma'am, have you seen anything strange?"
"Outside of a random pegasus walking up to us and asking that?" the stallion joked.
"I'm serious." Rainbow Dartz clarified.
The stallion took a moment to think about it, while the mare answered, "No I don't think we've seen anything strange lately. In fact, its been very peaceful today."
"No agony, warfare... intruders?" Rainbow Dartz didn't know how to word everything he saw.
"What do you mean exactly?" another batpony approach them seemingly unhindered by what they were saying. "The only intruders I see are you!" He tightened his grip on his weapon. Rex and Clover put up their defenses only for the batpony to laugh at them, mocking their tension. "I'm only kidding," the soldier laughed. "There is no warfare here."
"What about that happened outside--"
"There is nothing outside at all!" He laughed aloud in what seemed to be an attempt to interrupt Clover's question. "There is nothing happening outside at all," he repeated making them all raise an eyebrow in confusion.
Rainbow Dartz landed in front of the soldier and grabbed him gently by the shoulders. "I'm not sure how to describe it." He to articulate his words correctly around the soldier. "It was murder, no, a massacre just outside your city, within many cities in fact."
"Impossible we are at peacetime," the soldier quickly dismissed him with the same calm tone as before. Never once batting an eye as Rainbow Dartz repeated them with more detail. "We are in peace times, there is no war," the soldier repeated as the pegasus finished.
"Hold on," Rex pulled Rainbow Dartz out of the way and grabbed the soldier by the face with no warning at all. "Odd?"
"Odd?" Rainbow Dartz argued. "Don't just grab a pony by the face like tha--"
"No, I mean he's not raising his weapon." Rex raised an eyebrow and stepped closer. He looked deep into the batpony's eyes and saw something even strange. "Are you... are you in pain?" His sight strained at something the others weren't seeing.
"There is no pain. There is no agony. We are all at peace. There is no war here, there is no slaughter there is no massacre." The more the soldier seem to repeat himself the sterner his voice got.
"Fine, we will talk to someone else." Rainbow Dartz conceited.
Rex released his grip and turned away from the soldier, "Do you know where the mayor is?"
"Oh, she's in the Church. She's a sweet child." The soldier left giving no more words. This left the more perplexed, especially to Rainbow Dartz.
"This is even more confusing."
"Why? We don't know where to look now?" Clover affirmed.
"No, I read the files the mayor is a stallion. And there have been no elections recently."
"I also don't recall the batponies ever putting a filly in charge," Rex noted the last comment the soldier made. He stopped by Clover and gave another comment that caught them both off guard. "All these clues lead me to believe that not only is Twilight in this place but this city is the source of the massacres."
"What?!" Rainbow Dartz jumped back in confusion. "Impossible, there is no way we could know that after just arriving."
"Actually, I knew the moment I looked into that soldier's eyes." Rex gave no more words to Rainbow Dartz and instead whispered to Clover the obvious answer. "They had no life in them at all."
******
The titan airship creaked loudly upon landing. Fredricson thought it was weird that it would give any kind of reaction to landing here. He walked over to the window to look outside and saw nothing but solid ground. "That's odd."
"What do you mean?" Lady Cat questioned.
"The titan airship is never creaked like that?"
"I'm certain you just crashed it."
"I've been piloting this thing for 20 years now. Never once has it made this kind of sound even while crashing."
Another loud booming echo tour through the entire airship. It was so massive the entire ship shook wildly. Both were thoroughly confused and grabbed hold of the nearest thing is it continue to shake. Fredricson made his way to the controls, tapping them, wondering what was going on.
"Systems are fine. The engine is working, fuel is full. And yet that noise won't stop."
Another booming echoed by as the airship wrenched and tightened. It was so intense that pieces of metal started shooting off the walls. Fredricson finally caved and turned off the engines completely. The creaking stopped without warning.
"If you won't listen, then I'll prove you hit something." Lady Cat ran to the door and attempted to open it only to be stopped. "Unlock the darn thing."
"It's not locked." Fredricson ran over and pulled the door with all his might, but it wouldn't budge. "I never hit the auto-lock. Even then when the engines turn off, it should have automatically opened. This makes no sense."
"Fine, I'll force it open!" Lady Cat kicked at the door with all her might. "Damn it, open!"
"Stop it you'll hurt her."
"If this ship was truly alive, it's being an asshole." She took three steps back and charged forward only to fail.
"Just stop--" Fredricson was interrupted as the creaking returned this time even louder than ever before. The sound was so intense it was painful to their ears, bringing them both down to the ground.
"It's going to hurt the children!" Lady Cat's eyes widen and she ran over to their room. She was stopped and shocked by the sight.
Fredricson ran over as well only to find just as much confusion. "They're still asleep?"
It was true, not a single sound had affected them at all. They were unmoving and untouched by the noise. And yet it was getting louder and louder by the second. Fredricson and Lady Cat couldn't stand anymore. They grabbed their ears and pressed tightly but the noise cut through.
"Get us out of here!!" Lady Cat finally screamed. "Turn on the engines now."
Fredricson couldn't agree more than he raced back to the control room, flicking on everything. He brought the titan airship upward off the ground and suddenly the sound stopped. "What?"
"Oh thank you," Lady Cat struggled to enter as the pain was still throbbing her head. "How did it stop?"
"I don't know. It just happened as soon as I left the ground... It was as if the airship didn't want to be here at all." He fell back in his chair in disbelief.
"There you go again acting is as if this old bucket of bolts is alive," she laughed at him.
"I know what it sounds like, but it was like it was reacting to something," Fredricson argued. "You know, like how the body reacts to an infection."
"Whatever..." she walked over to the door. To her surprise, it popped open with ease. "I guess we can just drop down from here--" without warning, she screamed violently.
"Lady Cat!!" Fredricson rushed over and jumped back at the sight of a batpony trying to force its way through the doorway. Lady cat trying your best to push it back.
The attacker looked broken and distorted twisted and mangled. Yet it appeared as if he was wearing a soldier's attire. The captain rushed over with his sword and stabbed the soldier. Slicing its arm off of Lady Cat. They both kicked it out of the door and closed it. "What the hell is that?"
"I'm more questioning that!!" Lady Cat screamed again pointing towards the arm that he had chopped off as it flailed across the ground.
"What is going on here?" Fredricson stabbed his blade into the arm several times before it stopped. He pulled out the blade and took a moment to catch his breath, "Damn it--" However, that moment didn't last as the arm jumped up and grabbed him by the throat.
"No!" Lady Cat struggled to pull it off of him. Yet it felt like it was being held in place by a giant and immense power. "I can't get it off!!"
"Stabbed it, again!!" Fredricson choked.
Lady Cat picked up the blade and stabbed the arm several times trying her best not to hurt Fredricson. The arm released and pulled back trying to go out to her too. Yet as it did Fredricson kicked it towards the door. Lady Cat open it and the two struggled to push it back outside.
Once it was all over they both fell to the ground unable to stand. It somehow had drained so much strength for them not just from fighting it but merely touching it. It felt as if their own life force was nearly taken purely from it being near it.
"I don't know what that was but we need to warn them."
"Exactly." Lady Cat crawled towards the conference room. She typed out a message, but all they got back with static. "Rex, are you there? Clover answer me?"
Fredricson soon followed her just as confused. "No answer at all."
"Nothing, as if their signals were being blocked."
"They're... on their own--" that was the last words Fredricson gave as he fell to the ground. Lady Cat quickly loss consciousness too.
In the other room, silent to everything that happened, the siren siblings slept. Just as before they were unhindered by the silence and by the sounds outside. They were so peacefully into their slumber. If everyone was out cold, it seemed the ship would go into silence. However, that was far from true.
A soft chuckle from what seemed to be a mare echoed through all the rooms. "The curse of the umbrums has returned. Be warned last child of the umbum race, the curse of the umbrums has returned."
******
Back in the capital, Rex, Rainbow Dartz and Clover finally reach the center of town. An old church building just as the citizens said. However, once they glimpsed it, Rex stopped cold in his tracks. He grabbed his chest as his heart shook erratically. Laughter, tears, flames, all echoed in his head upon seeing that all Church. His eyes widened, and he backstopped several times till nearly falling over.
"Everything okay?" Clover caught him. She stopped upon finding him in a cold sweat.
"That's impossible." Rex struggle with the image of the church. The dark blue walls so tall they blocked out the Sun, the black and silver pillars so thick they felt like tentacles wrapping around him, and on top of a golden bell bellowing so loud that it felt like his eardrums were about to burst. All these images were so real that it was utter torture to every part of his being. "They couldn't have..."
"They couldn't have what?" Rainbow Dartz noticed them stopping.
"I don't know," Clover question when Rex didn't answer. "What do you see?" she shook him trying to get a response. "Does this have to do with the strange magic? Is this the source of the magic?"
More voices echoed in his head from memories long-lost as the images in his eyes started spinning. "... They actually rebuilt it." Rex's eyes went blank, and he fell back completely. The Dark Alicorn Amulet glowed brightly. A voice answered for Rex, "The home of the pedestal has been resurrected."
"Pedestal, what do you mean?" Clover screamed at the amulet demanding it give back Rex control. "As in the alathar!"
"Yes, the next alathar is just ahead of us," This was the last word spoken from the dark alicorn amulet as it stopped glowing too. Rex's body fell to the ground limp and unmoving.
"Rex!" Clover called out as he didn't respond. He lay as cold as a corpse. "Rex!" she screamed out.
Rainbow Dartz walked back over and checked for a pulse. "He's alive but his heartbeat is getting slower by the second."
"I... don't know what to do? Rex!!" Clover screamed louder. She gave no care at all as everypony stared at her. She shook him demanding an answer, "Rex!! Please wake up!!"
"Clover we need to--"
Rainbow Dartz stopped as Clover's fear turned to rage. She punched at the dark alicorn amulet. "Don't you dare take him away?! Give him back!! Now!!" Yet it seemed to ignore her demands. She hit harder and harder until her hands start to bleed. "Don't you take him from me?!"
Without warning, a bright maroon red darkness shined from the amulet. It was so massive it consumed both Clover and Rex in an instant. A sheer force of unknown power pushed away Rainbow Dartz. However, just as quickly as it happened it vanished, taking Clover and Rex with it.
Left in their place the dark alicorn amulet without an owner.
Everypony murmured at the sight of it all. Rainbow Dartz could barely process what he saw. He stepped closer to try and clear his confusion only for it to increase. A cacophony of sound echoed back and forth within the amulet as he picked it up. Listening closer he heard soft screams, a mix of rages from multiple beings. Some he recognized, others he did not.
He brought it next to his ear and heard Clover's echoing defiance, repeating the same words she said before vanishing. Along with the words from another, completely unknown voice, "Enter the Church of the Dark City."
Rainbow Dartz had no other choice. He followed the orders, and enter the church with the dark alicorn amulet in hand. He didn't know what lied ahead of him. Nor truthfully he did know what lied behind him. For as soon as the door is closed and sealed him away from the rest of the city something else changed.
Reality seemed to flicker like a light switch. The beautiful city that they had seen and explored switched to crackling ruined buildings. The same ragged corpses outside replaced the citizens they talked to. Only these were really moving unhindered by the pain in their eyes. Speaking only in grunts and growls they went back to their work as if they'd never seen them enter the church at all.
******
Inside, Rainbow Dartz was stopped by the incredible beauty inside. The walls were a softer shape of blue and seemed to hug tentatively around everything. The long golden silk chairs popped perfectly with the foreground. And finally, a completely spotless red carpet led toward the center, almost inviting him to walk along, give thanks and sit down to commune. The stark difference in the warmth of the inside compared to the cold harsh out was startling to say the least. While the pegasus was never the religious type, everything in this place filled him with so much trust.
He had stopped himself from relaxing and stepping forward. He carefully moved through the prayers and soft songs until he reached the front. A filly sat in the front-facing a giant egg. Towering over them was a statue of a mighty dark blue goat. The image showed strength as well as protection.
"Are you here to pray for them?" the filly's voice brought Rainbow Dartz to attention.
"Pray for who?" He looked around, there was nopony near him. Turning his attention to the dark alicorn amulet the filly's eyes lit up. "This?"
"Yes, yes, bring it over."
Doing as he was told he got a close look at the filly. It was a light blue siren with blue hair and purple highlights. "Who are you?"
"Me..." she pointed to herself. "I'm surprised they didn't tell you about her." She seemed to speak of herself in that moment as if in the third person. "Not even your earth pony ally."
"Silver Pear?"
"Yes, I'm very certain he and Starswirl have a lot to say to me for a variety of different reasons." The filly laughed with a deeper voice and admired the amulet. "Well, since you brought something I haven't seen in several, several millennia, I'll tell you. She is known as Sonata Dusk..." She kept the third person going but spoke with a deeper voice more akin to a male.
All of this caught the pegasus completely off guard. He raised his weapon demanded she give the amulet back. "What really going on here? Who are you really?!"
She raised an eyebrow, "Huh, you're smart enough to stand among them... but stupid enough to aim your guard at the wrong targets."
"What?!" Rainbow Dartz was stopped as two of the singers rushed over and grabbed him with incredible strength. They pushed him to the ground and removed his weapons. "Let me go!"
"No, no, no." The filly kicked him in the snout. "The more you struggle, the quicker they will drain you."
"What?!" The pegasus's eyes widened upon seeing through the illusion and the broken shattered bodies reaching over. He riled around despite the filly's warnings.
"I said, calm down!" The filly kicked his face even harder. "Your friends will be fine." She held the dark alicorn amulet up to the statue. "I wouldn't dare harm his children in his presence, right front of his great image. Especially after the days, it took to rebuild him and this place." She laughed louder with the male voice.
"Where are they? Rex and Clover?"
The filly leered back down at him. "They should be in the same place your other friends are."
"Other friends..." Rainbow Dartz's eyes slowly widened. "Wait, you mean Twilight?!"
"Exactly..." with that she sat back down, facing the egg once more. The filly placed the amulet in front of it and it glowed brightly in response. "Soon it will begin. Once I have given the new alathar to that annoying wendigo and I can claim my own prize."
"Alathar, wendigo, prize..." Fear grew within Rainbow Dartz with each word he spoke. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"My name is Aitym and I am waiting for the Heart of Darkness to finally hatch."
Deep within the reachest of the mindscape Twilight found herself lying upon a soft familiar bed of her. A peaceful smell all around her and a sense that everything was perfect. She couldn't remember how she got there. Nor could she remember the last time she got this much sleep.
She took things slow, admiring everything around her as it blurred into clear view. The blanket was her favorite color, the crystal pillar entrapped her perfectly around the plushies, and the books crowding over her. The background showed thousands upon thousands of shelves where more books sat. She didn't feel the need to read a single one nor the ones laying all over her. It was as if she knew every detail, they could possibly ever tell her. Their whole was open to her entirely to where she could not only count the number of pages in each book but also recount each of her favorite pages with but a glance of the spine.
The view, the memories, the placement. Everything told her this was straight from the Castle of Friendship itself.
Her time in this realm was almost up. And yet now she had tested the limits of this realm she didn't know what to do next. She had been told this realm could bring her greatest memories and dreams to life if she let it. So at this moment, she let it all out, her hopes, dreams, desires, and matters. She leaned back in bliss, letting her mind wander.
"I'm uncertain shaping a bed from your mind is testing the limits of anything." Twilight's eyes shot open and went wide at a voice she hadn't heard in a long time. Her eyes traced down to the blanket and a shape moving under it that wasn't there before.
A dark lavender stallion popped out from under the covers. Before she could say a word, he pressed his head against her. At first, she was confused as his face was still blurry, but as the image became clear tears traced across her face as she said the name, "Crimson."
"Yes, that's my name." He stopped her with a kiss on her lips. It was so tender despite the shock and up frontless of the embrace. Twilight wanted to ask what was going on but found herself melting into his lips. Her eyes closed and returned the kiss.
As it lasted, she started to moan softly. His hands carefully traced over her body. She didn't even realize she was naked until now. He was naked too. The crudeness of Rarity's voice echoed in her head. An echo of cheering from Rainbow Dash. Afirment echoed the voice of Applejack and a soft giggle of Fluttershy was only muffled by Pinkie Pie's louder one. His body pressing around her drove her crazy. She didn't know how to react, what to do next? Should she stop? Desire more? Crave a touch that ripped away from her so violently long ago?
Her mind told her this couldn't be real. Yet her desire wanted this more than ever. Crimson was dead, long gone from her life. She never had such a moment with him. She never had such a moment with anypony in a long time. Was this the mindscape's doing? Was this her doing? Was this a gift from another? Was this a gift to herself?
The more her thoughts raced the more they faded to the scene around her. She moaned softer as she felt his face leave her, drifting back down to her... She bit her lip and prepared her body.
Her eyes shot open as intense cold covered her flesh. Her eyes dropped onto the blanket. It was gone, and Crimson was too. Her naked body lay there now covered in blood. It soaked into the bed so deeply and slew all the previous smells. The only thing that remained was the thick stench of decay.
"What's wrong? You look so beautiful..." The light faded from her body.
Her eyes raced upward at the sound of a familiar voice that sent chills down her spine. The massive figure of a wendigo descended upon her. Blood dripped from his mask. The same blood of the stallion that she had longed for. He put himself in the same position as the previous and dragged his cold hands over her flesh.
She wanted to back away. She wanted to scream. She wanted to fight him off as he traced over her. But instead, she found her hands reaching out to him. No, pale blue hands reaching out. The Pale Mare, her voice, laughter mixed with a moaning desire for him. "No, Pale Mare!" She screamed at her hands. Yet they fought back against her, demandingly giving him to her.
Her mind squirmed and twisted in absolute fear as her body pressed against the wendigo's naked form with such joy and vigor. He kissed her neck and rubbed her flesh. Her eyes widened at the sounds of moans coming from her mouth.
"No!" Her thoughts screamed out. "Crimson!" He stopped and lifted his mask. The face underneath was an empty void for only a moment quickly changing into Crimson.
"Yes, Twilight," He leaned in for a kiss. Only to be stopped as pale arms gripped him by the neck. The remaining images of the wendigo faded to only be Crimson completely once more. The Pale Mare's hands squeezed his throat tightly.
"No, don't hurt him!" her mind screamed as the life faded from his face.
"Yes, don't hurt me. Love me..." Crimson's face raced forward and was replaced again by his wendigo killer. Twilight's eyes shot as wide as possible as his arms pushed her down and his body bucked forward. Her whole mind went numb as her inners opened up... Her face fell to the side as all she could do was watch onward as the bed bounced back and forth.
The moans of the Pale Mare soon faded. The wendigo's cold embrace leaked away with each passing second. Her dream, no, her nightmare was ending. Twilight lay for hours even after everything had faded completely. Her mind was barely able to process what happened and completely unknown to how it happened?
She was alone, no bed, no covered. She wasn't even naked anymore. Taking the cold embrace of her armor as solace that horror had ended. She wanted to know why such a vision took place, but she was too horrified to go any further.
"Blending dreams and nightmares. An amazing feat I don't think has been matched since Cassandra and Morpheus themselves."
Twilight found her way out of her trance and looked to the source of the unfamiliar voice. She half expected an enemy but found something else altogether. A pink stallion of unknown species in a fine green suit. He sat in a floating throne of metal and magic.
"Who are you?" Twilight wanted to question more intensely, but she found herself grabbing her mouth. Breathing slower she was glad to have regained control over her own voice.
"I am the master of this realm." He sipped his wineglass and leaned back in his floating chair. "And I want to know why you are defiling it with your twisted fetishes."
"What are you talking about?" Twilight tried to rise but her body was still wracked with a mix of joy and agony.
"That little sexual experience. Had it gone on any longer, I would have to puke," the stallion gave a gagging motion.
"You saw all of that?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, and too much." He snapped his fingers and the senses in her body faded. Her body's movement returned, so she sat up to hear more from this master. "Frankly, I should kick you out. Please, when wondering my realm, keep those desires in check."
"What?!" Twilight raced up. "You're making it sound like I wanted that."
"Don't accuse me of lying!" he hissed back. "I saw the joy in your eyes, the savor in your grin. The motions of your hands urging him to go faster and harsher."
"No, no, no, that wasn't me!!" Twilight screamed in horror. "I don't want that. I don't want him, that monster, anywhere near me!"
The stallion seemed unfazed by her words. It was clear he didn't believe a single one. "Right? He's the monster then what are you?!"
"He is a monster?!" She argued back. "That was never in question!" She raised her dagger. "The question lies here is who are you?"
"I told you, I am the master of this domain..." With a simple wave of his hand, the dagger and Twilight's entire arm pushed away from him and toward her own throat.
"What?" Twilight struggled to be free from her position but only found the strange grip controlling her hand increasing in strength.
"Stop, Hollow Prince!" Another voice spoke up, and the grip faded. Twilight fell back only to be caught by the owner of the voice. She stared at her hand for a solid minute before the voice repeated, " Are you okay, Twilight?" The alicorn turned around to find herself in the arms of Cold Blue.
Twilight quickly pulled away and apologized. "Yeah, I'm completely fine." She waved her hand back and forth. "Wait..." She turned back to the intruder. "Hollow Prince...I heard that name before..." She stopped as she couldn't find the memory of when she heard of it. The realm around her concurred, not altering its shape at all.
"It's a shame you don't remember because I remember you." Hollow Prince smiled at her answer. He stood up from his chair bowed to them both. "Sorry for the roughness. I needed to know if you could be trusted. If you are with... Cold Blue then you have nothing to fear from me." He presented his hand to Twilight.
"Okay..." Twilight hesitated but soon enough took the hand. "Wait, we've met before."
"Yes, but I never revealed my name so how you heard of it is a bigger question." The realm revealed a chessboard between him and Twilight.
Twilight's eyes widened at the arrangements of the pieces. "Wait, this was from the towers... the other personality within Blood Diamond--"
Cold Blue laughed, "Not quite another personality, a separate entity sharing--" He stopped by Hollow Prince's own interruption.
"Unfortunately, I didn't show up here to talk about backstories," Hollow Prince snapped his fingers and the chessboard shook erratically, followed by everything else around them from the floor to the walls and soon the very air itself.
"What are you doing?"
"You have it in reverse. I've been stabilizing things for the last hour," Hollow Prince corrected. "While I don't mind one's like Cold Blue and my beloved Blood Diamond to use my realm, it seemed others are twisting it to their advantage." Another snapped of his fingers and the realm shook more violently.
Twilight jumped back at her sight twisting again. "No, what's going on?" In an instant, standing in Hollow Prince's place was Blood Diamond. More shocking, standing in Cold Blue's place was Indigo Frost. "Blood Diamond... No, Frost, stay back?!" She held up her knife only to hear Cold Blue's voice come from the wendigo's mouth.
"Twilight, what you are seeing! It isn't real." The image flicked showing Crimson Magic standing in the place of Cold Blue and in the place of Hollow Prince was a figure she didn't recognize at all. Most horrifying of all was Crimson was walking toward her with a gaping hole in his chest and the unknown figure was missing his eyes.
"Hollow Prince, stop this now!!" Cold Blue's voice roared. "Make their images fade, now!!" Another flash and the forms of Cold Blue and Hollow Prince returned. Twilight was so scared, but she was also perplexed to see Cold Blue just as frightened. Cold Blue rushed over and grabbed Hollow Prince by the throat. "Never do that! Don't make me see them ever again!!" The siren roared with greater rage.
"Both of you saw distinctly separate figures, right?" Hollow Prince questioned. Slowly they looked back at each other before answering him in agreement. "Damn, the distortions are getting worse."
"Distortions?"
"Listen," Hollow Prince pulled himself free and cleared his throat. "I am the master of this realm. What you saw just now was not my doing. I..." His voice strained. "I have been trying to stabilize it. Your dreams, nightmares, figures of past, present, and future, they aren't supposed to appear unless according to your will."
"Stabilizing," Twilight realized, "This realm is becoming unstable. Why? It can't be the spell?!" she argued, "It's not even been the full fourteen hundred years yet?!"
"Thirteen hundred and ninety-nine actually," Cold Blue answered. "The spell shouldn't be responsible, anyway."
"If it was the only one active," Hollow Prince pointed to Cold Blue.
"Aitym..." Twilight mumbled out.
"Who?" Hollow Prince dropped his accusation. "That being is responsible!"
Twilight grabbed her mouth. "How--"
"How could I hear you? No secrets are hidden in my realm unless I decided so." Hollow Prince held up his hand and a translucent orb appeared. He gave it to Twilight as three red dots appeared on it. "This is a base model of my realm. While before, you could go anywhere now, you are confined to a select path due to the distortions." He waved the orb to show all three of them within it. "There are two other spells active. You must either find them and make them leave or find the one casting these spells. This Aitym."
"Why should we help?" Cold Blue questioned. "Can't you keep the realm stable for the remaining year?"
"No, the longer this continues the harder it will be for any of us to stay in this realm," Hollow Prince dismissed him.
"Can't we all just leave then?"
"Hollow Prince lacks a real body, so that would mean..."
"I... I understand." Twilight smiled bravely. "We have time to fix this. We just need to find Aitym." She bowed back to Hollow Prince. "Lord of this realm, please forgive us for bringing you pain. Where can we find Aitym?"
"Just find a memory connection to him and not either of you." With that, a line appeared on the orb and a door followed, twisting the room around it. The door was a mix of blue and purple. "Enter and start your journey." Hollow Prince slowly vanished, "I will give you what time I can. But be warned, this place under the right powers can bring forth both your greatest fears and greatest joys! But most of all, as the distortions get worse you see things that make sense and things that won't. No matter what you see, know they are all connected to both of you. You will find your past, present, and future mixing again, with far worse outcomes."
******
Somewhere else deep within the mindscape, a lone unicorn ran for miles on end. She kept going without stopping, running until her feet bleed beneath her. A twisted and cruel image played around her, and it wouldn't fade no matter how fast she ran or how far. They consumed every part of her sight and played over and over as if on some sort of endless torture.
A snowy mountainside, three warriors facing off through a field of corpses and giant crystal stakes. The naga racing forward to save his princess. A flick from the attacker's hand, the spell channeled out, not through the princess's head, but right through the naga's chest. A beam of pure light magic ripped him right open.
A loud boom echoed out, and the thud of the naga's body hit the ground. The naga was unmoving, a gaping hole where his chest was. His blood stopped flowing and his mind was in pure blind shock as death took him.
The unicorn turned away from the image as it started over once more.
A snowy mountainside, three warriors facing off through a field of corpses and giant crystal stakes. The naga racing forward to save his princess. A flick from the attacker's hand, the spell channeled out, not through the princess's head, but right through the naga's chest. A beam of pure light magic ripped him right open.
A loud boom echoed out, and the thud of the naga's body hit the ground. The naga was unmoving, a gaping hole where his chest was. His blood stopped flowing and his mind was in pure blind shock as death took him.
The lone unicorn screamed in horror as the image landed the corpse right in front of her this time. The sheer shock knocked her to the ground as his face fell in her direction. The fading light in his eyes, the paleness of his flesh, and the sinking of his muscles told her what she continued to deny.
Dimitri Dusk, her loyal naga guard who had stood by her side since she was a child... was dead. Princess, no, just Mira Platinum now, was utterly and completely alone. No guard to protect her, no army to stand with her, no kingdom to stand behind her.
"No, this isn't real..." She pulled her limbs in close as his blood poured toward her. "This is a lie." She banged on her head, making the image flash back and forth between the repeats and blank emptiness. "He's strong, he's brave... He can't die... he can't... he can't... he... I... I can't fail!!" She trembled evermore as the image replayed again and again. This time louder and louder, more real with each passing second. "Stop it, stop lying to me. Please..." She begged. "Tell me it's not true... Mom... answer me." She stared hatefully at the shadow watching this all play out.
Despite everything that had happened, the alicorn form couldn't compose herself against her daughter's rage, malice, and above all, denial. The truth was here to choke the life out of both of them. The war they wanted, had arrived, and neither was truly ready for the sacrifices needed to happen.
******
In another place of this realm, another figure ran, but there was no fear in this one's eyes. The umburm instead, was a mix of joy and shock. Practically jumping around at the sight of everything. At first, he didn't want to believe it, then he didn't want to accept it. But far faster than either of the others he desired it to be real, accepted as the only perception. This had to be reality.
"Rex, this can't be real, right?" Clover questioned. "Why is everything so different?"
Rex was utterly confused by what he was seeing too yet there was a smile clearly growing on his face. Without warning he increased his speed, getting further and further away from her. He searched the buildings, the roads but particularly the ponies.
Jumping for joy when he saw their knife-like horns and they're flowing Mane. They replied back to him with so much cheer and joy. He never felt such exhilaration in so many years. They didn't treat him like a stranger, welcoming him with open arms.
Finally, Clover caught up to him only to catch his headwrap as it flew towards her. She looked up only to see him proudly displaying his umbrum horn. "What is this place? Please tell me, Rex?"
"They're all here?! Every single one of them."
"Where did the Dark Alicorn Amulet take us?" Clover's voice strained as the stress got to her, made more abundant with his laughter.
"We haven't left the city at all!" Rex raced over and lifted her into the air. He swung her around before hugging her tightly. "We're actually here!" He ran his hands through her hair and practically danced with her for a solid two minutes. Everypony cheered and whistled them on.
"What? What are you talking about?!" Clover found herself more mixed with emotions. Never had he been open around the public. Heck, he wasn't even this open when they were alone. "What's comes over you?"
"Nothing, nothing at all." He stopped and took a moment to admire everything a bit more.
"Rex..." Clover didn't know how to process any of this but she knew he was happy, the happiest she had ever seen him. However, one thing had to be clear before things went any further. "Where are we?"
"No, not where, but when?"
"What do you mean?" He turned her to an all too familiar direction. Her eyes widened to see the same church they were just in front of. Only it seemed almost brand new. Where the before it had appeared to have been rebuilt, this version appeared as if it never fell. The building shined brightly with umbrums all around it.
"We never left this spot. We went back to the moment when everything was so different. So much better!!"
"The umbrums? The church..."
"Yes, before the batponies, this was their capital, the center of the Umbrum Empire." Rex cheered louder and threw his hands in the air. "This is Întuneric, ten thousand years ago."
The unicorn capital, once a place of beauty and grace. A busy city of mirrors and unicorn magic. A place at the center of unicorn society, now nothing more than an empty wasteland of buildings and lost items. Void of all the joys and praises it once had.
Such a sight was a disheartening one for Celestia. Spotting the same cup of coffee that Starlight had knocked down not but a few days ago. The stain had dried completely yet no mold had formed at all. Even decay itself seemed to fear and stray away from this empty place.
Thinking about it now, there weren't even winds blowing by. The city had been sealed off by Blood Diamond's crystals but even without them, this place was isolated as if from reality itself.
The white alicorn was almost tempted to clean up the mess, and bring some order to this empty horror. But would it matter? Nopony was here to comment of the dirtiness, nopony could care about removing the change the last unicorn brought to this land before leaving.
Before Celestia could make up her mind, Golden Williams did for her. The pink alicorn step forward and cleaned the stain with ease and even sat the cup back up right as if it never happened. "Better?" He commented on her thoughts.
"No, not better..." Celestia sat down in the chair, knocking the purse to the ground. She hoped the loud bang it made would bring forth some sort of chaos to this emptiness.
"Fine." Golden Williams rolled his eyes and picked up the cup, dropping it on the ground just as loudly.
Celestia giggled at this and knocked over the flower vase too. Both of them laughed at it shattered. This joy was quick for just as fast the chaos came, the pink alicorn was already cleaning up the mess. Celestia mocked his actions by flipping the table over completely. "Better?" She mocked his previous question.
"Your desire for chaos is as dangerous of Starswirl, sister." Luna quickly pulled them apart and fixed the mess.
Celestia stood up and ran over to her sister. "My chaos is only matched by your desire for darkness." She was quick to pull Luna's umbrella out of her hand.
Luna growled at the sunlight draping her before ripping the umbrella back. "So, you would rather have fun!"
"Only if you will too!" Celestia cheered, poofing the umbrella back into her hands and running off in the other direction. She laughed as her sister chased her around.
Golden Williams joined in the laughter but also kept a close eye on his own sibling. Blood Diamond was ignoring the whole show. The pink alicorn could see his brother was distracted but by what was unknown. The younger brother's face laid in the air, unshifting and unfazed by it all.
However, soon enough they would all get their answers. Without warning, all of the alicorns fell to the ground and were inflicted with strange headaches. All, except Blood Diamond, who stood up and stared at them with burrowed brows.
Luna leered at that face and filled her horn with magic. The headaches became worse as a new voice echoed from Blood Diamond's mouth. "Do not fear me. I am simply ensuring nopony is watching us." Once the voice was certain, the headaches vanished, and Blood Diamond's form changed to match that of Hollow Prince.
The princess of the night charged her horn with more magic, ready to fight him off when Celestia stood in her way. "Hollow Prince, isn't that your name?" the older sister questioned.
"Yes," he bowed in affirmation.
"Lord Red spoke of you a few times," Golden Williams also concluded.
"Why are you here?" Luna conceded.
"I currently have multiple souls trapped in my domain." Hollow Prince relaxed his guard and brought forth the images of six ponies. "And the numbers seems to be increasing."
"Why should that matter to us?" Luna barked back.
"Because more in my realm means more unstable my magic." He lifted both hands as minor headaches echoed in their heads. "Now, merely scanning somepony brings pain to the subject as well as myself."
"And that's a problem for us, why?" Luna mocked again.
"Soon, my uncontrollable power will leak into other minds without my knowledge. Not just the ones hiding in my realm, but others near and eventually far from Blood Diamond's reach."
"I see." Celestia motioned her sister away. "What do you want from us? It's a simple measure to force them out..." She raised an eyebrow. "Somepony else is keeping them in."
"Exactly." He affirmed. "In order to break that secondary control. The ones inside need to find the memories that only belong to that user and not them."
"Again, what does that have to do with us?" Golden Williams echoed Luna's words one final time.
"Not you," Hollow Prince pointed out. "Them, Celestia and Luna." He pulled up the image of Twilight Sparkle, "Her mind contains memories of you two. In fact, according to her words you two are her first mentors."
"I... I see." Celestia was shocked to say the least. "To know that one day we will train such a powerful alicorn."
"One day, so her thoughts were telling the truth." Hollow Prince stepped closer. "She is from the future."
"A future, a time still unknown to both of us," Luna pointed out. "A future I wish to know nothing of."
"Really," Hollow Prince leered at her. "Becuase apparently, Rex has futures connecting to this alicorn too."
Luna's eyes slowly widened as the realization became clear. "Rex is in there too!!" she roared. "Let me into your realm!"
"Oh, curious for the umbrum... His future with the alicorn," Hollow Prince raised an eyebrow. "Or maybe his future with the unicorn by his side."
The princess of the night didn't take anymore words. Racing around her sister, she aimed her saber at Hollow Prince's throat. "Bring me inside, now!"
"Not my call. Though, there was something else I needed to confirm." Hollow Prince knocked the tip of the saber away with ease much to Luna's confusion. "You see there was another memory inside Twilight's mind. An alternate form similar to mine. Given a new name, ever so different from... Cassandra!"
The unknown name brought out a mighty force from within Luna. The older sister attempted to mend things but was stopped as black fire shot out that threw them all back as a twisted laughter echoed out. The younger sister rose up in form and instantly stood taller than Celestia.
"She said not to mock her," Luna spoke as if in thirds. "Luna is trying her best to keep from killing you."
"Yes, but as long as you are her cohost much like I am to my dear Blood Diamond." Hollow Prince bowed. "I do need to talk to you too, Lady Cassandra Evenstar." He realized the more he used that name the more anger he brought forth from the evil inside Luna. "Oh, that's right, you prefer the name of the future. The name Twilight knows you by, Nightmare Moon."
The blue flames on Luna's face quickly spread over her whole body. Her teeth sharpened and her eyes turned knife like. Nightmare Moon rushed out of the smoke and charged directly at Hollow Prince. The other two alicorns tried to stop it, but the shockwaves through them both back and destroyed several buildings in the process.
The once quiet and empty city was filled with noise once more. But this time, it was nothing but rage and malice replacing the peace and generosity.
******
Within the mindscape, the former ruler knew nothing of her city's destruction. Even the vanishing of her unicorns of which she witnessed had a faded behind a wall of depression. While memories of her guard dying over and over had long dissolved the sounds of his body hitting the ground kept echoing in her head.
Instead of screaming or crying, her mind had broken to a faint wideness. Her eyes staring into the nothingness. Even as they dried, they refused to blink as if fearing the second the darkness appeared the reality would consume her too.
Princess Mira Platinum, born half alicorn, shined in the form of a unicorn all her life could do nothing now but lay there less than a brick. Dirt had more honor and right then her in this moment. To her, it would be better for to just die.
"Please don't think such things," the voice of her mother brought a single flinch of recognition. The alicorn spirit tried to fight the damned thoughts while unable to understand herself.
"It won't matter..." The voice was stopped by an unknown figure approaching. The spirit turned to see a dark blue pegasus standing in the emptiness.
"How did you get in here?" She shouted at the intruder. "The wendigo said we would be left alone."
"Sorry, I don't work for him." The dark blue pegasus stopped in front of the princess and lifted up her new arm given to her by the wendigo. He dropped it just as quickly once he was sure of the truth. "See, she's given up." The hand hit the ground with a loud thud and even crackled just as loud, making the princess twitch as if she was hearing her guard's death again...
"Given up?!" The spirit argued. "I don't know who you are, but my daughter would never give up!!" The mother attempted to fix the crack, but her power proved pointless.
"You have every right to give up too." The pegasus sat down beside the princess and pulled out a beer. A few swings before he stared deeply into the bottle.
"You know nothing of me and her!!" The spirit hissed.
"How quickly you unicorns forget former allies." He took another swing. "Why am I not surprised. A former soldier of such high rank, running away forever!" He laughed.
The spirit lowered itself and swarmed around the pegasus's face for a few moments before stopping. "You are the older sibling of Gale HD Hurricane, Rainbow HD Hurricane."
"My sister prefers to be called Commander Hurricane now..." The pegasus swung the remains of his bottle before pulling out another. "She hasn't been called Gale since... As for me, its Rainbow Haven Dartz Blitz, or just Rainbow Dartz now."
"Why are you here?"
"Apparently helping out a friend and attempting to dodge my past at all costs was for not."
"A friend... you are allies with Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer."
"Huh, from what I heard, they wanted to be friends with your daughter as well." He took another swing, forcing it down.
"My daughter needs no friends."
"She needed a father and mother," he shot back just as quickly.
"I am a good mother. I am helping her complete her dream."
"Her dream, or your revenge!" He threw down the bottle, smashing it loud enough to bring another twitch from the princess. "My sister used to use the same excuse in her war with the griffins. All you royal and high command are the same. Seeking revenge at every moment, not caring who else you infect with this rage and madness!!"
"I am not like them..." The spirit lowered her voice. "I am not a unicorn and haven't been an alicorn for thousands of years... at least not in the eyes of my own kind."
"And look at you now, enslaving the unicorns. Chaining your own daughter!"
"That's not what's happening here?"
"Prove me wrong then?" Rainbow Dartz's words stopped her in her tracks and her voice went completely silent. The pegasus took this chance to lean back and rest. This was going to be a very long mission.
******
On the otherside of the mindscape, Rex and Clover quickly figured out what was going on too. The umbrum wanted to enjoy himself in the city of his past but knew they couldn't stay here forever. However, just as fast as they arrived in one past, they were taken to another by simply entering a door.
Passing through a bright light they found themselves in a room filled with crystals. Rex grumbled at the sight of himself sitting against the wall. Several soldiers stood around him and at the far end could be seen Blood Diamond looking at a monitor with Golden Williams by his side.
Clover noted the past Rex looked near exactly the same as her Rex. She knew of his ageless form but seeing it like this was still disheartening. She wanted to speak up but was stopped as the past Rex replied with the same question. "Alicorns! Why am I here?" He huffed loudly.
"You know why!" Blood Diamond answered coldly as he continued to watch the screen.
"Please, Rex, explain again, this time to all of us," Golden Williams answered with a calmer tone.
"I already explained it to... Luna." The past Rex leered at Celestia, assuming she had been ease dropping.
"Maybe if we all heard the details, we could stop it," Golden Williams pointed out.
"I've tried many times, but I cannot stop someone's death." The past Rex turned away.
"There has to be a reason you were given this ability," Golden Williams argue.
"My own species had the same gift and did it save them? How do you know I can stop this--"
" I know you can!" a new voice entered the scene that through Clover for a full loop. Princess Luna approached the past Rex. She took his hands and held them tightly, practically begging him. "Do not ignore your visions now."
"I'll ignore them like you ignored me." He tossed her hands away so coldly and left to the other side of the room. "I told you not to say a word." He pointed at Luna. "I never expected your sister would be heartless enough to spy on us."
"I am the one that told them," Luna corrected him. "Please, we are running out of time."
The current Rex watched his past self's action with a mix of disdain and shame. "Let us go back to the other memories." His own pleas didn't stop Clover from stepping closer.
"No, I wish to know more." Clover stopped in front of the image of Luna and stared at her face. "This longing..." she whispered to herself.
"Fine, this was the Voss Grand incident which led to the defeat of the Centaur Empire. I was working with Cold Blue and Blood Diamond..." Rex stopped and waved his head back and forth. "It was my first mission after a long retirement. They forced me out of hiding... No." The modern Rex stopped in front of Luna before turning away from her. "She brought me out of hiding."
"What happened next?"
"I gave in and told them..." With that the room quickly moved forth. Everypony moved through their paths in time as if in tandem with his words. "Later Cold Blue was commanded to hold the fort while I fought the forces on the ground."
"Please tell me what the vision said?" Clover question.
"What does it always say... death." He gave no more word as the battle played out around them.
"How many?" Clover questioned as bodies piled around them.
"All of them... Every single centaur."
"And you didn't try to save them!" she screamed back as the bloodshed got worse.
"It wouldn't matter if I save them. It matter who was killing them!"
"It shouldn't matter who is going killing, you had to save them--" She was stopped as massive crystal shards rained down over the battlefield. The centaurs were no longer dying in battle, instead, being slaughtered in mass. "This is Blood Diamond's spell..." She remembered the images of Rage Mountain.
"No, this one is from his father." Rex pointed to the massive shadow of an alicorn in the clouds far bigger than any Clover had seen before. Under his wings rained the shards. "My vision was the death of King Ixion's wife. The king of the centaurs had went mad and declared war. Even a monster as evil as him needed to lead and with his sanity gone the rest of his kind would fall to my master's power."
"You couldn't save them all...?" She questioned again.
"Oh, yes." Rex conceded, "I did try with all my strength, but all of them died in a matter of minutes." More and more crystals crashed down, tossing up dirt, blood and chunks of flesh. The blood shed was far, far more gruesome than anything Blood Diamond could ever accomplish.
******
In the third area of the mindscape, Twilight and Cold Blue walked out of another door. This time they were covered in cake and frosting. They entered another room with a massive stairway made of crystals.
"So... that was Pinkie Pie?" Cold Blue questioned, shaking his clothing, hoping the memory of frosting would fade faster.
"Yeah, she's all kinds of fun!" Twilight laughed so hard, wiping away as much as she could while she ate a cherry. She reached over to pick another cherry off his face only for it to fade in her fingers. "Huh, that was faster than the last time."
"Good." Cold Blue huffed.
"Oh, too many fun memories for me to enjoy?!" Twilight slapped his back. "I'm sure we will find some of your fun memories soon enough!"
"That might take a while--"
Twilight pushed Cold Blue away as a younger version of her passed by with a dragon by her side. "Don't let them see us."
"Again, these are memories only. They can't acknowledge us."
"Then explain Pinkie Pie waving and throwing a cake with our names at us?!" Twilight pointed out.
"Can you explain any of Pinkie Pie's actions at all?" Cold Blue shot back. "That was the third time she noticed us."
"... good point. Though, I've always had suspicions that she might be clairvoyant." Twilight poofed a notepad into her hand and took some notes.
"That can be surmised later." Cold Blue stopped her. "Now which is this? Memory, dream, future?"
"Future for your time sure, but for me, this has to be before I gained my wings." Twilight walked over and poked her younger self's back. Pulling the hair up and measuring it she was able to gain an exact time. "In fact, three months, twenty-two days and six hours before I got my wings." She stopped at the sight of the dragon and rubbed his head. "I had forgotten how short Spike was back then." She compared his height to her and her younger self.
"Do I need to ask why he looks a lot like Princess Platinum's loyal guard?" He noted, "In fact, Pinkie Pie reminds me of another from the present. Actually, a lot of your friends do?"
Twilight waved her hand back and forth, laughing shyly. "Yeah, I suspect there might be a lot of reincarnation and fate at play around Ponyville. There are many more ponies in your time I've had to do a double take on just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Though, it's been happening more and more recently--"
Both were stopped as the floor flipped around them. Within seconds they were sliding up the stairway. Twilight was a mix of fear and joy and she grabbed tightly to Cold Blue. He gave no complaint and simply enjoyed the ride, at least this couldn't possibly lead to a mess.
The two flew down the ceiling for a few minutes passing several swirls as they appeared to be getting faster. Though this was clearly from Twilight's memories, she couldn't hide her excitement as they reach the bottom, or rather top. Unknown to her, she pressed closer to Cold Blue the closer their destination got.
Another bright light traced over them as they entered the opening. The two landed on the ground with a harder thud then she remembered. In fact, the quick spin had place Twilight directly on top of Cold Blue, with her bust smacking into his chest plate. She opened her eyes only to find her mouth right above his face, leaving her blushing madly.
Despite the position, they were in, neither moved for a solid minute. Instead, both were heavy of breath and could barely process their spots until their lungs slowed completely. Cold Blue was the first to move, lifting the alicorn above, trying not to sit her in his lap. Following his cue, Twilight pulled herself off of him and stood up. Both apologized for several moments, not realizing where they were at until they were done.
"Wait, this isn't right." Twilight was the first to point out something was wrong. "This isn't the room with the Crystal Heart."
"Oh, so that slide was in the Crystal Empire," Cold Blue chuckled, only to stop at the cold stare Twilight gave.
"Where is younger me and Spike?!" Twilight ran over to the door they entered. It wouldn't open much to her fear. She pulled with all her might only to fall back in Cold Blue's arms, the door refusing her.
The two turned back to see where they were. The room was darker then the previously presumed. Shattered pieces of crystal traced the ground in erratic fashion, when not floating through near pit black pools of unknown liquid. The final thing to reach them was an incredibly strong and horrible starch smell that was so powerful it pushed them both back.
"What is this place?!" Twilight covered her mouth.
"It's not from my memories." Cold Blue was toss completely off guard.
"Could it be from a possible future?" Twilight backed her way to the exit.
"Maybe, but whose? Our's or one of the others?!"
"We can't stay and find out or else the possible will become a reality--" Twilight was stopped by hitting a door again. Much to her shock, it was suddenly cracking open. "Over here. The sooner we leave the less chance we have of this future being real."
"Wait..." Cold Blue's eyes went wide at the sight of a familiar form that seemed very, very wrong. Blackish blue hair stretching down with slime like it was ink, ice tip wings near as massive as the room, and vicious cold dead eyes; these images only brought confusion, but that face was unmistakable. "Twilight, stop--" He couldn't say anymore as she pulled him through the doorway.
They vanished into the light, leaving behind the beastly figure. It smiled at them and walked over six very familiar ponies, each one drained of all their blood, crushing one of their heads under her massive bony dark blue crystal hand. "Did you see that girls?" The beastly figure cackled with venomous laughter. "Time travel is such a cold hearted bitch. See enough things and who knows what fate awaits you. Yes, awaits us all, Twilight Sparkle!!"
Rex and Clover came to their next room. It was a place Rex never thought he would see again. He was glad to be far from those previous memories, but he was in greater inner conflict upon seeing this room. Clover was utter confused by his reactions at the sight of it all. For her, this was so peaceful.
The scene was a small umbrum child playing with his siblings. It was a simple game of rolling the ball for the youngest of minds. It made sense for a colt that could barely talk. He had three siblings with him but it felt like he was the center and point of the scene above all else as the faces of the siblings were barely visible.
Another thing that caught Clover's sight was the blue horn on his head. She stepped closer to Rex and wrapped her hand in his, leaning her head over the figures as they played. "I never thought... You were such a cute child."
Rex gave no answer in words, instead, nodding in confirmation as his mouth fell agape in shock.
"So, we're back in the umbrum capital, I assume." Clover sat down and twirled the mane of the younger Rex. She admired the hope in his eyes. "I've never noticed it until now, but Twilight has the same amount of hope that you once had." She turned back to his eyes; the years had dulled them so much in comparison. "What pushed you so far away from this hope?"
"We... need to leave--"
Clover pulled him down to sit with her. "Can't we stay, in this place of hope and grace?" Clover wrapped his hand over the ball as it rolled by. "This moment is the happiest I have ever seen you." She scooted closer to Rex, urging him to enjoy this memory. Yet it filled his face with more fear than ever before.
"Please..." He begged. "Let us leave--" He was stopped once more as Clover took his lips in her mouth. Without any more waiting, she kissed him deeply and refused to let go.
Clover hoped the love and tenderness she had for him would replace this memory's fears. At this moment she accepted the reality she had been denying for the last two weeks. The image of Twilight played in her mind, making her want this to last forever. She would love Rex and even love her possible future... daughter.
******
Twilight and Cold Blue exited another room. This time they were covered in dust and dodging arrows. Jumping out of the way as a massive crystal shard flew by before vanishing in the shadows of the new path.
"Wow, that was a close one." Twilight slapped out the fire on her shoulder.
"Indeed," Cold Blue tapped on the massive axe in his back.
"Oh, damn. How did that happen?" She laughed and pulled the axe out. The images of the axe and the wound quickly vanished. "Well, that confirms we can't die in these memories."
"But we certainly feel the pain of it," he commented on the aches in his back. "So much time has passed. If we don't find the exit soon enough, these wounds will be real."
"I suspect the same," she concluded. "Maybe even death will claim us if we don't hurry."
"And yet you are smiling?" Cold Blue raised an eyebrow at her joy.
"I'm smiling because I'm seeing history." Twilight jumped up and down. "Sure, it's through your eyes but it's still history to me."
"Sounds like something you've wanted for a while!" He gave a small chuckle in return.
"Yeah, like ever since I arrived in this timeline." Twilight turned back to the door and pointed knowingly. "That last scene we were in. It's one thing being told about the Voss Grand incident, but witnessing it with my own eyes. The defeat of the centaurs happened all around me."
"Not true, we witness the final battle. Not the death of Ixion's wife which sparked the fighting."
"Right!"
Cold Blue raised his hand to his chin as the thoughts became more clear. "History is a questionable way of putting it. You witnessed them, I lived through them."
"Hey, you've seen some of my past too!" She popped back.
"True, seeing you take on Tirek, the last of the centaur, completely on your own and win. Now that was incredible!"
Twilight blushed at his comment but quickly corrected him, "Well, I wasn't alone in that fight. My friends were there. And I had the power of three other alicorns at the time. I doubt I could win a fight like that now!"
"Really?" Cold Blue laughed in an almost insulting tone. "You doubt yourself that much."
"No... I mean, not all the time," Twilight felt the sting of the insult but kept a big smile. "Sounds like you are doubting me!"
Cold Blue placed his hand on her shoulder and brought her closer. "No, not at all. You truly are one of the most powerful dark magic users I have ever seen. Besides, my battles weren't easy either. I would have died in that last battle without Rex."
"Wait, what?" Twilight stared wide eyed at the door. "He was there too?!"
"Yes, you didn't hear him getting stabbed through by King Emerald in the sky." Cold Blue pointed upward as if they were still in the memory. "If it hadn't been for the dark alicorn amulet and both our quick thinking, Rex would be half the power he is now... literally, and I would not be standing here!"
"Really, I guess I should thank you both for that." She laughed harder. "Rex saved you and you saved my--" She quickly stopped herself from revealing her connections to Rex. It was at this point Twilight realized despite spending fourteen hundred years in this mindscape with Cold Blue she had yet to tell him a thing about her biological past.
Luckily, he was too distracted by other details to notice she stopped herself. The siren had his eyes upward, noting things in his mind. Twilight found it nice that she wasn't the only one in this timeline that took mental notes, though she preferred more physical notes.
With her own thoughts, she poofed a notepad into his hands. "Care to explain. I love a good... nerd talk."
"Nerd talk?" Cold Blue raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry, Rainbow Dash's words." She waved the confusion off.
"Either way." He gave in a noted his thoughts on the paper. "That's the third memory involving me and Rex." Cold Blue turned back to the door, "There were also three memories of somepony I don't even recognize that well."
"I think those were Clover's memories," Twilight commented.
"Clover? Oh, right? Rex's current mistress," Cold Blue confirmed.
"What?!" Twilight's face went pale at Cold Blue's words. "You take that back about my--" She stopped herself again.
"..." Cold Blue smiled at her reaction. "You think Clover is a good match?"
"No... I don't know. Why would I know?" Twilight stammered back.
"Okay, if those memories of Clover and Rex, then who's the final pair?"
"There's also the mystery of who's connecting us all." Twilight poofed her own words on the notepad. "The mysterious light alicorn bending the mindscape. Once we find him, we can finally end this."
"That settles it." Cold Blue closed the notepad. "Let's figure out where we are now."
Twilight scanned over the place. It was a small hallway with a darkening path. She quickly realized something was wrong here. "This doesn't look familiar at all."
"Nor does it look familiar to me." Cold Blue leaned down and picked up a strange dark blue feather on the ground. "And I don't think the ones we are looking for are fully developed alicorns."
"Wait," Twilight took the feather and compared it to her own. "Impossible, mine doesn't match." She noted the feather was twice as long as hers. Twilight found it to be just as strange as the feather was so cold that it had ice forming at the end of it.
"Exactly, that feather is of an alicorn at least twenty thousand years old."
"What do you mean?"
"Every twenty thousand years alicorns go through a growth spurt that doubles their previous height as well as their wings and the length of their mane." Cold Blue took the feather back and pointed out to more ahead.
The two followed the path for what seemed like hours. Though the hallway was small, the length seemed unending. The two felt as if they had been walking for several miles. The entire time a faint light traced their path, yet no source could be spotted.
After six days of traveling, what must have been mere seconds outside the mindscape, the two reached their destination. They had followed millions of feathers, every few hundred were bigger than the previous ones. With the last ones covering the entire path. This prevented them from seeing the obvious until they were right on top of it.
Twilight was stopped at the sight of the floor changing dramatically. Entering the room, it went from feathers to skulls. It was a shocking see, to say the least. Even Cold Blue was caught off guard by the scope of it all. The room was several meters wide and the entire floor was covered in skulls.
No single species made up most of the mass. Instead, it was as if the heads were chosen at random, yet each one fit so perfectly into place. She didn't know how to react to such a scene. The only thing that told her to move forward was Cold Blue's own resolve to see this mission through.
Stepping forward she found her assumptions true. The layout was so perfect she never once felt a dip or rise in the surface. Closer inspection revealed no lacquer or solvent. Nothing was smooth or ever sharpened. All the skulls were setup in random order with so styles of them or the pattern at all yet each piece fit so perfectly that even jumping on them didn't mess with the arrangement.
The alicorn was so struck by the design that she barely noticed the darkness covering the rest of the room and the remaining details above it. She was curious but this floor alone raised plenty of questions like who made it and why? Most of all, the source; donations or she dreaded... trophies.
Cold Blue gave no comments to the floor and searched for the light source. Finally, after lighting some lamps pictures were revealed. "I think this is our destination."
"What do you mean by that?" Twilight gasped in shock and slowly approached the pictures.
"Just look at the first one for example." He pointed out the first one.
The image showed the silhouette of a princess and her dragon. They were surrounded by crescent moons and jewels. And had dogs bowing to their feet.
"That makes sense now nearly every memory involving me also involved Spike and Rarity. Mira must have been lurking here since shortly after losing the war."
"For what purpose?"
"Exactly, Aitym brought us here during her battle with Blood Diamond so there was no way they could have been in contact with each other."
"Remember, for us that was over that was several centuries ago."
"But for the real world, it was only a few days ago."
Cold Blue turn the lamp to another picture that only puzzled them even more. "This one looks almost like you only--" Cold Blue is quickly pushed out of the way as Twilight search the picture as if seeing it for the first time but wanting it more than anything.
"This isn't me!" Twilight pointed to two figures in the background. She smiled at the curved horn of the stallion and hoped the mare was Clover, but that shadow was even vaguer. "This is TwiLily."
"Who?" Cold Blue questioned.
"Well, its part of my theory of reincarnation." She pointed back to the previous picture. "I suspect that Mira and Dimitri are the pre incarnation of Rarity and Spike, just as I believe TwiLily is... well... me." Twilight twirled her foot in place. She knew how crazy it sounded but Cold Blue had no doubt in his eyes so she continued. "History books say that she was a powerful unicorn on par with the alicorns." She purposely left out the part of being Rex's daughter as she believed that might be harder to accept.
"Did you learn anything else about her?" Cold Blue stepped closer, earnest to know the truth.
"She adored books, could learn any spell, admired Celestia and Luna!" Twilight was stopped by having the siren this close.
"And?"
"She... had a..." Her eyes widened at this fact, "She... had a preference toward knights... in furry cloak..." She quickly stopped herself at that factor and tried not to stare at his uniform.
"Hmm, anything... I don't know." This time, Cold Blue seemed shy. "Anything monster related."
"What?" Twilight was caught off guard by the question but stopped at the sight of another figure in the picture. "Wait, is that?" She pointed out another person in the background with chains flowing around her.
"Who?"
"There was her greatest rival Selena Moondie..." Twilight drifted into thought, wanting to question Selena's appearance. Her hands drifted to her kopises, "She's also the one who gave me these. Me and Starlight encountered her multiple times through our travels."
"These pictures represent the ones inside the mindscape, then?" Cold Blue questioned the sight of the third picture. "Well, maybe this has something to do with Rex." He pointed to an image of a shadowy figure consumed in black flame. The Dark Alicorn Amulet was right below him only this time lit up with a blue gem as if the source of the fire. Behind him, the shape of the Crystal Empire could be seen.
"Huh, that might be Rex's future or something. Though I have no idea what the Crystal Empire is doing behind him." Twilight was intrigued but the image of fear in the shadow troubled her greatly. "Are there any other pictures around here?"
"Yeah, this one."
"Huh... Rainbow Dash!" She rushed over to an image of three silhouettes. Each of them looked exactly like Rainbow Dash to a T. Behind them was the giant hourglass that held the Batpony Canyons and the Pegasus Isles. The final detail was two gravestones at the bottom of the image.
"The jock pony!"
"What?" Twilight laughed at his comment remembering all too well she said it herself a few times. She slowly backstepped a little bit to try and get a better look at the picture but she couldn't figure out why her friend would be here too. 'Friend' Twilight turned her sight to the picture of Princess Platinum. "Wait, could that be it..." She turned her attention back to the image of the three Rainbow Dashes. "Rainbow Dartz..." Her eyes widened at two of them being stallions. "Yes, it is."
"One of your allies from that old village?"
"Yes, it has to be him, but why is he here--" The alicorn stopped as she finally felt the wall behind her. She turned around and came to the sight of the fifth picture. This picture was far scarier than the others and it made lesser sense by the minute.
The fifth image was of a pale, deformed alicorn down on all fours like some sort of wild animal. It was massive in size with dark blue wings covered in ice and a mane that slick down like ink, preventing Twilight from seeing its face fully. Despite the hidden details, Twilight felt as if she knew this alicorn. At her feet was possible the most frightening of all, the shattered remains of the elements of harmony.
"No, no, no, no!!" Twilight shouted at the image. "That makes no sense at all... just who are you?!" She demanded a response, backing away from the picture and in utter confusion. "Who?! Who are you?!?!" she screamed at it.
Cold Blue was at a loss to Twilight's actions. He didn't have the guts to tell her this was the same figure they saw in the strange possible future. The mere existence of the picture brought a deathly sickness to Twilight's mind as she could barely stand in the sight of it. The siren was forced to pull her away before she fell unconscious.
"No," Twilight argued. "There's writing here below it." She fought through the agony of her fear to read it. "Behold the killer of Harmony and Chaos, the last alicorn, Elisus Lunea Lumen." Twilight's eyes fell too heavy and Cold Blue pulled her away completely.
The siren finished the description. "She lies at the end of time itself and no one can escape her wrath, malice, and hatred. All are consumed forever and ever and her endless circle!"
"Elisus," Twilight repeated. "Why does that name sound so familiar?" She could feel her heart skip a beat out of fear by merely hearing the name. "Do I know you?" She gave her final comment before turning away.
"We need to leave." Cold Blue picked her up.
"Agreed..." She stopped, "There is a final picture."
Cold Blue faced it only to find the same kind of fear Twilight was feeling. "I know this one." The siren stepped closer to the final picture.
"What do you mean?"
"Rather, this simply confirms a mystery that has haunted me for so long." The description underneath was a single name, "C. C. Frost." The image showed two figures clashing with a bloody frozen mare in the background and an infant in her hands. One of the figures was unmistakable, from the horns to the shape of the skull, it was indeed Indigo Frost. But who was he fighting? The other figure was a complete unknown to Twilight, and yet, Cold Blue stared at him with the most fear.
The alicorn stopped at the sight of fins on the figure's cheeks, "The opponent was a siren. Just like you."
"I thought," he stopped looking over the picture and traced his fingers over Indigo Frost's image, and then the siren. Both of them seemed to bring hatred to his eyes. "I thought it was just a legend. A war between sirens and wendigos only ending with the death of the wendigo king... By the hand of the king of sirens."
"The king of siren?"
"His name was Crisis Claudius Blue."
"Blue?" Twilight questioned, "As in your ancestor, Crisis Blue was the one who killed Indigo Frost!!"
"That solves the final mystery." With that Hollow Prince appeared behind them.
"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned only to stop when Hollow Prince vanished only to reappear in another place.
"Please question your own thoughts on this mystery." Hollow Prince vanished and reappeared somewhere else. "I'm a bit busy."
"What?!" Twilight attempted to grab him in her magic.
"I thought connecting my magic with the dreamscape would make things easier on you." He flashed through the room faster. "Though, Cassandra isn't happy with the draining."
"Cassandra Eveningstar!" Twilight growled at his confirmation. "Battling Nightmare Moon is never a good idea. Trust me, I've fought her in three different hosts, including an alternate timeline version of myself!"
"I can see that," Hollow Prince tried to not sound mocking. "Find the connections, through them you will see the anomaly!"
"Connections, anomaly?!" Both Cold Blue and Twilight were stopped in their questioning as the room shook violently. Hollow Prince stopped reappearing leaving them in the unknown of how to stop all of this and save themselves.
******
Outside of the mindscape, above all the hellish corpses and burning cities was the center of the hourglass. Starswirl was waiting quietly for everypony else to be finished down below. Boredom had taken its course long ago as he spun the alathar in his hand.
He sat in the quiet white room with his eyes on the elevator. He noted that somepony had activated it hours ago but nopony had arrived. This meant that either the elevator was busted, or movement was being halted for some reason, either through something blocking the doors or over capacity. His attention was also on a checkerboard in front of him. A simple game compared to the kind the alicorn played but something he always enjoyed.
There was nopony on the other side but the pieces moved, regardless. Once the opponent made their move, he made one in quick succession. Though the game was fast for him, his opponent was taking his sweet time. "Do you really plan for me to wait all day?" He took an enemy piece.
There was no reply, simply the absolute peak of silence. The opponent was one he fought often but he never knew who was on the other side. Though that was only half true, Starswirl knew their likes and dislikes, taste, and even manners, but never a face and especially not a name.
"Come on, be a little chaotic. I know you love that, you old serpent." Starswirl mocked his opponent over and over as time passed. "By the time we are done, my milk is going to turn into cheese." He sipped his chocolate milk, smirking at the next move. "Ha, make this a challenge." He took three pieces this time. "Looks like this will be my third win in a row."
"Hmm, then I better win."
The movement was quick to take four of Starswirl's pieces. The old wizard was so shocked by the move he barely noticed the answer. "You only talk when you're claiming victory!"
"Yes, I'm about to." The opponent moved another piece.
"Really? because king me!!" Starswirl cheered louder by taking five pieces and putting one of his pieces at the very end.
"That's your third king already. Usually, you beat me with just two."
"Hey, I'm the one that does the mocking."
Another piece moved with no answers. The old wizard feared he scared him off so he passed a cup of chocolate milk to the opponent. "Drink up."
"How can I?" The voice commented, tapping his next piece in place. "I am you after all."
"No, you are something more, you old serpent!" Starswirl readied his finger on his own piece as if challenging him to take it.
"Old serpent... can't we ever think of a better name." With that, the piece moved to take out not only Starswirl's piece but also his two kings.
Starswirl was shocked to see his new king was now his only good piece left. "I see, then what should I name you."
"I think we should keep it to fate." The opponent moved his pieces to block Starswirl in.
"Fate, or the future?!"
"Oh, yes, what did that unicorn call us? Dis..." This time things were different. The opponent picked up the piece and flipped it over. Accepting defeat much to Starswirl shock a hand became visible over the piece.
Despite the preference to call his opponent a serpent, the hand was that of a bird. The other hand followed being that of a lion and soon the body slowly appeared. The image was faint but clearly still that of a serpent.
"So what is our name?" Starswirl took this final note as the elevator beeped loudly. The machine was finally moving.
"One final game. A very short time limit." A grin shined proudly with it's single outward sharp tooth.
Many miles away, the unicorn capital was dealing with its own chaos as Nightmare Moon threw Hollow Prince through several skyscrapers, destroying each one instantly before bashing him into the ground at high velocity, sending out many massive shock waves through the grounds within and outside the city.
Hollow Prince crashed into the filthy underground city below the capital. Nightmare Moon wasn't done as she crashed herself down through the same rubble, sending him further down into the ruins of the naga kingdom. Only for Hollow Prince to catch her by the leg and spin her around in the air, using her as a dampening pad against the final surface.
Nightmare Moon flipped around and threw another punch only for Hollow Prince to catch it. "What are you?!" She struggled out more power, pushing him back down.
"I am the King of the Mindscape. Just as you rule dreams. I command thought!!" He matched her power and reversed her efforts into failures.
The evil alicorn traced her eyes over the surrounding pillars. With a flick of her horn, they flew into the thought being. However, he was quicker, turning the pillars on her with but a thought. Forcing Nightmare Moon to fly out of the way allowed him to gain the advantage.
Moving faster than she could predict, he punched her so hard in the gut, yet prevented her from bouncing away. He didn't even give her time to recover from the bile rising before bashing her into a building above ground. Tearing her face across the walls and flinging her into the Castle of Princess Platinum.
Luna landed at the foot of the previous ruler's statue. She tried to calm her flames, but Nightmare Moon refused to fall to this insult of power. "What are you?!" She screamed again as Hollow Prince reappeared.
He punched her in the face; she bashed her wing into his shoulder and uppercut him. He spun in the air and slammed both his legs into her shoulder, breaking the collarbone instantly. The evil alicorn screamed in agony as her arm fell, limp and unmoving. Her howls were stopped as Hollow Prince grabbed her by the throat.
It was strange; he lacked a horn or even a powerful body. There wasn't even a magical glow emanating from him as he used his power. He made no sense to her as if he was a complete mockery of her power. She had little to no control inside Luna's body and yet; he walked around effortlessly.
"Please, stop this!" Golden Williams rushed in.
"Cassandra was the one who started this," Hollow Prince posed. He squeezed tighter until magic flowed over his arm.
"Put my sister down!" Celestia roared with rage, aiming her magic to tear his arm off.
"You think a mere spell can stop me." He turned his sight to her.
Celestia's eyes went wide as pain filled her head. She pushed through and squeezed his arm into breaking yet his bout on her didn't halt her head filled with so much pain that she could barely stand.
"If you must know, I am simply tethered to this body. I cannot feel pain or agony. However, I will not let you torture my Blood Diamond!" He narrowed his eyes on her as the pain knocked her out completely.
"I said stop!!" Golden Williams pressed a blade to the back of Hollow Prince's neck.
"Do you wish to kill your brother's body?" Hollow Prince frowned at Golden Williams's resolve. "He was right to despise you all."
"What?" the pink alicorn was shocked by his words. "You can't mean that?! Blood Diamond is the most loyal of all alicorns."
"Yes, but Blood Diamond hates every single alicorn in existence. This includes you and his father." Hollow Prince quickened with more rage.
Golden Williams felt his breath hit his stomach in horror. "I said, stop!!" He rushed his blade forward as powerful light magic formed in Hollow Prince's mouth.
A single move ended the battle. "Forbidden Spell! Roar of a God!!" A massive soundwave tore through the capital, ripping apart the massive walls around it. The center of unicorn society was freed and at the same time, a massive hole lay through the lands.
Luna fell to the ground, damaged but alive. Nightmare Moon hid deep within the mare, leaving her out cold. Golden Williams stopped his blade as Hollow Prince fell to the ground out cold too.
Blood Diamond flipped back into reality only to reply with. "That took the last of his power. Time is running out. Only Nightmare can stop the oncoming storm..." He was soon out too, leaving Golden Williams completely in the dark as to what to do next.
******
Deep within the mindscape, Clover and Rex still had yet to leave the scene from before. The two watched it on replay over and over. Clover still hadn't figured out what made him so scared, but the showing of her emotions had finally calmed him. They watched the scene as much as possible, unsure where to go next or even if they wanted to leave.
While Rex remained silent, Clover's mind was racing. She had made a proclamation in that kiss. Yet she found it funny that promise was around Twilight Sparkle of all ponies. When she first met her, it was hard to admit, but the unicorn was jealous of the alicorn. Such a powerful mare, showing up with far more knowledge of Rex than she ever had. She never considered Twilight was his daughter, nor did she ever consider herself a possibility in making such a thing happen in the first place.
She had been with Rex for a few years now. Never once did she consider a future... involving children. Wait, she thought to herself, what if Twilight wasn't the only one awaiting her? The thought made her mind run madly with happiness. She had many siblings of her own and to give them plenty of nieces and nephews sounded all the more fun. She had been an aunt plenty of times herself, but never the other way around.
Of course, what kind of future would the children have? She barely considered her own future half the time. Could she really put thought into the future of children she didn't even have yet? Would they be powerful alicorns like Twilight? Would they inherit her acrobatic experience? Or her father's desire for knowledge? She laughed at that comment, realizing Twilight already had an expansive desire for knowledge that easily matched Stygian. What about Rex? Would they inherit anything from him?
Without Clover realizing it the scene had finally reached a change in the format. The younger version of Rex fell backward and his eyes widened. He immediately rubbed them intensely. Without warning, he jumped back up and rushed over to his mother, holding onto her leg tightly.
"Huh, I didn't know you were a mommy's boy?!" Clover leaned her head on Rex's shoulder and hummed with delight. "Do you think Twilight is the same--"
"No, there's something else." He noted the strange noise echoing outside of the room. "It sounds like..." His eyes widened and his face seemed to match the same fear his younger self had, only it was getting more intense by the minute. "No, no!!" He backed away from the sight of his younger self.
"What's wrong?" Clover questioned as he pulled away from her.
"This day... not this day."
"What about this day?" She shook Rex for answers.
"This was the day... we all envisioned..." He dropped to his knees at the sounds of his younger self crying.
"What does it mean, mother?" The younger Rex questioned. "Why won't these images stop?!"
"I don't know..."
It was at this point Clover noticed the same face of fear on the mother as well. In fact, the other siblings finally came into focus, each one screaming with the same horror. They were all matching the same sounds outside.
"No..." Clover came to the same realization. "All your species had the same vision..."
"This was very different." Rex turned his sight to the door. "Not a vision of escape, but needed acceptance..."
With that word the door burst open and a stallion ran in with the same amount of fear. "It's happening. It's happening now!!"
"Honey, what do you mean?" The mother was in a mix of emotions at the sight of her beloved but the worst was yet to come as the screams outside intensified.
"The deaths... are happening--" The father was violently stopped as blood splattered from his mouth.
The mother shrieked at the sight of a spear tearing through his chest. One sibling tried to catch the father but he pushed them out of the way as another spear flew in, barely missing the child. It mattered not like the wall behind the child collapsed. Clover's eyes widened at the snapping sounds of one of Rex's siblings being crushed before her eyes.
The unicorn turned to her Rex only to see him staring down in defeat. His younger self could only cry louder at the sight. Clover wanted a closer look at the chaos beyond the rumble of the wall, but since this was Rex's memories she was forced to see things from his perspective.
"King Heavonos..." The father gave words through the blood pouring from his mouth.
"What?" The mother covered her children only for bony hands to rip out of the wall behind her and grabbed her by the throat."
"The King of the alicorns..." The father was bleeding too much to process his wife being snuffed out of her life. All he could do was reach out to the younger Rex. "He's... he's..."
"He had been murdered and blame has been cast upon dark kind..." Words echoed around the memory as everything fasted forward once more.
Clover backed away in horror as the truth of the outside came into the room. Bodies, just like what they had witnessed in reality. Only they were moving. Running into the room and ripping apart Rex's siblings before the younger one's very eyes.
"The umbrum were forced to defend themselves from the oncoming attack and visions of their own deaths." The words returned, seeming the mock the events as they continued.
The colt could only watch, hidden under the body of his now-dead mother. The undead simply beat the mother's skull in and never once noticed him at all. Instead, once finished they continued their rampage outside.
"Such a glorious and beautiful spell. The temptation was too strong at the sight of invading forces at their doorstep."
Clover was forced to watch the younger Rex pull himself out from under the rotting corpse of his own mother. The mother's bones cracked loudly before she moved too.
"A spell, made for defense," the voice laughed at them. "Giving them the ability to never stop fighting, even after death." The younger Rex jumped away as the flesh of his mother reached out to him with the same rage as the rest. "No matter who the target is."
The younger Rex was freed again as the undead corpse of his father bit down on the arm of his mother. Seeing his chance he ran away. Time moved faster and faster as the younger Rex spent days, months, and years dodging the jaws of his own people.
"There was only one way to end their misery!!"
Flames spread over every house, bringing a now older Rex out of hiding. He was barely under the age of a teen and yet there was such brokenness on his face.
Clover tried to stop the younger Rex, wanting to wrap her arms around him. Her attempts to bring happiness were not as he walked through her and toward an all too familiar church.
"Yes, step closer, umbrum. Show the place where the spell was cast!!" The voice became clearer and clearer within the minutes.
Clover's eyes slowly widened as the voice took the form of a filly. She raced over to the modern Rex and shook him up. "Wake up. Don't let him see that memory!!" She screamed at him, but he wouldn't respond.
"Yes, give me what I desire?!" The voice laughed louder.
"No, Rex. This voice matches the siren sisters! Which means this is the alicorn that Starswirl warned us about?!" Clover screamed away in vain.
"Let me see the spell in its fullest form!" The voice called to the darkness within the church. Such a pit of blackness that nothing could be seen beyond it. Clover's eyes widened as Rex vanished into the mass and she didn't hesitate to follow him. Everything around her fading into the darkness. Everything but that voice, cackling in victory.
******
On the other side of the mindscape, Cold Blue and Twilight wandered the room of pictures. Both were thinking through Hollow Prince's last words to them. He had yet to return since then and the place had been going through random moments of shaking. The two knew they were running out of time. But his words made no sense.
"Connections and anomalies?'" Cold Blue repeated as he constantly watched the picture of Crisis Blue and Indigo Frost.
Twilight, on the other hand, kept moving her sight between the pictures of Twilily, Mira, and Rainbow Dartz. "Each one of these pictures... They all hold a connection?" She couldn't figure out what he meant, so she noted her thoughts aloud. "They're trapped in the mindscape, right? Just like us."
"Yes, but that can't be the only connection he's referring to..."
"No..." Twilight's eyes slowly widened. "No, it's not just that!" She looked to the only picture she spent the entire time ignoring. Much to her fear, the sight of Elisus still brought sickness to her mind. "This one isn't trapped here, so what's its connection?"
"I... I don't know." Cold Blue kept his mind and the picture of the siren and wendigo.
"And this picture?" Twilight rushed over to the same picture he was staring at. "Why show off this piece? It's barely connected to you at all?"
"It was always just a legend to my species."
"Exactly, they are all pieces of the past, and yet..." Twilight thought about it more. "There is another connection..." She traced her eyes over each picture slowly once more, stopping on the picture of Mira. "Their connections to me... Me and past itself!" Her eyes widened. "For example, Rarity and Spike?" She raced to their image and placed her hand upon it.
Finally, a reaction happened. The room shook far more violently, but this time it felt more centralized. "Wait a minute?" Cold Blue tried to stop her, only to accidentally place his hand on the picture as well.
With no more warning, the picture shifted its image. The picture of Mira changed to show a young unicorn with an egg. Both were left perplexed.
"What's happening now?!"
"This was the day... It was when I hatched Spike." She pointed out to the alicorn watching the unicorn from the picture. "It was a secret test from Celestia. None of the teachers thought I could do it... but I did!" The egg in the image hatched in response to her words.
"Incredible!"
Twilight found herself continuing to tell the past as it was shown in the picture. "Spike had a crush on Rarity from the moment we arrived in Ponyville. Though their relationship came into view for the first time after he told her during his birthday." The images changed to form a giant dragon carrying Rarity around.
"Rare sight to see a dragon fully embrace his inner monster..." Cold Blue's words confused Twilight greatly, but she continued the story, anyway.
"It had been the first time he let his greed take control, and it was too much for him. Luckily, with Rarity's help, he regained his composure." The dragon shrank, and the two fell from the sky. "Spike confessed everything to her... but she was too scared to accept such an offer, yet."
"It didn't end there?"
Time in the image moved again revealing Rarity in her own taller form with black fur and a flowing mane. "It wasn't over until our second battle with Nightmare. Cassandra no longer had Luna as a body so she took Rarity. Spike was forced to face her alone... and attempt to free Rarity from her control." Another change revealed a giant Spike fighting a giant Rarity and freeing the mare, then sharing a short kiss.
"Sounds like those two have a complicated relationship in any timeline."
"Yes, you could say that." The image changed, showing the two walking down a sunset-lit road before quickly fading. "I've met multiple versions of them throughout my journeys and each pair has its good and bad days." The image changed and revealed an alternate timeline of them, showing Spike as a giant Chinese dragon and Rarity as a skinless assassin. "All of them have faced unspeakable horror, and each pair has found a way to love each other. My timeline's version of Spike and Rarity's relationship has never gotten intense, but the two will always find time to at least go out on the town." The final image is that of them enjoying a loving smile.
Twilight pulled away as the picture returned to its original form. Both seemed drained from this move, yet the alicorn was far from done. She pulled Cold Blue over to the picture of Rainbow Dartz. "We need more details."
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes... we'll be fine." She pressed her hand on Rainbow Dartz's image. Just like before, it changed too. "Then, there was Rainbow Dash..." She stopped at the image of the three siblings. She didn't recognize them at all or what they meant. However, soon it changed into an image of Rainbow Dash and three smaller very familiar fillies. Twilight smiled and continued as the room shook in response. "Rainbow Dash had no siblings in my time, but she always found time to take care of the youngest of fillies like they were her sisters, the CMC being the biggest example. That was true in every timeline, like one where I saw her run an orphanage... and even nearly die protecting it."
The image changed to show Rainbow Dash fighting a batpony with metal arms. He was beating her so easily, yet she never faltered once. "She was the greatest symbol of loyalty I ever knew..." Bright light filled the picture at Rainbow Dash's defeat.
"I get she was part of your friends, but what was her connection to the other pictures."
"She wasn't always my friend..." Twilight turned away but kept her hand on the picture as it changed again. "I remember, once she was more for me."
"I... I see." Cold Blue lowered his head to a new image. This was of Twilight and Rainbow Dash sharing a kiss.
His reaction brought Twilight back to reality, and she quickly corrected him. "It was very, very short-lived. Rainbow Dash was the most loyal of friends but a wildflower when it came to love."
The image flipped through multiple scenes, showing Rainbow Dash with somepony else each time. "Cheating on me with Applejack, then later cheated on her with the mailmare, Derpy. Left both of them for Derpy's brother... until Discord trapped the stallion in his chaos dimension. Which led to her starting a small fling with Fluttershy while attempting to sway Spike away from Rarity and failing horribly on both fronts. Before I was trapped on these travels, she had just started things with Soarin of the Wonderbolts and it looked like it might be serious..." Twilight gave a small chuckle, "But I doubt that one will last either."
It was rather an amusing play of images going in fast forward with Rainbow Dash kissing each of the suitors then she got to Spike. Rarity slapped her and walked off with her little dragon. Rainbow Dash gave little care and chased after Soarin as he walked by.
"If she was so random, then why include her."
"No, Pinkie Pie was a thousand times more random..." The image flipped by far faster to Pinkie Pie swinging with millions of stallions and mares alike before stopping in front of a yellow pony with a brown mane as crazy as hers. Twilight's eyes drifted down, and she twisted her foot on the ground. "Rainbow Dash... she was my first..." Her face went red as the image flipped back to Rainbow Dash pushing Twilight down onto a bed. "Okay, we've seen enough!" She pulled her hand free, making it fade as Rainbow Dash crawled over her.
"Oh... I see. So that's the connection... their all connected to you in some form or another... From friend to family to love and foes..."
"And now..." Twilight turned from the picture of Twilily. She found herself hesitating until Cold Blue joined her. Placing their hands on it, the image changed to show Twilight sitting at a table. "I originally told myself no relationships while time traveling. I've read too many books where that goes horribly wrong... But then there was..."
"Crimson," Cold Blue answered. The images flowed out revealing an all too familiar stallion sitting at the table with Twilight.
"Yes..." She winced away with all her might as the image flipped by faster and faster. It showed them meeting every day and the past Twilight never making a move forward. Soon they witnessed the crystal announcements, followed by her fight with Starlight, her encounter with the wendigo, and finally... Twilight fell to her knees upon hearing the splashing of Crimson's blood all over the altar.
Cold Blue helped her up and apologized, "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it."
"What do you mean?" Her eyes widened upon turning back to the image and saw past Cold Blue facing the Pale Mare. "You... that's right. You saved me..." Twilight found herself falling into his arms. "You were there when I... When I lost everything!"
"Yes, I'm sorry." He wrapped his arms around her. The image stopped and gave no more answers. This left three more pieces, but Twilight was getting close to putting it all together. She only needed a bit more details.
Slowly they moved to the image of the pony engulfed in black flames and the dark alicorn amulet below it. This one was the most confusing of all as the amulet shined brightly with a blue gem instead of a red one. Twilight couldn't figure out its meaning but maybe she could turn her attention to the background.
Cold Blue followed her sight. "The Crystal Empire?"
"Yes..." She smiled with a small tension of fear. "The Crystal Empire was my very first test to becoming an alicorn. Though, I didn't know it at the time." The image changed before they could even touch it. Everything about it, except the alicorn amulet, changed to show Twilight arriving at a familiar stairway.
"I see," Cold Blue confirmed.
"In this battle, I fought and outwitted the legendary King Sombra." The image showed a giant shadow towering over the Crystal Empire with the head of a pony. "Or at least, I considered him legendary at the time... according to the words of my mentors, the Princesses."
"What do you mean?"
"Shortly after beginning my travels, I did research to ensure I wouldn't run into certain things I knew existed in the past." The image changed to her in several libraries throughout multiple timelines. "Despite the princesses claiming his existence, I have found no record of any crystal pony or classic unicorn with the name Sombra."
"How do you know he was one of these species?"
"I don't know what he was as I only encountered him through his traps and spells. His real form was only on the battlefield for a few minutes and even then, I wasn't the one who fought him directly." The image showed another alicorn facing him down.
"So, there are other alicorns in your future."
"Yeah, Cadance... She's a descendant of Golden Williams..." Twilight remembered him too. "She even looks like him some."
"Anything else?"
"I've encountered alternate timeline versions of this Sombra." The image changed to show off several versions, each more monstrous than the last. "Those, while depicted stronger, were not around long enough for me to scale to species. He could match two alicorns rather easily. Heck, in one alternate timeline he fought both an alicorn Sunset Shimmer, Discord, and a reality corrupting being like F. All three at the same time."
Soon enough the images stopped and returned to the original picture. Twilight never gave it the chance to show Rex, Clover, or anyone else. Instead, she was left more in confusion by the questions around Sombra. What were his connections to her? What were his connections to Rex? And above all, what was the connection to the dark alicorn amulet?
This made no sense to Twilight. She hoped to look through the images and find the connections. She thought it was her, but that last picture seemed to conflict with her theories, showing only a connection to Sombra and nothing for her.
With nothing left, Twilight turned her attention to her greatest fear, the picture of Elisus. Much like the original two, it gave no response to simply looking at it, forcing her to make the next move. Hesitation was so strong and her fear was even stronger as she pushed herself to the image. She didn't know what the piece had in store for her, but time was running out.
"Is this a piece of me...?" Twilight questioned, turning her attention to the shattered remains of the elements of harmony under the monstrous alicorn. She dreaded to finish her words, "A piece of my fate, my death..."
"Your death..." Cold Blue repeated.
"I am a wielder of the element to Magic." Her head dropped at her own confirmation. "If the shatter remains of my former power lie at her feet, then that means only one thing."
"Elisus is your killer." Cold Blue narrowed his eyes on each of the elements of harmony. "Killer of all the gems..."
"Yes... gems..." Twilight's eyes slowly widened at that word, repeating it several times, louder and louder.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Gem!!" She screamed at her loudest, racing back over to the picture of the alicorn amulet surrounded by black flames and she pointed. "We were so distracted by what we didn't see that we completely ignored what we saw." She narrowed her eyes on the blue gem.
"The Dark Alicorn Amulet? What about it?"
"Before my travels through time I fought somepony wielding an alicorn amulet." The image changed from the burning pony to showing a blue mare with a wizard's hat. "She was an arrogant and prideful unicorn who knew very little about power." The image changed to Twilight fighting Trixie. "Despite my knowledge, I had to concede in our battle and fight her a different way. I knew just as little too when it came to this power. So, I studied it and found there were three variations." The image showed three alicorn amulets. "I assumed the one I fought was normal at first. However, as I traveled through timelines I found myself wrong, it was the Dark Alicorn Amulet and not the base for it all. This one, I encountered again, two more times."
The image changed to show Twilight standing in the ruins of a city with a crater beyond it. The size and power shocked Cold Blue. "Such danger..."
Twilight gave little care to the crater and turned her attention to the one standing above it, on a throne of red and blue crystals. "The next time I encountered it was an alternate timeline version of Trixie. This is where I witnessed its hydra-like limits." The image changed to that of a giant dragon and a speedy pegasus warrior fighting Trixie and her thousands of arms.
"And?" Cold Blue was getting curious by the second.
"The last time before reaching this timeline was that overpowered version of Sombra who seemed to be its current master of that time." The image showed a version of Sombra with massive wings and pipes going through his body, keeping him alive.
"What makes you think that?" Cold Blue questioned.
"Because much like Rex, I saw Sombra talking to the spirit within the Dark Alicorn Amulet." The image showed him talking to the amulet. "Both referred to it as 'old goat'." Twilight stopped her explanation and walked closer, wanting to place her hand not just over the picture, but in a certain spot. "No matter the user, whether it spoke to them or not, or even the distance of time between each encounter, the Dark Alicorn Amulet was always red, not blue!"
"And? It could have changed."
"Yes, but the source of it being red was always a strange choice since dark magic itself is also a form of red, maroon red."
"So the gem's color is chosen by the power source." Cold Blue's eyes widened.
"Exactly, and what magic do we know takes the form of blue."
"Light magic! That would make it impossible for Rex to touch it."
"Not only that, there are three light magic users we know. Golden Williams, Blood Diamond, and above all, the one controlling this spell, Aitym!" Twilight smiled as Cold Blue stood beside her and motion him to follow her actions. She placed both her hands over the image of the alicorn amulet and the room shook far more violently than ever before, cracking the corners with its force. She winced as pain traveled down her hand. "I was right, it's afraid of me."
The alicorn amulet seemed to move back in the picture. At the same time, the rest of the picture twisted and wrinkled with its movement. Twilight raced over and ignored the pain, slamming her hand upon the image.
A loud hiss echoed out. The shrill of a filly's pain bounce throughout the room. Twilight smiled and didn't let it escape this time, slamming her other hand in the direction it fled. It hit her hand and the room's walls twisted and peeled.
"There is only one way to handle such power," Twilight turned her full sight and took a stance. "That is if you trust me."
Cold Blue raised an eyebrow as the alicorn, lined up his hands with hers. "I... I do." The siren stallion had his chest right against her back. Straightening his position to her position.
"Match my output!" Twilight's horn filled with so much dark magic and his frills did the same. It traced down to their eyes, flowing maroon liquid out of their tears. The power reached their shoulders and then their hands. Once both had as much dark magic as they could muster into their hands, the power twisted together. Space itself bent around them as the alicorn amulet had nowhere to go. "Not yet..." Twilight winced as she felt the maroon blood rising in her throat. Her fear grew as she felt the same warmth of maroon blood rise in Cold Blue's throat too. "Damn it, Pale Mare... Please, work with me." Her eyepatch burned just as intensely as the pale form spread over her face. "Ha, Starlight better not find out I used such a reckless spell..." Maroon red flowed out of their eyes like fire. "Repeated after me."
The two spoke in unison. "Forbidden Spell, Dual Black Hand of Darkness!!" Space around their hands crackled loudly in such a way that pain-filled every pour in their limbs. At the same time, a massive beam of pure dark magic blasted outward, burning through the picture.
The alicorn amulet image shook as if in fear. The power sheered the image away and the roars of agony from the filly trapping them in there became more intense. As the last bits faded so did the realm around them in a beam of black light.
******
Outside of the mindscape, the church was shaking violently as the room did. The place could barely stand under such pressure. The source was the egg sitting in the center of the altar.
The ifrits ran into the room only to fall in pain. "What is happening?" Sage winced in agony.
"It's our connection to the darkness," Vanity confirmed. "Somepony is draining it."
"No!" Aitym spat up blue blood, "Those two are using too much dark magic." The body he was using struggled to stand as the power became too much. Even now, his pull over his siren host was weakening.
The ifrits looked on in confusion as tears flowed from the eyes of the siren filly. "Please. let me go?!"
"No, I'm so close to finishing!!" Aitym roared back at the host. "Damn it, the Heart of Darkness was so close to finishing. That damn mare and her siren!!" He turned his sight of the ifrits. "Maybe I could use others." His eyes widened at Rex and Clover's bodies. "Yes, I need a new host--
Everything was stopped as a massive blast of dark magic tore through the egg holding Twilight and Cold Blue. It shot upward and tore a giant hole in the church before flying higher and higher, only being stopped by the walls of the hourglass several miles up. The blast continued to pour out until a massive seer was left as it faded.
The egg gave a loud cackling before breaking completely. Twilight and Cold Blue softly rolled out of it and to safety. Aitym backed away in horror but kept his eyes on the others, Rex, Clover, Princess Platinum, and Rainbow Dartz. Giving no more thoughts on the matter he rushed over to them. It didn't matter which one he used and could do.
"Sound Spell Number 5, Spring Song?!" A sound wave crackled through the air and sliced the filly's hand open.
Aitym couldn't fight the agony flowing through his host as she fell backward away from the bodies. He turned his eyes to see Cold Blue readying his falcata for another strike, filling it with sound magic. "No, you wouldn't dare kill a child--" He was stopped as the filly was lifted into the air by maroon magic.
"He won't need to..." an eyepatch rolled over as Twilight walked out with a single hand aimed at the filly. Her face was slowly being consumed by the Pale Mare. It took all her might to keep it contained and used its power for what she needed.
"You can't control your darkness forever." Aitym leered over to the siren stallion. "He knows that as well as you."
"Aitym!!" Twilight screamed with the Pale Mare's voice as half her face twisted into an insane smile. "That was never your true name, just the name the other alicorns imprisoned upon you."
He roared out. "I need no other name!!"
"When I blasted the false image, I saw a piece of your true self." The Pale Mare laughed with an all too familiar venomous cackle. "Show your true self."
Cold Blue didn't want his fear to be known, but he had to agree. The more Twilight used this power now, the harder it would be to control. She needed more time and more training. His eyes fell upon Rex and Clover. "Why haven't they awoken yet?"
Space crackled just as loud as her laughter. The wood under the filly twisted upward as a maroon crystal hand stretched out of the ground, growing bigger by the second. Twilight's voice mixed perfectly with the Pale Mare as she repeated her proclamation in two voices flowing as one. "Show your true self, abandoned alicorn!!"
******
Rex and Clover awoke in the church quite violently. Only instead of themselves being at the altar, they were at the front. Clover was the last one to see where they were, yet she found Rex somehow dumbfounded at the surrounding sights. She wanted to smile, finding herself back in reality but something was telling her to look at what he was staring at.
It was somehow slower for her, but she realized the church was on fire. The entire building was burning to the ground all around them. She mentally slapped herself for not noting sooner. However, when she tried to pull Rex away, his body refused to move. He wasn't like a statue of shock, but rather something else was holding him in place.
"Rex, please. Get up!" She screamed as the flames drew closer.
"This place..." It seemed to be the only answer he could give.
"We were here before being trapped in the mindscape..." She gritted her teeth and pulled with all her might. "Now, move!!" He slipped free from her hands and she fell into the flames. The lack of pain halted her screams of agony. "What?" She sat up and found the flames were going through her. "No... that means we're still in..."
Clover's words were stopped as the doors opened and revealed an all too familiar child. Seeing the younger Rex made her want to race back to her Rex, but now she was the one unable to move. Rex, on the other hand, finally could stand. Clover called out for him to face her and not turn to the doorway, but nothing came out of her mouth.
Rex turned to see his younger self in the doorway. The child was beaten and broken, covered in the dried blood of his family, friends, and allies. He reached out to his younger self, yet his hands phased through just like the flames did to her.
“Here child,” a voice echoed through the flames. It was a very different voice to the filly controlling this mindscape.
Clover's eyes followed it to see the altar. No flames could touch it at all. It was a safe haven in this hell, but her eyes widened upon seeing what lay upon that altar. "No, Rex stop him!" She called out in vain, unable to accept that Rex couldn't hear her in this nightmare.
The colt moved carefully to the center as the old church began to slowly crumble around him. The modern Rex jumped as his younger self passed him. It wasn't as if neither couldn't hear the collapsing but that the colt was truly broken from everything that had happened. Rex didn't care about that, he didn't want his younger self to accept the true brokenness that was to come.
The circle of safety compelled the colt closer and closer. Rex chased faster and harder, but no matter how far he pushed it felt as if the path was getting longer and longer as if he could never reach his younger self.
It was a strange feeling to describe as the colt's eyes came upon the pedestal in the center. A fresh skeleton of his kind laying under it, unable to make it before death, or simply unworthy to receive it. Its hands clutched tightly to the writing. The writing was so clear to the colt's eyes.
"Only one whose blood is soaked in the deaths of millions can speak the words and hear his incredible voice. Those who wield his magic will bend space to their command and make even the greatest darkness bow to them." The child couldn't stop himself from reading it. "Prove yourself and take power."
Rex reached out with his chains but each one fell, bowing to the sight of the altar and its might.
"Child..." a voice echoed from the object standing on the pedestal. Both Clover and Rex were filled with fear upon seeing the object, knowing full well what it was.
"I'm here as you asked..." the colt's eyes wandered back to the outside world for but a moment. The older Rex standing in the path unseen to his younger self's eyes. "Why was it killing us?"
"It wasn't killing you... It was saving you." The more the voice spoke, the more it sounded like it was forcing itself just to breathe.
"Saving me?"
"You umbrum are so unique... many would give anything for your... body." Hearing the voice Rex had heard a million times had never filled him with so much sickness until now.
"I..." the colt teared up. "I don't want that, not at all. And yet I don't want to die."
“Then step closer to the pedestal, child," the voice called out. "Complete the circle." The voice became louder. "Release us from our prisons!" Despite the rage of the voice, the child felt no fear even as the church crumbled to complete nothingness around the circle. The voice, no, the presence within the circle, was in such stark contrast with the rest of the world. It was as if the outside were the evilest of devils. Right now, the colt felt as if he was standing in the presence of God.
Rex screamed out to his younger self to stop as a shadow only seen to him came into sight. Standing over the altar and the colt was an all too familiar old goat. Its sharp and dripping jaws move closer to the colt.
Doing as the voice commanded, the colt stopped in front of the pedestal and reached out to an amulet floating above it. He felt he could trust this voice, not seeing the jaws latch onto his hand. The amulet glowed brightly as if it was calling to him. He could feel the power of the amulet reaching out to him and enveloping him in red light, wanting him to grab it.
“Reach forth and take what is rightfully yours. Let me save you by saving me!!” The old goat cackled louder and louder with a burst of venomous laughter.
“What is rightfully mine?” the colt questioned as he trembled from the force of the amulet’s great power.
“The right of power, the right of strength, and the right of survival.”
“The right,” the colt’s voice drifted as his hand took hold of the amulet. Unbeknownst to him, upon his touch, the fires were getting darker as the shadow of the old goat grew bigger.
Clover was in a mix of shock, awe, and horror to a mere piece of its power. It was like the flames were suffocating from the darkness that was now pouring out from him. Soon the flames were gone, and all that was left was the smoke as it drifted with the darkness wrapping around the colt and Rex both, slithering up their bodies until it was tightly wrapped around their necks. Both of them felt the grasp of the darkness on them and asked in unison, “What are you?”
“I am the Dark Alicorn Amulet. And who are you?”
Both their eyes glowed as they grasped the amulet now on their chests. “My name is…”
******
Screams of terror and unspeakable pain echoed throughout the church. Such a mix of horrors stopped them all in their place. Twilight didn't stop despite the pain twisting across her body. Her entire left shoulder and hand were consumed by the power of the Pale Mare but she couldn't give up now.
The little blue siren, Sonata Dusk, fell into the platform of the crystal hand as agony filled her body before tracing over her throat and face. She squeezed her throat as the pain became too intense. It was as if a massive object was rising on her body, trembling her with a deadly sweat. "Please stop!!"
"Not until you let go of her." Twilight winced at the pain she was bringing the siren. However, her freedom was far more important.
Sonata screamed over and over until all she could do was cough so hard and dry. Her face twisted with convulsions as she clenched her chest. Drool flowed fourth followed by bits of blood, slowly turning blue.
Rex slowly awoke to the horror of this event. He pulled Clover to safety as the power shattered out of the filly in random directions. Colors of red and blue crackled out like lightning, striking anything that it could reach.
He didn't know how to process this whole scene. The horror coming from the filly was only matched by the crazed face on Twilight. Both of them were cracking under the pressure yet neither gave nor falter. He had never seen Twilight fight so boldy, had she changed this much?
Clover was just as slow in awakening, yet she had the same amount of fear on her face at seeing what Twilight was doing. She reached out to her screaming like a mother to a daughter, "Twilight Sparkle, stop! The alathar can remove him without this torture!"
"And give him another chance to escape." Cold Blue stood by Twilight's actions, ready to take over should she falter.
"But, she's just a child."
"A slave..." Rex didn't want his words to sound that cold, but it was true. "And sometimes the chains hurt less than the light of freedom." He raised his chain to swarm around the filly. "If you can't understand that, then turn away." He lowered his eyes as she followed his words slowly. Taking in a deep breath, he called upon the dark alicorn amulet's power, "Old goat!" he screamed. "...end this girl's pain... do it quickly."
The dark alicorn amulet glowed with maroon red and softly answered. "I will try my best." Dark magic flowed out and into Rex's chains. The black light glowed symbols over each chain, twisting it into the perfect circle of magic around the filly.
Sonata fell back as the two dark magic sources entered her. Her whole body twisted as small and spiritic light magic fuel transformations pulsed across her face and body, ripping apart her clothing. This revealed a massive bulge moving up her body. Starting from her back then to her arms and around her chest and gut.
Twilight quickly realized it was moving just like the false image was. "There he is!" she screamed as she fell to one knee. Cold Blue caught her and held her in place. "Just a little more."
Clover's mind was in total conflict. She agreed with Rex in ending the filly's pain and even agreed with Cold Blue that this monster would do anything to escape. But here she was, unable to do a thing but spectate at the sight of such power and might. Forced to watch as the stallion she loved, and her possible future daughter fight to free the filly and defeat the all-powerful being that had been torturing them this whole time.
The bulge twisted and swam over every pour of the filly's body, trying its best to escape. However, all spots were quickly being drained away. Time was running out for the light alicorn mass. It had to do the unthinkable, rising up the throat.
The filly stopped screaming and bent backward with a loud cracking sound, echoing through all her bones. Her mouth shrieked open so violently that her cheek tore open. Her jaw dropped down to her chest as the mass flooded out in a spray of blue blood.
"Keep going..."
Things came to a full as a mass of blue blood flew into the air, growing bigger and bigger by the second. The four were shocked by the size but also the power of such a force. The size of it seemed impossible. By the time all of it was out, it stood twenty times the size of the small filly, the church could barely contain such a mass.
"So, this is... this is what is left of your true form..." Twilight fell back into Cold Blue's arms as the Pale Mare faded away and she lost consciousness. Her last words were firmly pressed into their minds as they got ready for the final battle. "This is alicorn of the abandoned... Aitym... King of the Nuckelavee."
On that cue thousands of faces formed upon the mass. They mumbled in different languages, genders, and even tones. It was unclear what they were saying as the words were getting more jumbled together by the second. Anger grew on their faces as if each one of them wanted to be heard more than the others beside them. Slowly they turned to fight with each other for their voices to be known. Devolving into twisted screaming that was unfamiliar to all forms of speech.
The three didn't know how to react to such a sight. Only too ready their stances as something else changed. The transformation had just begun...
Things weren't over as while each face screamed, out of every orifice of those faces millions of hands and broken arms sprouted out of the mass, slowly swarming around into the shape of limbs and body parts for a central controller.
First, giant fleshing wings twisted around with the sounds of broken bones. Dropped down on fours were giant bloody and bony hooves, each joint had another screaming face, hands, and arms spouting out of random spots. As each hoof landed into place things got even stranger. The ground would either grow with the life of decay or rot away.
Shoulders bent and popped into place forming a neck. However, no main face took the center of where the head would be, instead, all that could be gleamed beyond a beaten and shattering of faces crashing together was a single large bloodshot eye with a spiraling horn right above it. Finally, under the eye, the neck bent backward the loudest of breaking sounds and split open revealing a disfigured mouth with randomly assorted jagged teeth and a tongue made of thousand of arms. It roared out more blue blood.
"So this is the real you?" Cold Blue held Twilight tightly in his arms as he dodged the attack. The spray burned through the ground like acid. However, just soon as it dried blue crystal shards spouted out, aiming for Cold Blue. Stopped by Rex pushing him out of the way.
Clover's face went pale as the crystals tore through Rex and impaled him into the wall. She quickly rushed over and smashed her bow staff into them only for the stranger to happen. Parts of her staff grew leaves while other parts rotted to dust.
"This is simply my magic... my body is long gone..." Thousands of voices within the mass of Aitym spoke as one.
Rex pushed her away from her staff. "Stop, it's pure light magic, bending time itself! My immortality is the only thing that can touch him--" He shrieked in agony, feeling each of his organs fluctuate between timelines. The dark alicorn amulet shined bright as possible before breaking the crystals and freeing the umbrum.
"Use distance spells!" Cold Blue answered.
"Clover..." Rex could barely stand but summoned all his chains.
"What is it?" Clover ran over.
"Cold Blue will be the offensive and I'll be the defensive."
"That's a horrible idea!"
"Listen," He pulled her collar. "Cold Blue is pushing his limits too. Which means neither of us can save the rest." He pointed to Princess Platinum, and Sonata Dusk.
"But I'm not good at teleportation or telekinetic magic."
"You'll have to be!" He twisted his chains around her to pull her out of the way of another spray of blue blood. Using all his power to prevent the crystals from forming all around him. "Strike at the right time!"
Clover wanted to scream in defiance but there was a new look in his eyes. A form of trust she had never seen until now. She took it to heart and landed on a roll, dodging whatever attacks she could. Nodding to him as she waited for her move.
The beastly liquid turned his attention to Cold Blue. Rex swung his chains around Aitym's legs, racing over in front of Cold Blue and Twilight. Another blast came out of the twisted mouth and Rex blocked it.
"Sound Spell Number 5, Spring Song!" Cold Blue swung out a wave of sound magic into Aitym, hitting it in the legs that Rex had wrapped.
Aitym dodged by lifting his hooves upward. Rex yanked them back down into the range of the attack. "Use your strong moves."
"I can't while carrying Twilight."
"Obviously!" Rex winced as he was forced to block another attack. His body twisted with agony. "Aim at my shadows!"
"This is going to hurt you too." Cold Blue turned around as Rex pulled on what magic he could.
"Do it, now!" He knew he was running out of time.
The siren stallion placed Twilight down for a moment and took a new stance. His falcata glowed, he and he dropped it into a downward thrust, stabbing Rex's shadow. "Sound Spell, Number 10, Autumn Song."
Rex's body twisted with more agony as he felt every sound wave traveling through. Pulling his chains brought the front hooves down, allowing the blast of sound magic to hit the hind legs, throwing the entire beast forward.
Seeing her chance, Clover raced over and grabbed the filly. Rolling to safety just as the hindlegs fell back down. She sighed until she heard ripping sounds. Turning around her eyes widened in horror to see the edge of her cloak under one of the hooves and the distortions of time were reaching out to her.
Rex charged all his power into the dark alicorn amulet. "Dark Magic Spell... Wrath of Sanity!!" Red maroon blacklight blasted out, taking the shape of a fearsome goat. Charging head on into Aitym, pushing him away from Clover, and crashing him into the doors of the church.
Cold Blue followed suit with two horizontal sound slashes from both his weapons. "Sound Spell Number 25, Dual of Spring!!" This hit the ground around the mass of faces. The combined power was so much that the building could no longer stand at all.
The form smashed to pieces under the weight of the falling rubble and sent out a burst of light magic and blue blood in all directions. The explosion threw everypony around, including the unconscious, flying out in all directions.
******
Outside, the ifrits and Rainbow Dartz's body were thrown. The two rolled several meters before crashing into the armies of zombies on standby outside. Sage came to Vanity's defense upon seeing them, using the pegasus as a shield. The undead showed rage but refused to move.
"Calm down!" Vanity held tightly to her brother's ashes.
"Aitym controls them?!" He screamed back for an answer.
"Yes..." She stopped herself upon realizing what just happened. "Right? Run!!" She bolted toward an opening.
"Fucking brilliant plan!!" Sage threw down Rainbow Dartz and chased after her. He hadn't noticed the blue blood upon the body.
******
Back inside, Clover was the only one to wake up. Fear filled her mind, only for it to fade upon seeing her cloak had ripped away from the time distortion. She and Rex had crashed hard into the altar. Her eyes quickly widened in horror, remembering what she was supposed to do. However, she felt the filly snuggle in her arms. "Everything is fine..." She smiled and scooted closer to Rex as he lay, unconscious. "We won... He has no body left to run to--" Clover was stopped by laughter and a shadow standing over them.
"Who said I need one body?" Aitym laughed from the body of Princess Platinum covered in his blood. Somehow she was unaffected by the light magic. Instead, Aitym was using it to control her. The princess's crystal arms sharpened, and she rushed forward.
Clover tried to stand, only to find the explosion had broken her leg under some rubble, the bone sticking out only the whole problem more intense. "No...No!" She struggled closer to Rex. "You won't take her again!!" She fueled her horn with magic, but all that came out were sparks.
"Still too weak..."
"No..." All she could do was cover Rex and the filly and accept the end. Closing her eyes as the mind-controlled unicorn charged at her.
However, maroon blood spattered over both unicorns. Clover opened her eyes only for her jaw to drop in horror. The Pale Mare had awoken, jumped from Cold Blue's side, and thrusted herself in the way of the attack. Mira's hand was stabbing through Twilight's chest.
"You are the weakest among them..." the Pale Mare mocked Clover's hesitation as if it was waiting for her to take the strike instead.
Blood poured from Mira's mouth as the princess fell to one knee. "Bodies with the wrong magic type were always the most defiant to my power..." On that, the hand ripped out of Twilight, flooding her blood all over the ground and over the princess, breaking his control over her. "So, tell me weak unicorn, can you save the dead?!" Without saying any more words, the body of Mira fell to the ground as Aitym's power vanished from her sight.
******
Outside the church, Rainbow Dartz's hand lifted upward. The broken limb twisted erratically before snapping open with cyan blue blood, which took the shape of a sharpened hoof and several screaming faces, silent to reality. The eyes popped open and the mouth laughed with a mix of Rainbow Dartz's voice and the voice of Aitym.
The pegasus gave no reaction, instead of standing up slowly with a groggy moan. "I've never been so close to death... Not since they ripped off my wings!" Aitym answered while smiling at the undead. They stayed in place. Now he had what he needed. Sure, he failed to take the Heart of Darkness, but now he had a piece of greater knowledge. Holding up his hand, they bowed to him. And with that, he took his leave.
******
The rubble grew deathly silent outside a frantic beating sound and the sheer shock of a single unicorn watching it play out. Clover looked on in horror as the Pale Mare vanished from Twilight's face and she fell to the ground.
The alicorn's chest splayed out with her ribs randomly and crookedly protruding out from a gaping hole. Her heartbeat loudly to the world's cold air. Her body twisted and jolted with every pulse, getting slower as maroon blood spat out like a rabid fire. The only thing battling her heartbeats was the choking of liquid in her throat and her head bouncing back in response.
Clover's eyes raced back to the unconscious Rex, Cold Blue, and Princess Platinum, unable to find a response from any of them. Anything to take away this reality unfolding in front of her.
There she was utterly alone, forced to watch Twilight slowly die...
Well, she wasn't completely alone...
Soon enough, red snowflakes descended over the scene...
Whereas the previous intermissions took place over several days to weeks, this one took mere seconds. The ones unaware of the horrors rising to meet them. This whole previous season was less than a few hours. For the ones in trouble, witnessing every detail, including the finale, this was eons of horror.
And yet, between the finale and the new season was only a few seconds. Clover wished it would last longer, but at the same time wished with all her might she could reach Twilight faster as the figure bleed out mere feet from her. Rex and Cold Blue, out cold. This unicorn was left utterly alone as the alicorn bled out in front of her. This would seem to be the end.
However, a lone red snowflake fell over the scene... followed by another and more. Somepony had smiled against their fate. Neither realized what was about to happen next. Nor could they see the haunting ghost staring through his skull mask over them all.
Nor did any above, in the upper half of the hourglass. Starlight, Clover, and Lord Red arrive on the Pegasus Isle. None of them knows what happened below, or what evil is racing toward them.
In the center of the hourglass, Starswirl continues his battle with the mysterious serpent, not knowing what is racing toward him within the elevator.
At a random point floating around the hourglass, Fredricson and Lady Cat lay unconscious inside the titan airship, not knowing what lies beyond them. Strange music playing around them, hiding a greater danger.
Up in the Pegasus Isles, a lone pegasus mare prays for an end to fighting beyond everypony's sight. Not knowing the evil that is about to answer her calls.
Another pegasus mare rest in her bed, not knowing the evil about to invade her land, or the former ally, now mind controlled, leading the undead forces straight to her doorstep.
A weak hippogriff mare drifted through the hallway. She could barely stand, let alone walk, but she did as she could. She listened to the crying in the distance with a mix of joy and horror.
The path seemed to get longer every time she walked it. However, she had to attend to her duties, no matter what. Even as her legs screamed with thousands of blisters and sores, she could not ignore the soft crying at the end of the hallway.
The pain reached its peak; she fell right before reaching the doorway and slowly blackout. The crying wouldn't stop even as she called out the owner's name. She wanted to take a moment to rest, but she was so close.
Before she awoke, a little red and black centaur with a puff of white hair on his head walked over and lifted her hand. "You are here!" The child gave little reaction to the mare's distress and simply handed her a cup of water.
"Oh..." She wrestled her eyes open, smiled, and took the drink. "Thank you, I'm not awake yet..." she lied. Getting some strength back, she turned her attention to the crying. "So... your brother didn't get much sleep this morning."
"Mommy?! It's late afternoon." the centaur child complained.
"I..." She blinked twice. Did it really take her that long to walk down that hallway? "I... I'm sorry that you were forced to keep your brother company."
"Well, good!" He huffed, making her give a soft giggle.
"Oh, Tirek, you're a good older brother." She sat up and rubbed his mane.
"Mommy!" He huffed louder.
"Let's check on Scorpan." She tried to stand only for the pain to shoot up her body and she fell to one leg. She sneered as the glass slipped away and broke on the floor. "Oh..."
"Don't worry. I'll get a dustpan." Tirek ran off.
As soon as her son was out of sight, the hippogriff hissed in pain. Lifting up her sleeve reveals several fresh wounds that the fall had reopened. She tighter the sleeve once more to hide the blood. Turning her attention to more important things she arrived at the crib.
Laying, half asleep was a brown hybrid of a child; The legs of a centaur, the body of a hippogriff, and the head of a lion. His mane was a lovely darker brown and something she truly admired.
Slowly she twisted her fingers through the hair, rest her hand on the baby's shoulder. Paleness grew on her face and her hands raced around his neck. She forced herself away from choking him with all her might. An ulgy face to say the least, but a face she could not ever mock... even if it match her abuser.
She took a deep breath and moved her hands downward to check the diaper. "He's clean..." Maybe he just wanted attention. Her eyes drifted back to the face as his screams seem to taunt her with the image of her abuser's laughter. "Dear, Scorpan... you look more like your father every day--"
"Yeah!" Tirek cheered upon return. "Children of the great King Ixion..." He dropped his face in disappointment. "If only I had that incredible face!"
The mother laughed. "I think you are plenty handsome." She picked up and baby hybrid and leaned her body against the wall so as to not drop him as she was still unsure of her own strength. "Get things clean while I calm down your brother."
"Speaking of which, where is father?" Tirek questioned.
"I think he's visiting your uncles again."
"On that crazy island... Damn it. I want to go to Chaméni Kardiál."
"Tirek!" the mother huffed. "Just because your father gets to say those words doesn't mean you get to."
"You're right." His face dropped, and he finished his work.
The mother regretted her rage. In truth, it was channeled more toward the father. First, Scorpan was looking like him, now Tirek wanted to talk like him... She didn't want to be angry... she didn't want them to see the monster he really was.
"Mommy! You dropped... a knife!" Tirek picked it up. "Hey, why do you have a knife?"
The mother's eyes widened at the sight of the dagger. Its form and shape made fear shoot through her whole body. "Careful! You'll hurt yourself..." She raced over and ripped it out of his hand.
"Don't worry... father let me play with the spears before he left..." The child handed it to her, only to fall back a little and drop the dust pan. "Wow, that was weird."
"Oh... this is a special dagger, not a knife." She placed it on the table far from both of them.
"Really, what's it called?" Tirek was quickly feeling better upon being removed from the dagger's power.
"It's..." She didn't want to answer him at first, but his face was so innocent. True, he was a kind child. There couldn't be any harm in telling him, right?
She leaned down and rubbed his cheek. "It is called an azoth dagger... and it's meant to be a gift for your father... later this year." She regretted her words. She had been wanting to use it for months now... But something always came up. And now, seeing them smile again made things even harder. She couldn't leave them... right?
"Cool, can I tell him?"
"If you did, that would ruin the surprise." She laughed to herself and asked. "Oh, what a surprise it will be!" She cheered louder than she expected.
"Wow!"
"Now, how about some ice cream after dinner?" She hoped this would make him forget the subject altogether.
"Oh, boy!!" Tirek cheered louder.
******
In the present day.
Far off from everypony and everything. Beyond within the furthermost reaches of the Celestial Ocean. Further, then the hippogriff lands and even the kirins and dragon lairs, was a lone island of ice, fire, and lush green forest. Three absolute extremes in perfect balance with each other.
Yet underneath this twist and dynamic beauty lay a metal fortress of science far beyond the current knowledge of this timeline. Connected to the world above by a single long elevator, reaching three meters down to this mysterious base.
Moving through the opening at the bottom revealed a mass storage of liquid tanks very similar to the one the wendigo used. However, inside these were blank bodies void of all detail. All of them were unmoving and unphased to the outer reality and the world above... at first...
Without warning, one of the bodies nearest to the exit, twisted violently before stopping just abruptly. The body next to it repeated the process before halting just as fast. The third body did the same, then the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.
The strange reaction seemed to be jumping bodies at random. The only pattern was the reactions were slowly moving inward. The reactions moved from body to body until it reached behind a floating throne.
Arriving at the final body, the tank burst open as if something told it as such. The body rolled across the floor and shook its head erratically. Grabbing a nearby shard of glass, it stabbed itself in the featureless face. Ignoring the pain, it tore open a mouth, allowing it to finally scream out its rage and malice.
"Must... hurry..." The body crawled around, searching for the exit in vain.
"This is unexpected?" Another voice answered. An extremely small and frail infant walked over, seeing the whole thing play out. "I thought I was the only one awake so far."
"Must hurry..." the blank body crawled away as if not hearing a single word.
"Hmm, here?" With no warning, the infant stabbed the blank body on the side of the face, where an ear would most likely be. Tearing out the flesh, the infant questioned again, "Can you here me now?"
The body stopped at the infant's question but didn't reply. Instead, it took the glass and tore a slite over where the eyes would most likely be, allowing it to see the infant.
"Are you one of my siblings?" The infant tilted his head.
"No..." the body wasn't used to the infant, or even the world yet. "I wasn't expecting him to be finished with his work."
"Father's work? or Grandfather's work?" the infant questioned. "Neither are finished as you can see."
"You speak so fluently now..." The blank body scanned the room. "... I need to find the exit!"
"No!" The infant yelled. "I'm... not done cooking either?"
"Fine..." the blank body swung the infant out of the way. "I'll find the exit myself... Thule, where are you?"
"Thule?" the infant gave no reaction to the attack and straightened his stance. "You are connected to Indigo Frost? Father once said to never stop him or Thule's plans. Let them do as they please with the bodies... that is until the experiment is complete..."
"..." The blank body turned back around and slowly answered. "No, I am not Indigo Frost."
"Then, who are you--" The infant was stopped as the door to the place opened. An incredible horrible smell from the opening flowed in and assaulted the infant, throwing him to the ground. "What? What is that disgusting odor?"
"Huh?" The body searched his face, realizing he lacked an opening for a nose. The infant was right, these bodies were far more inferior than what he was used to. The blood slits, his eyes, widened at a burning sensation. "Like a bad smell." He turned toward the doorway. "Such as a rotting corpse."
The rotting corpse stepped inside and frowned at the sight of the two. He narrowed his eyes on the body. "You woke up in the wrong contain again."
"Thule..."
******
In the distant future
The Pale Mare leaned back and let the water drain over her. The shower helped calm her emotions but it didn't fade her fears. Instead, it amplified them. She finally had a moment again to study her form... and mental mark all the scars...
Two thousand, three hundred and seventy-four scars in total. None had faded since she arrived in this timeline and more awaited her on this journey. Thinking back to the beginning so many times mattered so much to her and yet finding these only widened the amount of information she needed to renew.
Cleaning carefully and slowly was solely to avoid the pain. She never wanted to look back. But each echoing of the battle outside only increased the lingering of her thoughts.
She finished up with a shiny lacquer. She found this part the strangest since she took full control of this body. Her arm was complete crystal now; forged from pure dark magic, twisted from its natural maroon red to blue through the power of her soul. The Scaly Monster told her it was best to shine the limb, much like he did his own limbs.
Rubbing the lacquer in with a towel until her arm shined as bright as a star. Seeing it made her smile. The greatest gift he could have given her and yet... was it worth it? Her fears echoed back to the question once more.
She pushed it away and stepped out. Drying herself off with a simple spell. Turning to the mirror, she fixed up her hair, half wondering if the Scaly Monster would like a different style today. She wanted something to cheer him up, even if she couldn't be happy.
Her decisions were slowly silenced as the mirror fogged up much to her annoyance. This castle was intensely cold, all the time, so why would this happen now? She huffed with a slight twinge of anger before forcing the fog away.
The Pale Mare jumped back at the image beyond the fog. Replacing her face in the mirror was the drain and disfigured form of... Elisus. It mocked her with its very appearance.
It spoke... with Twilight's voice, "How dare you?!"
The Pale Mare refused to answer Elisus's demands. Turning away from the image and walking to the door. The image of the venomous beast wouldn't allow it, Elisus reached out and her massive icy hands forced their way out of the mirror and threw the Pale Mare to the wall.
The dark alicorn winced in agony and turned her attention back to Elisus. "You... aren't real!" the Pale Mare screamed at Elisus. "How dare you use her voice?"
"I am real, and so was once, Twilight," Elisus cackled venomous laughter. "We are real! We are here! We will always be here! Waiting for your weakness, your fear!! Twilight was your past and I await you in the future!"
"No!! I..." Her eyes widened. "I... made a choice... I will continue making choices."
"Choices you stole from Twilight!" Elisus leaned forward and out of the mirror. Her face split in two; one half, now of Twilight's face. "Give it back to Twilight!! Give it back to her!!" Elisus demanded. "Give in to your fate!! And await my jaws!!"
"No, you do not speak for Twilight!! I do, I am the Pale Mare!!" She reached out with her crystal arm. The image of Elisus and Twilight twisted away at the sight of it, yet their demands didn't fade until she stood tall and strong. The Pale Mare raced forward, smashing the mirror and destroying the illusion. "And I refuse to let you kill Twilight!!"
The image of Elisus and Twilight roared as they melted away into nothingness once more. "You cannot run forever! Make the choice... the choice... that you stole!!"
The Pale Mare roared back before ripping her crystal arm free from the wall. She turned to the exit and finally left. "Selfish ice witch!"
Unknown to her, within the remains of the mirror, another figure watched. This wasn't Elisus or Twilight. Instead, it was a stallion in a fine suit, wearing a giant X mask. "You are the selfish one... A thief, hiding in plain sight."
The arrival in Pegasus Isles was an incredible moment, to say the least. Starlight looked outside to see rolling hills of fluffy clouds and the icy tops of cliffs rising from the canyons below. The elevator also moved differently from what she expected. This machine swung them around at an upward slope instead of straight like normal ones, allowing her to get a lasting view of each shot.
She knew Silver Pear was missing out. He should have come with her. She understood why Hermes and Red Steel stayed behind in the bar. They said they didn't want a fight, yet the view from above was by far the most peaceful she had ever seen land in this timeline.
The first thing that caught her attention was the guard stations. She knew from Hermes that the pegasi were at war with the griffins, yet these places only seemed to disprove that assumption. While she could see plenty of pegasi training in ancient fighting styles and flying through several obstacle courses, most were lying about. There was barely a weapon insight, especially in the hands of the one 'standing guard'.
Beyond that were thousands of fields of blank cloud bed. Each being monitored by an army of scientists of pegasi, checking the thickness and fluffy form. Calling them soldiers didn't seem right either, as most were wearing the lightest of clothing, thin bodysuits, or barely anything at all, possibly to ensure the least amount of effort when checking these lands.
Soon enough, they reached tall cloud structures with no roofs at all. Rainbows flowed out of these like vines on a tree, slowly descending to the ground miles down. Looking closer inside, Starlight could spot the smartest of minds within the pegasi species hard at work with multi-colored chemicals inside vials of ice and vessels of pure fluffy water-ice. They mixed them in the proper proportions to achieve the perfect reactions. It was the perfect view into the past that would one day lead to the many giant rainbow factories of the present Cloudsdale.
Further in, she could see several islands dotting the sky. The topmost cliffs of the canyons below. Nearly all had cities upon them and each seemed, by design, to be purely for peaceful living. Pegasi shown here were more relaxed with some tanning, stretching or even playing games. Colts and fillies floated over the massive opening of the canyons with no response or fear from their parents. The oldest children worked the small cloud beds they had like it was grass, while their parents readied the food at the barbeque or took care of the infants too weak to fly yet.
At the center of it all was the strangest sight of all. A lone cliff, no buildings at all, not even clouds. Instead, all the clouds swirled around this cliff as if it were the source of pegasus magic.
The surface was completely barren outside of a single dagger stabbed into the ground.
Starlight was glad to see all of it. Yet she found it strange that she was seeing so much of it so quickly. This elevator ride was beginning to feel like a tour. Tours by design are meant to show off the bests of places but if everywhere seemed peaceful... where was the worst? A place one spoke of in her time as the greatest warrior kingdom ever... shown to her directly as peaceful and fun loving...
As the elevator finally reached its destination, she couldn't help but wonder. Is all of this real?
******
The other elevator room was a bliss of silence as the two minds waited for the right time to strike. Sweat poured down his face as he waited for the first name to drop off or for the elevator to finally reach them. The thing was moving slowly but steadily up to them. They were unsure who was inside, nor did they care. It could be anything from their allies, random batponies, monsters of unknown origins, the enemy, or even off the bizarre chance... the undead.
Yeah, that was the least likely possibility to them right now, or at least that was their assumption.
The arrival would simply mean an end to the game. The two absolutely adored games ever since the serpent's first appearance. The old wizard could remember that moment like it was yesterday. Training Celestia and Luna as children, only for Celestia, always the most brilliant, to point out the strange shape on his shoulder. He started off small, but the more the old wizard noticed him, the bigger he got. The serpent was something only them two could see and ever since then Starswirl tried whatever he could to understand the creature and its power.
"Disassociation," a word echoed out between them. Neither knew which one started, but the other was sure to catch up.
"No, that's the word I left off at... Disassociative?" He flipped a page.
"No, that doesn't sound right." The other followed suit.
"Agreed," One nodded to the opponent.
"Maybe try jumping vowels."
"Okay." He flipped the pages by faster. "Disassure?"
"Shorter, but not quite. Keep trying." They both quivered with anticipation.
"Disaster?"
"Good, but aren't we both a disaster?"
"True, mustn't let us blend in too much. Oh, disastrous."
"An adjective now?"
"Right, let's stick to nouns. Disattention!"
"Now, that has my attention!" He hopped in place, celebrating his pun.
"Oh good, that sounds great." He agreed just as brightly.
"No, no," he quickly changed his mind, "it would be rather hard for them to pay attention to me with such a name, pun worthy or not."
"Double the puns!" They laughed at each other's jokes. "Hmm, disattire?"
"But I love my attire!" He poofed on a fancy orange suit.
"Good point, disattune?"
"That a verb."
"Right."
"Besides, I have an incredible singing voice," he phrased in a singing tone.
"Now, I'm jealous. I can't sing a single note."
"It's all talent."
"Indeed, disavowance."
"That could work. I don't like making a vow." Suddenly a green stand appeared with a buzzer. "However, I would like to buy a vowel, Jerry!" He pressed it loudly, screaming out to no one.
"Disazo!"
"That's an adjective. Jerry, I would like to declare this one disqualified!" He rang the buzzer louder, making his friend twitch with annoyance as a giant red x appeared on him. The voices of an audience cheered behind him.
"Fine, fine. disbandment."
The x vanished and reappeared on him instead. "I don't like being banned from anything!"
"Neither do I, it leaves us in... Disbelief."
"I am too, in the amount of time it's taking you to come up with a name." His words were draining his friend more.
"Disbenefit?"
"It would be beneficial if I were to help you in naming me."
"I can handle it... Disbound?"
"Adjective again. Disbursement!"
"Discalceate."
"I would if you would move faster, Discardment."
"You wouldn't dare." His eyes widened. "Discectomy."
"Surgery might be a bit messy. No removal is best," he gave an evil smile. "Disceptation. Oh, that word works perfectly for our current predicament."
"No, discernibleness."
"That's almost an adjective!" he hissed. "Discincture!"
"Disciple."
"You're the one loyal to the alicorns, far too loyal for my taste! Discision." He hissed in anger.
"Discission."
"Did you just make up a word?!"
"No, there are two ways of spelling it." He smiled wickedly.
"That is very mean! Disco!"
"Oh, that one is very good. But neither of us dance good at all." He strutted horribly in place.
"You have a point. Discoblastula?"
"I don't hate it. Discocarp."
"Yeah, that was close, too." He poofed the very same mushroom in his claw and bit down. "Huh, not bad. Discogastrula."
"Isn't that just another word for discoblastula? How about discohexaster?"
"Hmm, I'm starting to not like these longer names, discolith."
"Discomania."
"We can't dance, remember."
"Discophile!"
"How about we drop the disco part entirely!!" The serpent finally screamed.
"Fine..." Starswirl stopped and picked a good chunk of pages to skip the extra uses of the word disco. However, the pages dropped from his hand, landing him in the same spot but a name he hadn't seen before. "Huh, how about Discord--"
The image of the serpent faded and the old wizard was stopped by a loud beeping sound. All the old wizard could do was wipe the sweat off his face and take a deep breath. He turned his attention to the elevator that led to the Batpony Canyons.
His body had been increasingly shaking since the game started and didn't end with the serpent leaving. Either way, he kept a cool and calm composure to the door as it slowly wrenched open. He found himself unable to stop until he threw the checker board to the side, hitting the table to push the shaking away. It took him a solid minute for his body to stabilize.
"Damn it..." Starswirl grumbled. "That was too close." He hoped whoever was at the door didn't see his weakness. "I need to stop talking to that old troll of a ghost... I need to know what is going on--" His eyes came upon what lay on the other side of the elevator's doorway. "Hmm, and maybe you good folks can tell me."
Thousands of undead swarmed out of the elevator in mass and raced right at Starswirl. He charged up his chaos magic and readied himself for battle. "Looks like the fun has just begun."
******
Back up in Pegasus Isles, the other group had finally gotten past the front entrance and made their way into the capital. It was a large island of snow and clouds sitting at the center of the country and the upper part of the hourglass. It was most notable for its sharp giant blue spires or permafrost that surrounded the rim of the cliffside. The first sign of true defense Starlight had seen in the entire place. Lord Red had told Starlight these were a last line of defense in case of invasion, which again seemed so pointless to her in such a peaceful place.
"We need to make contact with the leader of this land as soon as possible," Clovis noted with an annoyed grumble.
"I understand there is a war on the rise, but can't we enjoy this beauty a bit longer?" Starlight questioned, spinning through the air with her magic.
"Find some solid ground, mare!" Clovis called out.
"Don't be like Silver Pear." Starlight tapped him on the head before flying around Lord Red. "Besides, the ground seems rather mute with places built in the sky." She couldn't help but enjoy this floating spell over the sights.
"I'm glad you are enjoying my first lesson." Lord Red admired Starlight's efficiency with such a complicated spell.
"Well, my friend Sunburst from the future would have better understood the details of such a spell." Starlight laughed. "I simply applied enough output to match your specifications."
"Indeed." He caught her from crashing into one of the spires. "But still, you picked it up faster than my son did."
"Wait," Starlight's eyes widened. "You have a son."
"Adopted, but a tale for another time." Lord Red turned his attention away. "As for your question..." He reached into the air and appeared to pluck something that wasn't there.
Starlight thought it was so strange as she heard the sound of a string, but saw no source at all. The sound it produced was also strange, being more beautiful than any instrument she ever heard, and yet, she seemed to be the only one that heard it. No one, not even Clovis, gave a note to the sound.
Lord Red dropped his hand in disappointment. "It seems the leader is nowhere in the entire hourglass."
"We came all this way for nothing!" Clovis kicked the surrounding clouds.
"Maybe you should have had some drinks with the rest of us earlier." Starlight floated above him and squeezed his cheeks. "Come on, grumpy. Trust in your master!"
"I do! It's you I don't!" He walked over to a table to take a breather. All this floating was getting tiresome.
Starlight was stopped by his insult. Caught so off guard she didn't even notice herself crashing into Lord Red's back. "Why are you so...?"
"I understand his concern." Lord Red flipped Starlight around right and sat her firmly on the ground. "Very few know of the prophecy around me and you, Clovis being one of them."
"I... I..." Starlight lowered her eyes. "I can't believe in a prophecy that said I will one day kill somepony." Her annoyance was just as clear in her last sentence. "When we first met, I must admit there was some distrust. You were odd at first... Just like Starswirl, but I sense no evil in you." She threw her arms around to hug him only for her to start floating upward again, making Lord Red turn off her spell.
"You truly do not sense evil in me, my little student?" He took the hug.
"No, not at all. In fact, you are the closest thing... to family in this time." Starlight lifted her eyebrow. She didn't know what made her say that... at all.
"Hmm, what was your family like? Any siblings? Parents? Grandparents?"
"No, I'm... I'm an only child." Starlight pulled away as if she was confessing. "I... I never knew my real parents. My adopted father let me keep my family name as my middle name."
"Intriguing." Lord Red rubbed his chin. "What is the name?"
"Well, I've only ever told my teacher, Twilight."
"Am I not your teacher, too? What if I were to introduce you to other masters of magic like Lord Stygian, Lord Vaster, or even Lord Grace?"
"You know the Shadow Pony, the Griffin Mage, and the last Minotaur Necromancer?" Starlight's eyes lit up at his agreement.
"You don't have to learn simply from an alicorn. Clovis himself has learned directly under each of those powerful masters. And there is more I can show you... if you are patient and trust in me."
Starlight turned to Clovis with narrowed eyes. "Twilight has taught me many things from spells and knowledge but above all, I've learned to trust my senses..." She blinked twice to calm herself. "I trust you, Lord Red. My full name is Starlight Constantine Hollow Glimmer."
"Thank you for that." He rubbed her mane. "How about you show Clovis you can be trusted through each other's knowledge?" Lord Red looked up for thoughts. "I know, compare your problems with his, find some common ground. Meanwhile, I will attempt to expand my scans."
"Sounds like a great idea." Starlight pulled away, rushing over to meet with Clovis.
She moved so fast she didn't notice Lord Red's claw extended as if reaching for her throat, only to the pluck a loose hair from her mane. "Hmm, her name is Constantine Hollow. Now where have I heard that before?" the wizard whispered carefully with a smile at the sight of the hair before vanishing into pure nothingness, with only the sounds of thousands of crawling limbs and strings following him.
Starlight followed after Clovis to a table. She stopped halfway as she heard the crawling sound for a second. Seeing Lord Red gone, she didn't question him anymore, or the uneasy chill she felt after he left. She needed to get other things done. She couldn't spend all her time fearing a prophecy.
She sat down with Clovis and called over a waitress. "Have you invented any cloud coffee--" She stopped herself, realizing what she had just said.
The waitress tilted her head and shyly smiled. "We have cloud coffee!"
"Good, two cups."
"Careful..." Clovis rolled his eyes at Starlight's mistake. "Had you shown up two thousand years early, such a line would create a destiny around the invention of cloud coffee."
"Sorry, Teach handles time traveling speech better than me." Starlight shyly waved it off.
"Sounds like Twilight Sparkle has given you no brains at all--" He was stopped as she kicked his shin.
"She didn't need to teach me sarcasm," Starlight mocked. "Besides, Lord Red told us to get along. After all, I did order your favorite flavor, right?"
Clovis gave a soft smile at the smell of the coffee as it was sat in front of him. "Yeah, that's somewhat accurate. Really, the only thing my siblings and I inherited from our father. A shared taste for this stuff."
"And since you know so much more about me, I want to balance things out." Starlight took a sip of her coffee.
"Fine. What do you want to know?"
"So, tell me everything about you and your sister, Clover?"
"Like what?" Clovis finally took a sip of his coffee.
Starlight rolled her eyes around her head for thoughts, unsure how to word this. When it came to Twilight's assumptions of the past, she couldn't be sure how accurate her teacher's calculations could be. Twilight's connections to Rex were obvious, but to Clover... far less was known. "So... let's start off with a random question."
"And?"
"Would Clover make a good mother--"
Clovis spat his coffee all over the table. "... No... you are?"
"What?" Starlight waved her hands back and forth, realizing how her phrasing of that made things worse. "Obviously not me! I mean..."
Clovis smiled at her concern and cleaned himself up. Ordering another cup with no annoyance at all. "You... you are a master of teleportation. Your teacher must be proud of giving you such a gift." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "I'm certain she inherited that mastery from the same place that I... and Clover did."
"Damn..." Starlight laughed at herself for failing again to word things properly. Clovis was right, she was terrible at this time travel stuff. "No confirmations, just assumptions from Twilight... about her lineage. We have proof on... Rex... but nothing on..."
Clovis stopped her from saying another word. He took his new coffee and sipped it carefully before answering her. "Did you know who my parents are?"
"No."
"Lord Stygian and Lady Cancel."
"Wait..." Starlight's eyes widened. "Clover's father is the Shadow Pony!" Her eyes widened even more. "And her mother is--"
"Isn't!" He stopped her instantly. "Clover and I have different mothers. In fact, every single one of my siblings have different mothers. Our family tree is so spread out by family lines that the nearest sibling to me and Clover are twenty years older than us. Really, I'm only so close to Clover's age because our mothers met our father at the same time."
"I..." Starlight fell back in her chair as her shocks faded completely. "I see. Wow, multiple wives."
"Husbands too, and even a few stranger choices, our father doesn't have a preference for gender."
"Sounds a lot like Silver Pear."
"And such is the curse of immortals," Clovis laughed at his own comment.
"So, Twilight's assumptions could be completely wrong..." Starlight took another sip of her coffee.
"That's also unclear." Clovis lowered his eyes. "Much like my father, Rex has had multiple loves, plenty before my sister... but nothing compared to the number of mates our father had... And frankly, as far as I know, Rex has no children."
"I see..." Starlight didn't know what made her smile so brightly. "So back to my question, then." She straightened herself in the chair and asked more clearly. "From your point of view, would Clover be a good mother? Could she be a good mother to my teacher's preincarnation?"
Deep in a dark cave, a small flame danced. Alone pegasus kneeled in front of it and whispered a small prayer. Her heart was on many things today, from the recent closing battle, to more battles to come from across the sea, but most of all the wounds that Commander Hurricane had suffered. She wanted to help, but she was just a lone private with little strength and even less power of pull. All she could do was pray in this darkness for guidance in the light.
Yet despite how much she prayed, the only answer she received was silence. A painful silence that almost seemed to laugh at her like a bully. It made her mind fall back into memories she wished were long gone.
“Ha, ha, look poor fat Pansy, she is far too weak to join the army!” Echoes of the past flowed into her head.
A loud punch bounced through the memories and the sight of the bully laying on the ground and a strong mare standing above him.
The commander always believed no one creature was too weak to fight, learning this from her own past and even family. She followed her for this very reason, but now the guilt waved over her more than ever. The guilt of her failure to stand with the commander she served during the final part of the battle. To stand with the mare that had shown her such kindness, strength, and honesty.
The private couldn’t hold it back any longer. Finally, giving in her face and her hands fell. Tears flowed forth. "Why?" She finally questioned. "Why am I so weak?"
"You don't have to be weak if you don't want to be. Private Pansy..."
A new voice from behind her cut through the sound of her tears. This new voice was completely unfamiliar to her. On pure instinct, she raced back around.
Standing at the entrance to the cave was a unicorn cladded in strange armor. His red mane dragged all the way down to the ground like some sort of lost soul on the streets of the Pegasus Isles, yet he stood with a proud grace, as if belonging to a high rank of military or class. He stood far taller than her and was almost pure bony in form, as if he was starving, yet his posture gave no sign of death at all. He stood still and spoke softer, "Did you hear me?" he questioned.
"I... I..." She backed away slowly, "... Yes." She didn't know why, but her simply being off guard couldn't explain the fear she was sensing in herself.
"Well, do you wish to not be weak?" The unicorn's voice was so kind.
"Yes... I do."
"Do you wish to be strong?" The unicorn's voice seemed so honest.
"Yes."
"To stand with her?" The unicorn's voice seemed so generous.
“I…” Pansy stopped at that part as doubt filled her heart. “I want to, so badly. But how can I when I’m so weak?”
“No, don’t. You are not weak. You can be strong if you want to be.” His words were bold but not offensive. Aim directly to her but not at her like a dominating demand.
Pansy looked at him and wondered. This unknown unicorn just came from seemingly nowhere and told her she could be strong. But could his words be right? No, she told herself. How could this stallion even know any truth, especially about strength given his form? Yet the more she stared, the more his goodness seemed to shine over her.
“You love her, don’t you?” The Sun’s light perfectly lowered with his words and cloaked over her and him both.
Pansy felt the warmth from his words. Though her tears still wouldn’t yield, her doubt did fade enough for her to finally nodded a yes.
“Then let me help you.” He held out his hand.
The sight of his offering brought so much hope and joy to her heart. She wanted to believe every word he said, but she couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling, as if something was very wrong.
Unbeknownst to her, the Sun’s light showed the true danger… the true evil... the shadow of a centipede rising up over her body and gripping her throat.
Every ounce of her whole body was trembling, but she didn't know why. “Who are you?” She slowly reached out.
“I am Lord Red. And I would like to offer you a deal…”
******
Down below it all, within the shattered remains of the church, Clover was filled with similar doubts of her own strength among other horrors as Twilight bled out in front of her. The unicorn mare did as much as she could, but all her magic couldn't contain the maroon blood flowing out of the alicorn.
Soaking through the floor and streaming through the ground like rivers, the maroon blood seemed unending. The rims of these rivers were filling with maroon crystals, slowly getting bigger as more flowed out. It was far too much for one body to contain. However, Clover feared an end would be reached and Twilight's life with it.
Rex and Cold Blue were still unconscious from the fight. The lone unicorn had to do this on her own. The hardest duty anypony could do to save... her future daughter's life.
She wrapped Sonata Dusk in the remains of her cloak and placed her beside Rex. Taking one chunk of her bow staff into her mouth, she prepared for the hard part. She pushed down on the exposed bone of her leg with all her might, bringing the most painful growl as it snapped back into place.
Clover knew she couldn't wait for Rex or Cold Blue. Twilight's life was the highest priority. After tightening her leg together with the stick and some cloth, she made her way to Twilight. Trenching through the rivers of maroon blood until she found the source, Twilight's exposed, beating heart.
She called on all the spells she knew, but Twilight's body continued to drain at a fast rate. The hole refused to close, even as she forced it down with all her might. The alicorn had a darkness blessing from the Pale Mare, but even that was fading at the massive gaping hole in the chest.
What was more confusing was the lack of help from the Pale Mare. Before she had seen the beast heal far worse wounds, like Twilight's head being split in half. Did Twilight simply use too much dark magic in the fight? Or was the Pale Mare simply giving up?
"No!!" Clover screamed. She shook the alicorn, demanding, "You won't die! Pale Mare! Save Twilight! Please, save her!" Without warning, she slapped the corpse, screaming for a response. The unicorn mare lifted the body in her arms and even begged. "Please, I've... I've seen him lose so much..." Her eyes wandered to Rex. "His friends, his family... I can't leave him... and I refuse to let you do the same!!"
Nothing again. In fact, the body became colder, and the flow slowed as if it was reaching its end. Twilight was fading away, right in front of her.
"No, no, no, no, Twi--" Clover stopped upon hearing movement around her. She turned to Rex and Cold Blue, only to see them still out cold. There was more. It sounded like crackling, getting closer and closer.
It was at this moment she finally noticed them. Falling all around her was the most frightening of sights. Something she knew all too well and wished to never see, especially now. But there was no denying it. Red snowflakes were falling over them, which meant only one thing...
Finding the source of the noise, her eyes widened to see an all too familiar wendigo floating several meters in front of her and Twilight. Even seeing him face to face for the first time since the village incident, the memories of their battles with him were fresh in her mind.
Just as always, his appearance followed that of red snowflakes. Such a simple description didn't really give the full gravitas of the confusion and horror of his presence. Not only did he stand nearly twice the height of Clover, but his shadow over them cast quite the mass. Combined with the red snowflakes of mysterious origin that he would either take the form of or use as weapons. Themselves being the greatest anomaly, as while most and even herself would consider them as red, not often did the term seem right as they weren't an exact color of red but rather a variant of red completely unknown to any who saw them.
She clutched tightly to the alicorn as the wendigo stepped closer. "Why are you here?!" He didn't listen and continued his advance, making fear grow in her eyes. "Don't you dare touch her, I mean it, Indigo Frost!"
"Why?" He answered her. "Don't you wish to save her?"
"I... I..." Clover was left completely dumbfounded by his answer.
"I can save her... if you want it." He tried to touch Twilight, only for Clover to pull away.
"No! I can't trust you!"
"And I can't trust you!" He growled. Glowing his eyes pushed red snowflakes around her.
"No, no!!" she screamed as the red snowflakes wrenched Twilight from her hands. "Give her back to me!!" She fought forward even as the red snowflakes cut her flesh.
"What is she to you?"
"What is she to you?!" Clover barked back as she took a battle stance. Well, it wasn't much of a battle stance since she was drained of magic and her legs could barely keep still.
"Like that matters to you." He raised his hand to the outside. "Continue to defy me and I'll lead the undead outside right to you."
"I refuse..."
"What?" He increased the speed of his red snowflakes, cutting Clover up more.
"I said, I refuse!!" Clover screamed out the last of her magic to scatter the red snowflakes, making them drop Twilight.
"Fine..." He narrowed his eyes but smiled at her determination. "She is the greatest piece in my plan," his answer was just as shocking to her. Yet it was clear as day, no deception was in his voice at all. He presented his hand as if waiting for her answer.
"She's from the future... Rex's future."
"I... I see." He narrowed his eyes on Rex. "He has been alive for thousands of years. Cursed in this very place..." The wendigo gestured to the altar.
"I know... I saw it all in that trap!"
"Then you also know..." He grinned at her horror. "You are far from his first mistress... I doubt you will be his last--"
"I know that!!" she screamed. "But here is what you don't know..." She pointed to herself. "I am the daughter of Lord Stygian and Lady Cathrine, a student of Starswirl the Bearded and a former soldier of Princess Luna. I know very well the price of immortality!"
"Do you?" He tilted his head. "There is a difference between seeing those horrors and living them..."
"You've never suffered like him..."
"Have I?!" He roared. "Fine, some truth, since we are being so open." He leered at Rex and Cold Blue's unconscious bodies before grumbling and slowly confessing, "I am not Indigo Frost... I never was." He pointed to Cold Blue. "I am the son of the former queen... of the sirens."
Clover's eyes widened. "You... why hide from him and--"
"I am still a wendigo..." He closed his eyes. "My father suffered just as much as Rex... Watching his people be butchered in front of him. Finding his love, my mother as a frozen corpse... Only to die by her killer's hand!"
"The real Indigo Frost is dead?"
"Yes..." the wendigo dropped to one knee, bowing to Clover. "I too have suffered many pains in my twisted immortality... I am... a monster... I've known that all my life." He looked to Twilight with hope. "And she, too, is a monster!"
"No, no, she is my--" Clover was stopped as the wendigo raced forward, punching her in the gut and destroying her defenses completely.
"Neither of us has any right to make such a declaration!" The wendigo roared. Taking Twilight in his arm, and stared deeply into her wound.
"No, let her go!" Clover tried to stand, but her leg gave out. She tried again, repeating herself. She didn't know how, but she had to stop him.
"I have wasted enough time with you!" The wendigo frowned at her attempt and turned his full attention to Twilight. His eyes traced over the remains of the Pale Mare fading from her body and into her frostbitten eye. Seeing it made him remember his arm severed the same day he carved this wound. Now she had a new wound on her chest.
"You wish to save her?" the wendigo asked Clover. She nodded in response. "Will you do anything to save her?" Clover was slower to answer him this time, but answered yes, eventually. The wendigo smiled at her answer and turned back to the problem at hand.
The massive hole had stopped pumping out blood. His eyes narrowed on her heart, slowing to an end. He reached inside and grasped hold of something beyond Clover's sight. Eventually, he removed his hand, closed his eyes, and lowered Twilight's chest under his own. "You are lucky that she is not ready yet."
Much to Clover's shock, the wendigo tore open his own chest. The maroon blood poured down into Twilight's chest. Her body jolted from the connection, and the healing process started. Just like with Cold Blue before, the fresh dark magic blood was able to heal Twilight's chest.
Clover was in a mix of horror, confusion, and slight relief. Their enemy was helping to save Twilight, but why? "Why? Why are you helping us? We fought you! Defied you at every turn."
"And yet, I never considered you an enemy," his answer shocked Clover even more. "None of you are my enemy at all. You, Rex, Twilight, and even Cold Blue are simply lost." He lowered Twilight to the ground as the spell finished. "And I wish to guide you throughout the darkness and light." With that final word, he faded back into red snowflakes.
"... Thank you..." Clover hated her confession, but it was true. He helped her, saved Twilight, and now what did he desire?
"Do not consider this as free..." The wendigo smiled at her. "I expect you to keep my secret from Rex." His eyes lowered back to Twilight. "This is the deal... and I'll be expecting more services rendered in return..." With that, the red snowflakes flew away and out of sight.
******
Back up top, with the peaceful movement of the Pegasus Isles, Starlight and Clovis finished multiple cups of coffee before realizing how much time had passed. Hours after the fact and Lord Red had still yet to return. The two had finished talking about Clover and even Rex. Boredom had begun to settle in on both of them.
Starlight looked over at the pegasi. Many of them were still just as happy as before. Not a single bit of rage, or even the slightest annoyance, traced their faces. She was certain now, this seemed way too off. But she didn't know how to bring this point to Clovis.
He dodged her last few questions out of boredom. So, it seemed unlikely this point would pique his interest at all. She needed to go at a different angle and then push into the strange eeriness around them.
Starlight tapped her empty cup loudly to get his attention and then started by aiming at his ego. "So what you like, Clovis?"
"You're asking me... about me?" He raised an eyebrow at her words. "Odd subject choice..."
"Not really!" she complained. "I'm actually curious."
"Why? I understood your reasoning for Clover and Rex, but why me?" He gestured to nothing as if Twilight was right there. "Your teacher, this Twilight Sparkle, has far more in common with those two than me."
"Yes, and thank you for confirming it," Starlight tried to not huff. "It's just I wouldn't mind learning some from you, too. After all..." She appeared right behind him. "You and I are masters of teleportation."
"Yes... I've seen your power before." He gave no face of impressment.
"Well, you haven't seen this!" She vanished. Seconds later, she reappeared on the table holding a strange piece of machinery. "See, straight from the Titan Airship."
"Do you know what it is?"
"Actually... no?" She raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see Fredricson or Lady Cat nearby. In fact, the whole Titan Airship was silent... Outside of some music, I couldn't recognize the style or source. I didn't stay long enough to find out. They must have landed somewhere."
"You teleported there without knowing their location and left without saying a word." He seemed more disappointed.
"I followed the titan airship's magic signature," Starlight boasted.
"How do I know this is even from the Titan Airship?"
"Just look at the technology?" She pointed out the colors and design.
"Hmm, unlikely evidence."
"Fine, what if I steal some chocolate milk from Starswirl?!"
"Better?" He laughed. "Take the alathar off of him."
"Wait, why?"
"Nine only in existence. The rarity and unlikeliness of finding it anywhere will prove your power."
"Fine!" she huffed in a flash of light. Moments later she crashed face first into the table behind them, with no alathar in hand.
"I see you didn't find it..."
"Find it?" Starlight got up and dusted herself off. "Try finding him. The second I spotted his power, I bounced back... Hard!" She seared at the pain. "That's never happened before."
"Really?" Clovis stood up and leered her over. "This could mean one of three things?"
"And?"
"One; Starswirl sent you back. Two; somepony else blocked you. Or three; you are lying."
"Teleport over and see for yourself," she pointed back. "He's in the center of the hourglass, the Batpony Canyon side."
"... No." He turned away.
"Wow!" Starlight laughed. "Clovis the Coward indeed."
"What?" His voice raised.
"Really, I'm not surprised. I'm more curious about what you are more scared of." Starlight narrowed her eyes at him.
"Enough!" He walked away.
"No, not enough!" Starlight numbered it out just like him. "One; you are afraid of Starswirl. Two; afraid somepony might be stronger than Starswirl. Or three; you are just too much of a coward to prove me wrong."
Clovis gritted his teeth and threw his arms around. "Fine!!" He vanished.
Starlight turned to another table and prepared to clap. Moving the table out of the way with her magic, she smiled as he reappeared in the same crashing motion. "Ha, see--" she was stopped from applauding at the fear on his face. "Clovis--"
The coward jumped away from her. "Stop, you filthy beasts!"
Her own shocked vanished as he hit her hand. "There's no need for insults, just because you were wrong!"
"I wasn't wrong!" he screamed back, throwing a popcorn seed to the ground.
"What?" Starlight was confused by this gesture until it popped open and revealed the image of Starswirl.
"Will you two please stop jumping in?" the old wizard shouted through the image while dodging other figures in the scene. "You are ruining the fun."
"Starswirl, what's going on?"
"The dead are rising to meet you!" He shouted at them.
"What?!" Starlight shouted back. "Dis... Starswirl, this is no time for pranks!"
"I'm not!" He shouted his loudest, crushing one of the figure's skulls right next to the image. Starlight's ears twitched at the sounds of the bones breaking and the brain squishing. Starswirl was filled with shame at his actions. He didn't want them to hear every detail of that but knew no other way to make them listen. "Starlight, Clovis... is Lord Red with you."
"No..." Clovis shivered away.
"Damn, we'll have to do this the hard way!" The image and the popcorn split into multiple pieces. "Present the images to any nearby authorities. I've placed them on a loop in case I can't fight them forever!"
"Disc..." Starlight stopped herself and quickly corrected. "Starswirl! You can't talk like you are going to die--" She was stopped as the loop played by instead. "No, no, no!" She shook the image for a response. "Starswirl! Starswirl! You, old wizard!! Answer me..." Her eyes filled with tears. "Disco..."
Back inside the remains of the church, the weather got noticeably warmer after those red snowflakes left. Horror lingered in Clover's eyes until she heard Twilight's breathing return. Relief urged her to move forward.
Still, with a broken leg, she couldn't get very far. However, she could at least sit herself in front of Twilight. She took this moment to close up the alicorn's armor with what magic she had.
While not the finest of work it would have to do. Clover gave a small chuckle, if her younger sister, Cleve the Clothist, were here, the armor would be repaired to flawless perfection. Clover never realized just how much she never learned from her siblings.
All she could do now was wait for Twilight to wake. Rex and Cold Blue would be fine. The siren filly was safely by Rex's side. The only problem now lied on the outside.
Much like the visions of the past, standing just outside were several undead. Clover remembered the images of Rex's past. His family being ripped apart, their corpses following him for years until his escape. Her eyes lingered back to the Dark Alicorn Amulet and wondered, was it the reason they refused to advance? Was it keeping them at bay, just like it did for the church all those millennia before?
Many questions would have to be saved for when Rex's awoke. For now, all she could do was wait for Twilight to awaken first. For Clover's... daughter... No, Rex's daughter to wake.
What happened next was far too fast for her to process. All Clover knew was her body was being flung into a wall. A scaly hand wrapped tightly against her throat.
Clover tried to fight off her attacker, only for her to be lifted higher into the air. Her eyes widened the sight of Cold Blue. Though she couldn't believe her eyes as his body grew with his rage... much like Twilight's transformations. Within seconds he stood taller than even the wendigo. His scales grew bigger and harder. His claws and teeth sharpened to their furthest point.
Seeing all of this made Clover remember. Rex once said his rival was the greatest and most terrifying monster to ever exist. Long ago, the siren was just a beastly entity that knew only one thing.
"Cold Blue?" Clover could barely speak the name of her attacker. However, the most minor of reactions was all one needed to confirm the truth.
"Why?" He viciously growled at her.
"What?" She couldn't process what he meant.
"Why would you make such a deal?!" his roar echoed throughout the room.
Clover's eyes widened, and she remembered. She realized that somehow, Cold Blue had witnessed some, if not most, or even all the conversations she had with the wendigo. "I was trying to... save her!" Clover pushed back, trying to regain herself.
"No!" He roared louder. "Why would you save her?!"
Clover's eyes strained for an answer she clearly couldn't give him. To make things worse, the pressure on her neck was making everything go blurry. If this kept up, she feared he would kill her without even batting an eye.
Cold Blue's rage was much more refined than Twilight's. Could this be his dark ascension? Could this be a close equivalent? Or could this simply be the edge of his power before such truly darker rage took forth?
Either way, Clover was now facing a monster far beyond her power. Fury which she could not possibly beat on her own. His malice could easily end her life the moment he first struck, but only held back by a desire for an answer. Something which she apparently wasn't fully ready to accept, despite being ready hours ago.
"Retract your hand, now!" However, safety arrived soon enough in the shadowy tentacles of Rex's power. The umbrum wasn't ready to stand but demanded this to end all the same as if he were battle ready.
"Why are you stopping me?" Cold Blue sneered at Rex's actions.
"Why are you attacking her?!" Rex demanded.
"She made a deal with the wendigo!"
Rex's eyes widened at Cold Blue's answer, and Clover nodded in confirmation. "Clover... why?"
"I had no choice! Twilight... was dying!" She pointed to the sealed armor on Twilight. "That light alicorn had used the body of Princess Platinum to stab her right through... and then he escaped!"
Cold Blue turned to Twilight to confirm her words. The siren closed his eyes and smiled at hearing Twilight's breath. However, he bashed Clover into the wall. "You have no right to make such a deal on Twilight's behalf!"
"Deal?!" Rex summoned his chains to stop the siren's attack. Yet even as they dug deeper into Cold Blue's flesh and fought harder the stallion refused to yield. Calling upon the dark alicorn amulet was his last move. With its force, he threw the siren away from Clover.
Yet the siren didn't stop his rage. A red maroon glowed in his eyes. "Yes... she traded her word for Twilight's!!" His words shocked Rex enough for the chains to fall. Seeing his chance, the siren rushed back in to finish it.
Cold Blue was stopped as Rex appeared between him and Clover. The two clashed in a spell of powerful magic. Despite both being nearly out of power from the previous battle, they stood their ground without fading. Soon Rex's eyes laced with a red maroon glow as well. "If that is true... then we shall both bare that deal!!"
"And why?!" Cold Blue demanded. "You care nothing for her at all!!" Cold Blue remembered the time he spent in the mindscape with Twilight. "You've only known Twilight for months."
"Details for later." Cold Blue turned things back around. "Why make such a deal?! What does Twilight mean to you."
Rex didn't know how to answer that himself. All he could do was push back against Cold Blue's power. The problem lay in the fact that Rex was still an amateur at dark magic and Cold Blue was a master.
Cold Blue fueled what dark magic he could muster. He was running low from the previous battle, too. However, he needed answers. There was no way they would make such a selfish deal without a reason. He decided it was only fair to mention some truth of his own. "Twilight and I spent nearly fourteen hundred years in a mind lock. You know what that means!"
"That would only mean..." Rex's eyes widened. "Mindscape training."
The siren's confirmation shocked Rex and Clover, so he clarified it was Twilight's choice. She wished to stabilize her dark magic and learn more about this realm. Each of these he provided with nothing in return.
Meanwhile, they had given her nothing until now. The two knew his rage was real and now knew his reasons. This forced them to affirm something they had yet to fully accept themselves.
Rex looked back at Clover as his dark magic reached its limit. She nodded to him, and he caved, lowering his guard as Clover stood with him. Cold Blue jumped back at this stand with confusion and strained eyes. They couldn't concede defeat, yet they wouldn't fight him anymore. The siren narrowed his eyes and demanded their answer, yet they still weren't ready to say it yet.
The last edges of his power pooled out. The dark magic concentrated itself around his frills and horns. His size restrained but his power emblazoned louder than ever. Cold Blue rushed back, only to be stopped by their final answer.
"Twilight is our daughter!"
******
Back in the elevator room, Starswirl fought off the undead as best he could. The forces were too numerous and more swarmed out of the elevator door by the minute. Soon enough, he was pushed to the very edge. Sneering at the lack of ground behind him, Starswirl charged all the magic he could.
"Looks like you've reached quite the impasse." A voice echoed behind him.
The old wizard was stopped in place as the undead halted their advance. He raced back around. His eyes widened at an all too familiar pegasus floating in the air, "You're... Rainbow Dartz--" He was stopped as blood spewed from his mouth.
"No," the pegasus laughed with two voices as his hand wrenched out of Starswirl's stomach. "No, I'm not... Time in." With that final word, time itself stopped around the elevator room, freezing Starswirl and his blood in place.
Aitym smiled through his new body and waved his hand over the undead, allowing them to continue their advance. However, Starswirl was never their true target, which lay above...
"Incredible, long ago I lost my body... I never knew I would be able to pull off such powerful spells ever again. This pegasus is truly unique..." He approached Starswirl and quickly pick the old wizard's pockets. "Sure, those two dark magic users were useless as bodies, but keeping them under my wing still proved most beneficial in restoring more of my old strength..." He stopped and felt a cold sweat pour down the face of his new host.
Aitym jumped back as Starswirl slipped free for only a second. The pegasus barely dodged a slash through the air. He was at a loss as the attack almost felt like that of a griffin's talon passing by.
"... No..." The smile of the pegasus faded from the power of the light alicorn and he turned into a rage, roaring at the wizard. "Damn it!! I need more... more hosts and soon I can fully restore my body too."
He snatched away the alathar, flapping his wings louder as he backed away. "Without the Power of the King in your possession, I can keep this body just a little bit longer." Looking to Pegasus Isles. "I should have done this sooner, especially in accelerating the next phase of the plan..." He forced his host to bow to the old wizard. "I know it seems strange to say to a master as powerful as myself, but what I miss most from my body is the ability to fly!"
With that, he snapped his fingers and let time flow forward. Escaping Starswirl with ease as the force of the old wizard's own reckless attack threw him off the edge. Aitym flapped his wings in place as if mocking the wizard falling to his fate, before heading upward with the rest of his army.
******
At the same time, Twilight had yet to wake. Cold Blue had conceded and returned to his normal size. He even healed them and was now working on healing Twilight. It was unclear to both of them whether he believed a single word or was just shocked by such a proclamation. He knew she was from the future, but even a revelation like this was hard to accept, even for them.
However, Rex was the most surprised. He hadn't fully accepted the reality himself, and yet Clover was the first to stand and affirm it. He had his doubts and knew Cold Blue did, too.
Even more surprising was the amount of restrained Cold Blue had, long before Rex awoke. The siren could have easily killed Clover. The transformation wasn't even anywhere near completion. Rex made sure Clover knew that Cold Blue's mercy was in effect the moment the siren awoke.
In the end, neither of the three could think any longer about those problems. The undead were still outside. Arguing would have to wait. They needed to regroup. But where to? Rex instantly considered the Titan Airship, but since all of them were running low on magic, he would need to write out the spell.
Clover watched over Sonata Dusk, Twilight, and Princess Platinum while the two stallions did their work. However, her eyes did occasionally drift to Rex with a mix of concern and amazement. She was concerned about his thoughts on the matter of Twilight's lineage, especially since she didn't talk to him first before making the proclamation. But she was also amazed by Rex's mastery of shadowmancy. This had been the first time she saw him openly write out the spells on the ground, but the detailing was as perfect as her father's work.
Cold Blue didn't want to admit it himself, but he too was impressed. Rex had grown more than he ever considered, especially around Clover. He lamented back to Twilight's words and how his own wording was wrong. While he couldn't understand the love Rex had for Clover, he realized Clover loved Rex dearly and this love was changing the umbrum and more ways than one.
"So, despite our combined power, the beastly spirit named Aitym escaped."
"Yes, and in a body unknown to us."
"Not completely unknown..." Rex scanned the area. "Rainbow Dartz..."
"Who?" Cold Blue questioned.
"The pegasus that guided us down here. He said that he was a friend of Twilight and Starlight." Clover answered.
"More problems. Either way, we have a target and a destination."
Cold Blue turned his attention upward. "I get it. Where best to hide than in plain sight?"
"To Pegasus Isles, then." Clover dragged Princess Platinum's body over to Sonata Dusk, so Rex would have an easier time teleporting both. "But we should drop these two off at the Titan Airship."
"Right..." Rex lifted his horn to his shadows to choose a destination. "I'll choose Fredricson's shadow."
However, as he opened the pathway, the strangest thing happened. Music echoed forth.
"Odd..." Rex raised an eyebrow. "It is clearly organic in nature."
"But, I've never known Lady Cat to sing," Clover confirmed.
"Yes, it's clearly two females..." Cold Blue walked closer.
Welcome to the show Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
Without warning, Sonata Dusk opened her mouth and started repeating the same tune. She matched the other two, note per note. The little one lifted into the air and glowed, as if reacting to their connection.
Clover's eyes widened. "The Siren Sisters..." Her voice drifted before she finished. "They must be able to sense each other..." Again, her voice drifted lower. It wasn't like her thoughts were getting lost, but rather it was suddenly getting harder to speak.
We're here to let you know Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah Our time is now
Rex was sensing it too. A sudden strain to speak and stand as if all their power was being drained. "What... is going... on here?"
Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah Your time is running out Ah, ah, ah
The voices intensified and now Cold Blue was getting the same feeling. "Wait... this feeling... I've... sensed it before..." The siren stallion's legs gave out. He reached out to the shadow as the music got louder.
Rex and Clover fell as well. Now it was getting harder to stay awake. Their breathing was getting worse. And their eyelids got heavier and heavier.
Feel the wave of sound As it crashes down You can't turn away We'll make you wanna sta-a-a-ay
The music reached its loudest point and a faint glow grew brighter from within the shadow. The shine matched the intensity of the glow of Sonata Dusk, making both glows all the brighter. Soon, the whole church was filled with their light.
We will be adored Tell us that you want us We won't be ignored It's time for our reward
Sleep was quickly claiming all of them. Cold Blue as a siren himself, was the only one with strength left now. He reached out to Twilight. He grabbed her hand tightly. "Wake... up..." He pulled himself closer to her and roared with his last breath, "Twilight!!" He stabbed his falcata into the ground and was out cold too.
Now you need us Come and heed us Nothing can stop us now
The alicorn's eyes shot open and her ears flicked to the music. Realizing the truth far faster than the others did, she lifted Cold Blue's falcata out of the ground and stabbed it deep into Rex's shadow, the source of the music. Her eyes glowed with her normal magic, free of the Pale Mare's rage, and she calmly called out. "Release the bond!"
Breaking the shadowmancy stopped the music. Everypony shook in place for a moment before coming back to reality. Sonata Dusk dropped with a hard thud and stopped singing.
The others got up and attempted to stand. Each gave very different reactions to such a move. Cold Blue with the most fiery reaction, took back his weapon from Twilight and aimed its sharp end at the younger siren's throat.
"No!" Clover screamed, falling in the way once more, remembering her broken leg.
"I understand your reasons for Twilight... " He lifted the tip to Clover's throat instead. "But that little one nearly killed us."
"Agreed." Twilight didn't want to admit it, but he was right. "However, that spell seemed more reactive than the last I heard it." She pushed away his weapon. "For now, I think it would be best to keep the siren sisters far from each other."
"You said, you heard it before?" Rex questioned.
"Yes. when I first saw the siren sisters on the Titan Airship, I knew exactly who they were..." Twilight fell back onto a rock. She waved them away to assure them she was fine. "Or rather, I know what will become of them..."
"In the future?" Clover questioned.
"Your timeline..." Rex affirmed.
"Yes..." Twilight conceded. "Must be a failsafe that either the wendigo or Aitym put into place if the children got too close to each other. In the future, they will learn to control that failsafe somehow. For now, we will have to take them with us." It took her another moment to catch on to what Cold Blue said to Clover. "Wait, what did you say?" She pointed to Clover.
"I... I don't know," Clover replied, unsure what she meant.
"No, when you were protecting the child!" Twilight reached out for Cold Blue to help her stand. "He told you... You had a reason to protect me, but not her!" Twilight limped right to Clover and repeated. "What did you say to Cold Blue?"
"It's not what she said..." Rex corrected. He stepped between them and Clover. "It's what we both said that was important." He knew Twilight didn't need to know about the deal just yet. He himself was still unclear about the details of the deal, but a greater priority needed to be put forth as an explanation. "We know the truth about you... Twilight."
Twilight narrowed her eyes as if it hadn't hit her yet. But slowly the realization came to pass. Her sight dotted about the room and her legs drifted to the exit. "I... I don't know what you mean?" She dodged their words.
"No," Rex stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. It was the first kind gesture he ever gave her. "I know who you are... daughter--"
"Don't you dare say it!" She pulled away. Her reaction left them all puzzled. "I mean..." She corrected herself. "It's just... time is a fickle thing." Her eyes tilted back to the exit. "I... I can't be sure... Whether it's my assumptions or your assumptions..." She twirled her finger around. "What I'm trying to say is... without proof..."
"I..." Rex hesitated until Clover grabbed his hand. "I have proof... I found it when I scanned for you back at the unicorn capital." He placed his other hand on the dark alicorn amulet. "Later, he confirmed it... And so did Lord Red."
"Lord Red..." Twilight's eyes widened into defeat. "So he's here too. Of course, he would know the truth..." She turned away. "Damn, centipede has to ruin everything!" They wanted to question her word choice, but she quickly changed the subject. Turning her attention to Clover, the alicorn softly asked. "So you are my..."
"That is purely an assumption right now." Cold Blue pulled her away. "A mystery that will have to wait." Facing the exit, he pondered aloud. "How will we get out of here then?"
"You're right," Twilight laughed it off. She looked up at the sky for the first time. "Wait, are we already inside the Giant Blue Hourglass of legend..." She silently cheered in place without a need for this confirmation. "I have been wanting to visit this place since our arrival in this timeline, Starlight." She stopped upon noticing her student was nowhere in sight. "Hey, where is she?"
"With Lord Red," Clover answered. "He and Starswirl thought it would be a good idea to split up when we arrived."
"Of course..." she deadpanned.
"Ha," Rex gave a soft laugh. "So hating that bastard, Lord Red, is a family tradition?"
"Oh, I have encountered multiple versions of him through the multiple timelines I have visited. All have been a thorn in my side for a long, long time."
"Either way," Cold Blue pointed to the siren child and Princess Platinum. "We need to put these two up somewhere and meet up with him all the same."
"Hmm," Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What about the Crooked Wings? Shouldn't that be nearby here?"
"The what?" Clover raised an eyebrow.
"It's a bar," Rex answered.
"Yeah, legend said it lied between the two lands of the Giant Blue Hourglass," Twilight confirmed.
"And you know this how?" Cold Blue questioned.
"I... I've studied all forms of alcoholic establishments in history books--" Twilight was stopped at Clover's laughter.
"Now I know you and Rex are related!" the unicorn chuckled harder before leaning on Rex. "We have our destination."
Rex rolled his eyes and loosened his shadows around all of them. "Let's go." Reactivating the written spell, the entire group vanished into his shadows and onward to battle.
Many years ago, miles away from the Giant Blue Hourglass, on the other side of the mighty celestial ocean, near the site where the legendary Griffinstone would one day sit, laid the remains of several ships. Some proudly shone the flag of the pegasi, but most wore the banner of the griffins.
Among the crashing remains and the trashing salty water was a single young griffin. His light blue feathers stood pronouncedly against the brown wood of the shredded ship around him. He was pinned under the mainsail, and his left eye was gone, but cared not for his pain. Instead, he continued to reach out to another far older grey griffin wearing a broken fez. A crooked spear with three light blue pegasus feathers tied around it's hilt. It lay beside the older griffin but wasn't his own as the point was directed at him and steeped in his blood.
"Commander!!" the younger griffin shouted out. The mainsail stopped his advance. Yet he fought harder, especially as the blood of the other griffin reached him. "Sir!!" His words meant nothing, as the older griffin was reacting. "Lord Gallus!!" He shouted his loudest.
However, the body didn't move. Though the blood reached the younger griffin, he couldn't deny how cold it felt. His face shook against this hopelessness. Wrenching in place as if in defiance of such a reality. Yet all his fighting did was tear his own wounds, replacing his leader's blood with his own.
Ripping his arm free with enough force that bones cracked aloud. His own agony meant nothing to the sight of his master, no, his father fading away, right in front of him. He scrapped at the blood over and over, struggling at its cold touch. Finally seeing defeat he reached out to the sky and screamed out, "Curse you.... Crucian Gale!!"
"Such is the perfect symbol of a new resolve. A son and father at the edge of Saturn's scythe, roaring out at the name of whom threw them at his feet." an unfamiliar voice shook the griffin to attention.
The young griffin turned his eyes upward to see a pony standing over the very sail, holding him in place. The griffin's anger turned to the pony, grabbing the nearby spear spear that had slain his father.
"Wielding a weapon of your enemy against me. Bound by such rage that you ignore the blood of your own father dripping from it's tip." The pony continued. His words were only replied with action as the griffin threw the spear at the pony. The pony blocked it with magic rather easily, bouncing a distance away into the ocean. The efforts of power revealed the pony to not be a pegasus but a unicorn. Though he was unlike any unicorn, the griffin had ever seen.
The younger griffin, despite missing an eye, and even as the unicorn stepped closer, couldn't believe what his working eye was seeing. The orange unicorn was so thin and weakly in form. And yet he jumped off the sail's large height with ease.
The griffin could hear the bones of the unicorn shake, but he still moved, as if unharmed and unhindered by the reality of his appearance. The orange unicorn leaned down to the blood between the younger griffin and the dead lord. He dragged his heavily armored hand through the blood, much to the griffin's dismay.
"This is the blood of... Lord Gallus..." The unicorn brought the blood to his nose and took a deep scent. "And another, you, sir Grover." The unicorn smiled at the griffin's shocked expression. "Though, with him dead, that would make you... Lord Grover now."
The griffin turned away in shame. Staring back at his wounds and the mainsail, holding him in place. "Soon, I will join my father on the other side."
"No, you won't," the unicorn's voice was filled with the same defiance that the griffin had moments ago. "No, Lord Grover, that won't do at all." He laughed at the griffin's pain. "I am a lord too... Lord Red," he confirmed. "You stand far stronger than me." He presented his full frail form to the griffin. "You still have plenty of fight left in you."
"Enough!!" Grover coughed up blood. "End this mockery!! Let me be taken by Saturn in peace."
"No, no, no." Lord Red stepped closer. "Future shows that the titan of death won't claim you... at least not now."
"What..." Grover's voice softened as the unicorn stood right above him once more. Whereas before, he was in the sky, now this being was right beside him. "Why are you here?"
Lord Red smiled and offered out a hand. "I'm here to offer a deal to King Grover... the future King of Griffinstone..."
******
Back in the modern day, in the south, deep within the island fortress, far from any civilization, Thule closed the portal after the blank body had left. He turned to the infant and noticed the curiousness in his eyes. "Don't worry, that body should last him long enough to reach his proper container." He huffed in annoyance. "If one of our allies hadn't been so impatient then his own resolve wouldn't be so rushed."
"Worry?" the infant repeated the only word that mattered to him and raised an eyebrow. "What is worry? Is that like concern?"
"Huh..." Thule stepped closer, ignoring the stretch his latest body was giving off or how it seem to throw the infant back. "You are curious, but have no worry."
"Yes..." The infant looked down. "Father said I'm too curious. He states I should rest more..." He faced his own container. "I'm not finished yet."
Thule raised his eyebrow and looked him over. The infant had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but much like the experiment that just left, he had to carve them out. In fact, there were multiple scars overlaying each other implying multiple times as if he had to do this every single time he awoke from his tank. This differed greatly from the tanks that the infant's father had supplied to Thule.
The corpse read the number under the tank carefully. "... 001, impossible..." This made no sense. Why was this single project so hard to perfect? These tanks were designed by the grandson of the creator of the changelings and yet, matching such mastery of life seemed impossible. Instead, all that could be made were these blank slates. Easy for Thule's uses, but impossible for living and breathing... new life. He turned his attention back to the infant. "Where is your... father?"
"Possibly hanging out with daddy, or maybe meeting with grandfather!" His voice raised, but there was no sign of emotions. No rage, or happiness, instead just an emphasizing of the facts, or possibly an attempt to fake emotions he lacked altogether.
"Grandfather? The one who didn't forge the changelings... or maybe the one who did?"
"Right, great-grandfather actually, father hates speaking with that changeling creator... the ghost alicorn... I think he's called Aitym now..." The infant sat down, now used to the horrible smell. "Plus... Aitym doesn't need my father or us anymore... Not since you gave him those sirens."
"Unlikely, since those sirens are no longer under his control!" Thule corrected. His words made the infant take a step back, but again it wasn't out of fear, but instead a strange form of caution. "Huh, your knowledge of the outside world is surprisingly small."
"Father doesn't let us out much. In fact, he doesn't like us out at all..." He looked at the ground. "Not until we are finished cooking."
"And yet he leaves the tanks unlocked," Thule laughed. "Authority against freedom, but allowance of those freedoms."
"More daddy's idea than father's."
"Ah! yes, that alicorn would have a problem being forcibly contained." Thule stopped when he sensed something. "Well, that is different." He turned away from the infant and made his way to the elevator. "I just received a signal about something more important that needs my attention."
"Wait?" the infant chased after him, only to be stopped. "You sounded as if you wanted to talk to father?"
"Actually, I was here for something else, but another problem has come about."
"Don't go?!" Again, no concern at all, instead just more emphasis. "Could you send more down here to talk to us?" The infant held his hand out to his siblings in the other tanks. "This place is so silent without father or daddy."
"Hmm," Thule leaned down and placed his hand on the infant's shoulder. "Sure, I'm certain I can arrange a few of my slaves to come down here."
"Slaves... what is that word?!" His question made Thule laugh harder.
"I'll have them bring books too, but only if you don't tell your father we were here."
"Of course!" With that promise, Thule entered the elevator, leaving the infant alone inside the underground base.
******
Falling through the air, Starswirl reached out in vain. The upper beauty, such a mockery sight of the Giant Blue Hourglass's top faded from him as he descended downward to its bottom. He could sense the ground reaching him faster and faster. He smiled in slight regret, sensing no sign of his student, friends or allies below. They were all long gone. None knew the truth and as such none could save him.
The winds passing by were a cooling sensation. Pleasing moment despite the increasing speed. The air wrapped tightly around him as if pushing him further and further downward.
The whistles of the air was delightful music. Such a lovely grace to welcome him to the end. And yet such a solo, effortless, longing, loneliness.
It was truly an agonizing and sobering reminder of just how alone he always felt. A pony of science and magic to the very end, having nopony to have, nopony to care for. His purpose in life was always to bring knowledge, not be saved for such. He was to pass on his work, never see it succeeding with his own eyes.
He knew this the moment he saw Twilight Sparkle and her student, Starlight Glimmer. The two time travelers bounded by a spell he never completed. One, an alicorn, grants her power through one of his own spells. The other, an avid studier of his legends. Seeing them victorious even where he failed was a great sight. He was happy to know them and glad to witness their paths.
It was the real reason he let them on the titan airship. Not for some mystery, though he loved a good one. No, not for some unknown connection they might have with Rex or the alicorns, as epic as the reveal was. Not for their power, might, future, or even their fate. No, what he sought from them was something Rex and Clover could never understand. What he desired was to simply meet... the future of his knowledge.
That prize was now snuffed away as his sight went back. The pressure of gravity gripped tighter than the air, slowly crushing him. He dare not fight it... no point at all. The future was here... He was here...
******
Emptiness echoed through the Pegasus Isles as all warnings fell on deaf ears. No matter who they told nopony would listen. Even after showing the footage, the pegasi would turn away from Starlight and Clovis and ignore their pleas against the advancing evils.
Common citizens would go back to their daily lives, unhindered and unfazed. Children would show shock only to laugh moments later thinking it was some sort of trick. The elderly would scowl at their efforts as if their mere presence was the only source of chaos in their existence. And worst still were the soldiers; abruptly leaving with no regard for the truth.
"Why won't they listen?" Starlight fell back. "We could be attacked at any moment."
"Key phrasing, any moment is not now..." Clovis grumbled. "Pegasi are a notoriously lazy species."
"Don't get racist on me!" Starlight barked back.
"I'm not, its simply fact. Every species has their vices. Earth Ponies are strong yet stubborn. Unicorns like us, are powerful yet arrogant. Pegasi are full of so much valor and desire for battle, but are also too lazy to seek battle or accept its arrival."
"Sounds too bold to come from your mind?" Starlight questioned his words.
"Indeed, those were mine," a voice interrupted them. The two turned around to see nothing at all, but the source was clearly in this direction.
"That voice..." Starlight narrowed her eyes. "Lord Red." She was in utter confusion since there was no sign of magic at all. And yet, she could sense a strange feeling, almost like a vibration with each word, akin to strings on a violin.
"Yes," the voice apologized, "I am sorry not to be there in person. I'm currently busy heading to meet with the leader of the pegasi."
"Like a mayor of something?" Starlight questioned.
"No," Clovis corrected her. "While it might not look like it, Pegasus Isle is a military state."
"Exactly," Lord Red affirmed. "The current military leader is Commander Hurricane. I did try to find her earlier, but it seems something was blocking my signal."
"I find it odd that something could block you," Clovis posed.
"Agreed. Which means I'm on edge..." Lord Red's voice lowered. "On that note, you two are attempting to warn them of something."
"Yes, an attack," Starlight cleared her throat. "Starswirl warned us on invasion coming this way, directly from below us."
"Interesting. Send me the message."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "How? You aren't here--"
The unicorn was stopped by Lord Red's laughter. "Little mare, I am everywhere." With that strange wording, the very air in front of them cracked loudly, before slowly opening up... no it was as if reality itself was opening up.
"A corruption spell..." Clovis barely whispered aloud.
"Starlight, as an omni pony, you are the only one besides myself who can reach through. Thus ensure the message has safe travel."
The unicorn mare was silent at first. Everything in her told her to turn away from this crack, to never let it see her, let alone touch her. Her body trembled in place and her hands frozen. Clovis scolded her fear but it matter not for his words never reached her.
Lord Red's hand reached through the... portal. It gestured to her with such inviting kindness. Starlight's body moved on its own, pulling away from him much to her confusion. She was truly perplexed by this moment. She had distrusted him before, but as time went on, she wanted to trust him... so why now did the mistrust return? Why was she fearing him now?
Pushing through her instincts she reach out and placed the message in his hand. The unicorn mare pulled back just as quickly out of pain, yet there wasn't a mark on her and the agony lasted only an instant. However, the pain wasn't what scared her the most; it was the strange familiarity it had. "What is this power?"
"It is a corruption spell?!" Clovis questioned her wording. "Haven't you seen one before? Legend said you will encounter its form alike many times before the great battle."
"Indeed," Lord Red affirmed. "I used the spell in front of you once before, when the Night Brothers attacked."
Starlight instantly remembered but found it stranger since she couldn't even fully recall that memory until now. Stranger still, it wasn't her first time at all. "No... when I first felt this... it was shortly after..." She stopped. The memory of her first encounter was in her head... and just as quickly, it was gone. "Wait... what was I talking about?" She took a step back and went back to her normal self, confusing Clovis even more.
"I see..." Lord Red's voice became softer. "You are quite the intrigue, Starlight Glimmer." He laughed more softly. "I look forward to studying you more... until then, I will deliver your message."
"What about the undead? Can't they just climb upward?" Starlight questioned.
"Through the cloud bed, no. There is powerful magic that prevents the pegasi and batponies from interacting. As such, any coming directly from the Batpony Canyons would either take an outsider's path or the elevators." Clovis clarified.
"If they've already reached past Starswirl, then that won't take much time. Either way, hold out as long as possible. I might have an ally to send to you very soon." With that, he ended the connection, much to their dismay, as a loud cracking followed from all directions.
"What ally?" Clovis screamed in vain at his master's vanishing presence.
Starlight's face went pale, and she took a step back. Another cracking sound brought her to attention. Turning her sight to the westernmost front as the crashing repeated even louder. Cold sweat poured over the unicorn's mare's face as she sensed the worst. It was too late, as much as she didn't want it to be. "The undead... are here."
******
Not far from where they were, Lord Red grumbled in annoyance. He closed another portal and dropped the message into an image of a hospital room. Afterward, he turned his attention to far more important matters. His true location was a darkened and old laboratory at the very top of the Giant Blue Hourglass.
Private Pansy laid on a table under him. She was strapped down tightly, but showed no fear toward him. Instead, her only concern was outside as the shaking got worse.
Lord Red placed his frail hand upon her cheek to calm away her sweat. "Do not fear. The fear with me. I am beyond such things."
"Outside... another war is beginning to burn?" she questioned.
"Yes, which is why we must hurry." He lowered down what could be best described as a claw.
"What is this place?" She struggled but not out of fear for herself, but the others outside.
"This place belonged to someone I knew so dearly. He won't mind me using these." Lord Red waved his hand over the current machinery above Private Pansy as well as the rest in the room.
As the claw glowed brightly above her, Private Pansy gave one final plea, "Please tell me? What are you going to do?"
Lord Red placed one hand on her shoulder and calmed his breath. "I told you before, I am going to give you the strength you need to stand with your soldiers." He could see her fear wasn't gone, so he assured her. "I've done this to many creatures, including griffins." He lowered his head to her height and whispered into her ear. "All I wish to do is give you the power to stand by your beloved Gale Hurricane..."
The pegasus mare slowly nodded in agreement, "Okay, I'm ready." Private Pansy firmed herself in place.
He pulled and frowned, leaving her so confused. He straightened his face as if he was having a hard time saying it so he was blunt. "I'm so sorry... this is going to hurt."
With that last word, the glow shot out and enveloped her whole body, filling her with so much pain. Her screams echoed throughout the room. Her volume only being matched by the shattering outside as cracks rose from below, reaching even their height.
Her roars of agony were only stopped as the claw abruptly stabbed downward. It replaced her bellows with crunching and tearing as her body jolted violently and blood poured down the table. Lord Red turned away and let the machine continue. It twisted and pulled back several times before stabbing back in just as brutally. More blade arms dropped and worked alongside the main claw.
Out of his sleeves flowed the single hair of Starlight Glimmer. He brought it over to another machine. This one had three screens with images already on them. The first was of Rex, followed by a shadowy figure in the second, and below them in the third was Twilight Sparkle. "Huh, still unfinished, even after all this time. Understanding the strange bloodline of Twilight Sparkle will have to wait."
He typed on the keyboard and the images faded, only for the bottom to be replaced by Starlight Glimmer. He placed the hair into a tube standing at the left of the machine. The hair was sucked inside and a spinning sound echoed out. The new upper images appeared rather fast, "Oh, much faster than Twilight's scans. This means Starlight's family is already in the system." As the two images came into focus, his frown slowly turned back into a smile, a villainous smile. "Now that is very interesting. The ones who gave Starlight Glimmer her light and dark magic are..."
Years ago at the center of the Pegasus Isles, a group of six pegasi travel over an all too familiar barren cliffside. Up close it was far larger than it appeared at a distance. Nearly two miles in diameter and yet no life in sight at all. This was accompanied by an eerie silence that chilled to the bone.
To make things worse, there was intense pressure, making the distance far harder, heavier and tougher. "Why is it so hot?!" the youngest spoke up; a chubby red filly with a curly silver mane hiding under the wing of the middle child.
"Then maybe Gale shouldn't have brought you along!" The oldest colt complained.
"Don't you dare disrespect my best friend!" Gale stood up and threw her wings out against the high winds. Her friend did her best to hold her up to show just how imposing she could be.
"Please, don't fight right now..." The youngest colt stood between them. "Not when we are so close."
"Yea! Children, we need to stand together!" The father cheered.
"But, Pansy shouldn't even be here?!" the oldest child complained. "She's not family!"
"I told you to drop it, Dartz!!" Gale mocked him.
"Make me!" he barked back.
"Fine, I will." She pulled out her crooked spear with three light blue feathers tied at the hilt. Fueled by rage she swung forward. However, the youngest colt jumped in the way, taking a slash to the face.
"Dumbass!" Dartz mocked the rescue attempt.
"Zword!!" Gale rushed over to catch her brother.
"Gale HD Hurricane!!" their mother barked out the filly's full name. "Do not miss use your great-grandfather's spear so abrasively!"
"I... I'm sorry." Gale's face went pale at the wound she left her younger brother.
"She didn't mean to," the father laughed to ease the mood. "That old Crucian Gale was just as reckless. I remember a story where my grandfather witnessing the old fool throw the weapon at an escaping ship with no care of it's retrieve, understanding that he had to have hit something." He swung his arm as a show in remembering the story, with the added effect of tripping over his own feet for comedic sake.
"I'm... I'm fine." Zword smiled and stood proud, laughing with his father. Before even letting his mother check it out, he ripped a piece of his green shirt off and bound it. "I can see. I'm still standing. Are you two okay?"
The parents wanted to step in but absolutely adored his desire to check on the others. The youngest yet always the strongest in heart, body, and mind. Zword offered, despite his pain, to laugh with him.
Dartz refused and rushed on ahead. He was here for one reason, greater than all the others. He needed to prove he could stand. The eldest brother needed no weaknesses... only strength. He felt this every day of his life.
Dartz always felt like he was never worthy of his bloodline. The victories and honors of his past family members weighed heavier, especially in the sight of that crooked spear. Luck was the only reason Gale had it.
His parents claimed it was destiny. She had inherited our founder's name, and to them, it wasn't because of luck that she found the crooked spear on the shoreside one day. It was a visage, a sign from the gods that Gale was worthy of her name. Far more worthy than him, Dartz.
Soon enough, the family reached their destination. Another circle laid at the center of this mysterious cliffside. It seemed as if all the winds were coming directly from the circle. In fact, the air around the circle was moving so fast that not a single cloud could get in. The pressure was so strong it bent the images and light as even a heat wave swarmed over it.
"There is it, the Chains of Pluto." The father pointed out to a giant chain-covered scythe stabbed into the center of the ending circle. Beside it was the hilt of another weapon buried in the ground. "The master of all azoth daggers."
"Placed there by the founder of the umbrum race. Stolen from Saturn by the titan of darkness and the first son of Sanity." The mother cheered with delight. "Now go!! just as your forefathers have before you!!"
This mission was basic: Touch the handle. This was better said than done as it involved getting past the last circle. Just the winds escaping it were so strong the children could barely stand. They had been training for years and even this far away it felt like an impossible task to touch the final circle's edge, let alone enter it and reach the goal.
Dartz, feeling the doubt from earlier, was the first to step forward. His plan was even greater than their hopes. He didn't just want to reach for the handle; he was going to rip it out of the ground and claim the weapon for himself. He had been told that it had only ever been removed once and that was thousands of years ago. The one who removed it quickly placed it back.
Not knowing if the previous did it out of fear, pride, or doubt. What Dartz knew was that he would not hesitate.
Each child at the ripe age of five years old would need all the wing power they could muster. Little pegasi are trained to fly. For some, it's basic stuff like levitation and crossing from cloud to cloud. For upstarts, it's loops and mini diving. In later years they might return to training to become athletes and even soldiers. These kinds get pushed to greater limits in speed, strength, and of course, style. Soldiers, in fact, are pushed to their personal limits with massive feats of speed and diving off the highest mountains.
However, it was the founder of Pegasus Isles that pushed such training to the highest extreme. And her name was blazoned at the edge of the circle. Rainbowous Julia Dasherton, aka Rainbow Dash the 1st. With the proclamation, "If you are strong, then prove it. If you are fast, then prove it! If you are determined, then prove it!! Step forward and make your mark."
Dartz stared deeply at the name and several marks beyond it, each of a pegasus who succeeded this great founder and each one bringing more and more weight over the colt's brow. With the final name being the founder of their clan, Crucian Gale, at the final edge of the circle. Seeing each them reach the hilt and others falling just short of the prize.
There had been many in the species named after this Rainbow Dash. There would certainly be pegasi after, named Rainbow Dash as well. But the mere fact that he bared even a variety of the name was enough to crush his resolve.
Clenching his fist, the colt pushed forward with all his might. He couldn't show weakness now, especially with his siblings right beside him. Yet his doubts weren't the only things fighting him as soon as he crossed the circle.
Crashing hard into his face was a harsh punch of wind. It felt as if it was going to throw him to the ground and beat him to a bloody pulp and kick him after he was down. Dartz couldn't let this stop him. He called out his name and the names of his siblings. "I am Rainbow Haven Dartz Hurricane, my sister is Gale Heart Damzel Hurricane, and my brother is Zword Herald Dusk Hurricane!!"
On that final word, all four of them charged forward into the swirling circle. Neither knew what horrors awaited them inside or in their unknown future.
******
"Quite an unexpected find in the future."
An adult Rainbow Dartz woke up as if from a dream. His body was far more battered and weak compared to his younger form. He couldn't remember what happened, only that before the mindscape he was in had shaken violently and that a massive roar had echoed out before everything went black.
Now he was awake, but it quickly became clear that he wasn't free at all. However, Princess Platinum was nowhere in sight, nor was the vicious shadow of her mother. Rainbow Dartz grumbled under his breath of being still trapped in this place but smiled nevertheless hoping they were free.
"Oh, now you smile!" the voice echoed again, bringing the pegasus to attention.
"What? Who are you?" Rainbow Dartz called out. He knew the voice wasn't from the mother as this was clearly a male. He searched around the emptiness, hoping for an answer. "Are you trapped here too? Come out? I'm not the enemy."
"Yes... but I am." With that, the clear white area faded into a blood-soaked red. The floor and even the sky twisted and morphed into a mass of limbs and faces.
The details of each were so distorted that the longer he looked, the more the pegasus doubted what he was seeing. All he knew was the endless fear chilling over his flesh as the walls of blood and pieces closed in. "What the fuck?!" Rainbow Dartz threw up his hands. "What are you?"
"Really? is that the question you should ask?!" The hideous scene stopped its advance.
"Get away from me!!" Several limbs ahead of the pegasus trembled in, as if they were about to reach out to him.
"Do not scream!" The limbs stopped before going completely limp. Instead, the faces moved out of the way to reveal a massive sideways eye. "Many have screamed at me over the years." The eye lowered as if in shame. "I wouldn't even be returning to this monstrous form if it hadn't been for that Twilight Sparkle!"
"Twilight? Where is she?" Rainbow Dartz remembered back to the reason he and the group had come to the Batpony Canyons in the first place.
"That mare broke free! All I did for her and she smited me!!" The eye twisted as if roaring in rage. "Leaving with her friends, family, and that siren!! That cursed alicorn!!"
"Alicorn!" Rainbow Dartz questioned.
"Oh, you don't know?" The eye lingered closer. "Oh yes, I can see it."
Rainbow Dartz shivered away as the limbs reached over his body, touching and probing him. He kicked away, shouting and screaming, yet they wouldn't halt their advance.
"Foolish pegasus," the eye laughed a horrific cackle. "There is no escape. You are already in my grasp." With that, the pegasus found himself unable to move. "Here, let me show you the real Twilight Sparkle!"
The eye grabbed hold of Rainbow Dartz's face and pressed down tightly. Images raced through his head as the iris of the eye showed what they both could see. Images of Twilight, her false unicorn form, her true alicorn form, and even the transformations of the Pale Mare.
"Do not be offended!!" The eye narrowed upward as if the voice was frowning. "She lied to you. She lies to all her friends."
"What do you mean?"
"I've seen her memories. She was forged into her current form with a spell that was ancient in her time but hasn't even been written in our." The images showed her unicorn body gaining wings while solving a puzzle left to her. "Starswirl, the thief of Chaos's Words." The image changed again, showing two scrolls with similar writing styles. "Knowledge of these future scrolls are what trapped her in that form and later trapped her and her student in time."
Rainbow Dartz twisted around at the image of Starlight and Twilight's friends, one of which looked remarkably like a member of his family. "And what do you know of them?"
"Only what I can glean from Twilight." The eye shrieked in despair. "However, seeking information out of you seems pointless. While you look like this Rainbow Dash, you are not the preincarnation of her." The eye twitched in place and blinked with the flesh of the limbs. "But what is clear is you were once in contact with this Rainbow Dash's previous form." The eye tightened his grip on the pegasus. "Tell me where she is?!"
"Even if I knew who you are talking about... why would I tell you anything?!" Rainbow Dartz took all his will to turn away from the eye. "You are an alicorn..."
"Yes, just as Twilight is a fake..." the eye stopped as another memory from the pegasus passed by. It was far too quick to get the full details, but what was clear was the image of another alicorn. "I see, Twilight and I are far from the first alicorns you have encountered."
Rainbow Dartz gritted his teeth and conceded. "I trusted Twilight from previous experience. However, I have no reason to trust you."
"She is an alicorn that gained your trust long before you knew the truth..." The eye repeated the thoughts in Rainbow Dartz's head. "I don't have that luxury." It leaned in the closest ever, pressing its sclera right against the pegasus's face. "So for now, you will just be a temporary host... until I find one of those siblings of your memories."
Rainbow Dartz struggled his hardest at those words, but it meant nothing. The limbs of the eyes cracked louder and they twisted and turned tighter around his body, reaching over his chest and neck. Stretching over his face and pressing his cheek, before forcing their way into his mouth, nose, eyelids and ears.
The pegasus twisted and squirmed in utter impossible to describe agony and torment. He was unable to scream, unable to stop any of this and the remaining limbs forced his arms and legs back. There was no protest left as they pushed deeper into all of his facial orifices.
The limbs of the eye lifted him upward. "Do not worry, this is all happening in your mind. I am simply pushing you into a place where no one can disturb us. So I can use your body unheeded until I find a more useful host." With that, the limbs pushed the pegasus into the sclera's walls and deep into the iris of the eye. "Maybe one of those siblings of yours can be more useful than you."
*******
The rumble sounds of the rushing mobs of the undead slowly reached inside a certain hospital room. Though the patient inside didn't know about the evils outside, what was clear was they were very ready. Inside was a random jumble assortment of weapons, in particular; right beside the bed of the patient was a crooked spear with a torn green cloth from a shirt, bound to the hilt, right above the three light blue feathers.
The room shook violently, yet the patient didn't budge an inch from their sleep. However, as single boyish laughter echoed in their head, their eyelids winced. "Damn it, Zword. You always knew the worst time to step in the way." The patient's eyes blinked open.
Her eyes drifted through the room. She saw the weapons, the armor, and then finally the equipment and the IVs. This was an all too familiar scene to her. However, after reliving that memory, she found herself wondering if it should be her standing over the bed, looking at another patient in this stuffy hospital room.
She could see it now as if she was reliving the very moment. Her, standing right beside the bed with her best friend. Both of their face lowered and shamefully looked at the one who would have been laying there. The beeping of her own monitor was replaced by the faint echoes of a long single beep that wouldn't stop.
The patient clenched her covers tightly and forced her frown into a smile. She sneakered until the memories of the old hospital room faded completely. Her chuckle turned into a shaking laugh as she slammed the bed. "No... no, not happening today, little bro!"
She threw off her blankets, only to sneer at the wounds on her back and legs. "I won another good battle!" She laughed while tightening her bandages. Turning her attention to her golden roman style armor and slipping it on with ease. Next her iron-toe boots and her spiked gauntlets.
Jumping out of bed, she cheered at the chaotic sounds outside, She wasn't sure what was going on, only that another battle was ahead of her. She swung her fists in front of her a few times and then an uppercut. Ending preparations with some hair gel, always sitting beside her bed with a note from an all too familiar private.
She winked at the message and used the gel to slick back her jet-black spiked mane. Closing the lid and placing it in her pocket and drying off her hands. She turned her attention to the crooked spear of her family.
At first, she admired the three feathers representing the first three tribes of pegasi to settle inside the Giant Blue Hourglass. However, having that memory again made her attention fall on the green cloth. "Hmp! Come on, stupid fool! We have to go stab some bad guys."
She pulled in the side of the hilt of the crooked spear, pressing it against her gut tightly, and cheered to herself, being most boastful of her rank. "This is Commander Hurricane! Reporting for duty--" The famous warrior of legend was rudely interrupted as the wall behind her exploded.
She didn't hesitate, turning her weapon toward the smoke. "Ha, here to face me, you weak soul!" she mocked the intruder without ever seeing their face at all. "Oh, I'm so ready to kick your feathered ass!!"
"I hope you are ready!" dual voices echoed from the smoke of the explosion. Stepping out, revealed her opponent. It wasn't who she was expecting.
The tight grip of her spear shook as Commander Hurricane came face to face with the corrupted and twisted form that was once her brother. Despite keeping her stance, she couldn't believe her eyes. She knew something was very wrong, but she did not know what horror awaited her.
Aitym forced Rainbow Dartz into a smile and lifted his shattered hand and blue blood claw for her to see. "Well, dear sister. Are you ready?!"
An old immortal wizard awoke to the sounds of laughter and cheers. His eyes were lucid of the surrounding shapes. However, the voices brought him joy. "Wake up, you stupid teacher! Be here and not on the bleachers." a little male voice yelled at him, pulling him off the chair. He groaned in annoyance at the little one's poor attempt to rap.
"Sting, leave him... be!" A slightly older male voice, but still young, came to his rescue. "Let him... rest." This one was the hardest to hear because of his harsher breathing.
"He's supposed to be teaching us, bro! Not fall low!" Sting shouted.
"Please, stop rapping Sting." Another voice interrupted. This one was a female voice, the youngest of them all. "Don't yell at big brother, Fiend."
"I'll do whatever I want. Little sister shouldn't taunt... back." Sting popped back.
"Maybe you should be taking music lessons instead." The old wizard cracked back.
"Starswirl... You are supposed... to be teaching us." Fiend's rage reached a boiling point, making him cough harshly. His little sister rushed to his aid, but he pushed her aside and pointed directly at the old wizard.
"Yes, but what is the greatest I can teach..." Starswirl laughed and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Tell me, my hippogriff students." He padded the hippogriff filly's head, making her huff and puff in annoyance.
Sting raised his hand, but it was clear he wanted to rap more instead of answering the question. Fiend sat down and grabbed his respirator, leaving him unable to answer either. The hippogriff filly sat down beside her brothers and didn't want to interrupt.
Starswirl waved at all three of them and held his hand out to the filly. "Slang. Please show your brothers why you are the smartest."
"No!" she shouted. "I'm not the smartest. I don't know the answer."
"But you are demonstrating it right now." Starswirl turned his attention to the board he had been laying against and asked again. "Fiend speaks with rage, Sting, out of a need for attention, but you, Princess Slang Night of the Three Night Siblings. You show this greatest talent through your silence."
"Fine..." she rolled her eyes. "Patience."
"Correct." The old wizard grabbed a piece of chalk to write out the answer. However, he stopped upon seeing his hand. Not a unicorn hand, by rather the claw of a griffin laid in place of his original limb. He waved his head back and forth, hoping it was his sleepiness playing tricks on him.
"Master..." Fiend called out. "Is... something... wrong?" He reached over the desk and pointed at the hand.
Starswirl was sure the image was only in his mind. Yet he had a sneaking suspicion that much like Celestia before him, the eldest of these new siblings under his ward could see what the others could not. Was it from his keen senses? Or maybe the hippogriff's constant closeness to death? Or maybe something else?
"Oh, it's nothing. Nothing at all." Starswirl hid his hand behind his back. "Shall we get into today's proper lesson...?" He paused, forgetting the subject until he saw the top of the board. "Oh, the politics between the hippogriffs, griffins, and kirins."
"I don't give a fuck about griffin brethren." Sting turned away, not even caring to rap.
"Don't curse in front of the master," Slang protested.
"No, it only makes sense." Starswirl was just as quick-witted with his students. "You are hippogriff royalty, after all. As such, don't you depend greatly on the griffins and the kirins for a trade of resources?" He turned Sting's opinion against him. He pointed as if expecting a barking from the hippogriff filled with poor attempts to rap.
"Mump, bump..." Sting mumbled random words under his breath.
"What was that?" Starswirl laughed and puffed a cup of chocolate milk right at the edge of Sting's desk, just out of his reach, ready to give it to him should he answer right this time. This was a classic case of mental reinforcement and reward. Unfortunately, such a thing only works if the student in question even knew the answer, let alone cared enough to give one.
"We all depend on each other." Slang stepped in, hoping to save her brother, leading to a sneer from Sting.
She had given the simplest answer, but it was the entire answer Starswirl wanted, so he expanded with another simple reply, "What do you mean by all?"
Again, both were at a stop. This time bribing them meant nothing, as neither flinched at the extra cups of chocolate milk or even the fluffy clouds of cotton candy. The room grew quiet as Starswirl waited for an answer.
Instead, both siblings came to the attention of their eldest brother as the respirator stopped behind them. Fiend placed down the device and stood up. He stared hatefully at his brother, Sting, and answered for him. "The griffins need our gems for their wars with the pegasi, just as we need their gold to fuel... our machines." His breathing got worse, but he refused to stop. "The kirins need our fish to feed their dying race, just as we need their string for our bows and instruments." He raised his hand to Starswirl. "Isn't our master a prime example? Giving to us by the alicorns to ensure we are ready... for... for... that cursed centaur." He stopped against the wall and grabbed his respirator.
Hearing his words brought a great fear from within the heart of Slang as she finished what he was trying to say. "King Ixion." She shivered in place and hid deep within her chair.
This was enough to end their bickering as even Sting stepped closer and gave his sister a tight hug. "Don't worry sister. Our armies will defeat him." His annoyance and his attempts to rap faded. "He won't get what he wants from you."
Starswirl had succeeded in uniting their minds, but he never considered it would lead them down to these dark thoughts. The evil centaur's demands were known even to him. He wanted to comfort them, but he was just their teacher. He had no idea of the future that awaited her or her brothers.
The paths he would unknowingly lead them to. The sacrifices they made to keep their species safe. And the unholy deal that centaur offered.
If Starswirl had the faintest idea of that future he would had stop them right now, do whatever he could to change it. But it was a fate now. This was a memory of a past that had long come to past. Slang was the glue that kept the brothers in line as some of his greatest students... and when that centaur took her away from them... the two brothers became something else.
******
Back in the modern day, the memory of those events faded just as quickly as they appeared. Laying aboard the titan airship, the old wizard, Starswirl, woke with wicked thunder. He rosed up so fast that his sight refused to return. Everything was black as night, but from the feeling of his surroundings it was clear he was safe, but on the Titan Airship.
Starswirl could hear a soft humming sound, no, it was slowly clearing in definition, revealing itself to be music. A duet of voices humming a soft song. He didn't know why, but something told him that despite somehow surviving the fall, he was far from out of danger.
With his sight still gone and a growing fear of the sounds around him the old wizard was forced to rely solely on his sense of touch. Summoning cloud muffs for his ears proved his magic wasn't gone, but since it could help him see, it was clear his magic had been diminished.
All he could do was walk around and help the blood rushing to his head calm down, hopefully, then he could see. However, he could at least search for the source of the music. Something was wrong with it.
As he moved, he noticed that Lady Cat and Fredricson had not found him yet. As captain of this ship, Fredricson would have instantly noticed something wrong, the mere fact he wasn't here to help was startling. Starswirl would have to rely on himself.
Making his way to the hallway, he found it just as empty. His sight was now fuzzy enough for shapes, but the place was barren of life. No voices or footsteps, no sound outside of the strange music.
Soon enough, he reached the front and his eyes cleared enough to see the front door. He was unsure how he got so far into the titan airship to not be by the door upon awaking. He found it strange to only be finding it now.
However, his attention drew to the bodies of Fredricson and Lady Cat near the door. He leaned down and checked the captain's throat. A sigh of relief poured over him. Alive, in fact, both of them were as healthy as ever. They were just in a deep sleep.
This answered the lack of noise from ponies moving back and forth. But it didn't answer why they were asleep. He lifted them carefully in pillows of fluffy cotton candy and floated them to safety. The source of the music was unknown still, but it seemed to not be the source of their sleeping, or rather, if it was, the effects had long faded before he arrived on the ship.
It was at that moment; he remembered something that shook him harshly. So much so that he pressed the wall behind him as if the wall was moving toward him from behind. It was simply a trick of the mind, but what wasn't a trick was the faint chill of goosebumps crawling up his face.
Just before arriving in this place. Before having that dream of the past, or even falling unconscious, he was falling. He could feel the wind pressing against his face as if it was still happening. He had to slap the walls to tell himself he had already landed.
But, if he had landed, then how did he survive? That fall was several miles up, even an alicorn or pegasus with their powerful wings would have at least been in a lot of pain or covered in broken bones. A fall like that should have killed a unicorn, even one as powerful as him, and yet, here he was alive and just as healthy as the two shipmates he was carrying.
He noticed something even stranger. Upon arriving at the controls, he found the titan airship was on complete lock. Nothing could get in and nothing could get out. Only Fredricson knew the password and if he was out cold upon Starswirl's arrival, then who let him in?
How did the old wizard get inside and so far from the front door that he wouldn't even notice his allies out cold? How did he survive a fall that should have killed him? And above all, where was that music coming from?
Starswirl felt as if he knew the music wasn't connected to his survival at all. And if that was true, then somewhere deep within him, he knew how he survived. Or rather, his mind had blocked out how he survived. That was it, a blackout... but Starswirl had never had one before.
With some sort of answer to ponder on later, he left the two pilots at the controls and went in search of the music. What he had never once considered was checking the original room he woke up in. For if he had, he would have found far stranger answers.
A familiar brown spider watched the wizard carefully as he passed by each room. As the only one awake when the wizard arrived, only he knew the absolute truth. The spider turned his attention back to the room Starswirl refused to reenter. The old wizard walked passed the truth as if he couldn't see it at all.
As the brown spider wasn't part of Starswirl's mind, existing within reality, he was unaffected by these pauses of doubt and denial. This spider could see the horrors that Starswirl had left behind upon his arrival. He stared at the image with utter amazement and shock.
Claw marks and tail slashes littered the room. Each appeared to be from different owners and even different species. Yet the spider knew all these markings belonged to a single owner, of a species completely unknown to any of the past. However, as this spider was from the same future as Starlight and Twilight, it knew all too well, what species made these markings.
The brown spider held up its front legs and somehow cast a spell. All signs of the room's damages were fixed. After which, the brown spider returned to Starlight's room and its cage. Without giving any more remark on the matter, it pondered nothing and returned to its sleep. "It's far too early to orchestrate the master's plan. Besides, I've been feeling sick ever since we got that close to... the scythe."
******
Back in the Pegasus Isles, screams and terror spread across the skies as undead batponies and griffins clawed at anypony they could. It mattered not if their limbs quicken and quaked from the movement. These beastly images of the formerly mortal realm jumped from cloud to cloud with ease. They lacked the ability to fly but kept their native magic of cloud grip. Sure some fell off the edges but quickly climbed along the sides of the cliffs instead.
The pegasi soldiers fought as hard as they could, but the numbers were so numerous. And they have to be careful what to cut, as these zombies didn't care about simple or serious scars. Losing an arm was no different from a paper cut and even then the limbs kept up with their owners.
It was a horrible sight to see for the ifrits, and yet they never gave an ounce of shame to the fallen, instead, purely aimed at themselves. Sage knew this view all too well, remembering his former allies driven mad by his master's test of sanity. "To bring out the monster, right?" he questioned.
"Yes," Vanity confirmed. "While the alicorn was blunter with his mission than our master, it worked anyway." She pointed out to the pegasi. Some pegasi were at their rope's end, but much to the surprise of Sage, others were getting more vicious and cold in their kills. Few were afraid, but as time went on, many were beginning to smile.
"The pegasi are a warrior race indeed..." Sage turned back to Vanity and stared at her flaming mane. "Unlike our race of minds."
"It's why they fight griffins so harshly. No greater hatred than the denial of a reflection." Vanity narrowed her eyes at the jar of ashes tightly in her hands. Seeing its mirror fade with the rushing around. "Pegasi, Batponies, and griffins are like triplets fighting over the same toy. Even while under the control of another, the siblings won't miss a chance to one-up the other."
"Were you and your sibling like that?" Sage commented.
"Vanity," she repeated her name, "Annity and Xianity. We three were named after the god of darkness himself. Yet only one of us followed his teaching." She stopped against a wall, and rest, glad in seeing the fact the undead weren't after them. "Xianity died serving that lord to his last breath... I turned to my pills."
"And your brother... she found a new outlook."
"Yes, she did." Vanity rubbed her hand on the jar of her sibling's ashes. "Annity, she was so much braver than me. I hid my secrets, and she exposed her's."
"Which is why both of you were forced to seek help from him... the wendigo."
"Lord Frost was good to us." She smiled boldly. "He was glad we were... monsters." His eyes winced, and she placed the jar of ashes down with a hard thud. "I thought it would be good to bring Annity here. Would this be enough to save her? Lord Frost said she could be so..."
"Useful." Sage sat down with her. He placed his hand on the jar of ashes too and remarked. "It's very strange. You and the three species here aren't the only examples of triplets."
"Really?"
"Well," Sage hesitated to place his hand near hers. "The current authority over the Pegasus Isles is also a former triplet. This middle child, as it were." He turned his attention to the permafrost pillars in the distance. "Commander Hurricane. Rumor is she once had two brothers... one died, the other ran away."
"Hmm, maybe that's the connection..." Vanity finally got tired after all the running. "Should we compare them to us..." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "As Annity is ashes."
"So too shall their family..."
*******
The hospital top blew up in a fury of power. Commander Hurricane made herself known on the battlefield with a bang. Flying out of the rubble just as quickly as it was made, thrusting Rainbow Dartz's body into another nearby building with enough force to leave massive cracks around the walls all around to the other side.
"Incredible, such power." Aitym's voice laughed from his host's mouth. "I expect nothing less from the strongest pegasus ever to fly across the sky." He pushed her back. "And no hesitation with that explosion charge, either--"
Hurricane stopped him with a swing of her crooked spear that nearly took off his host's head. "Who said I'll stop there?!" Her enemy dodged under the weapon and attempt to slash her with the bloody shard, but she swiftly kicked him between the legs. Grabbing him by the leg, she flew him along the walls of the other buildings, swinging him around just as effortlessly with one hand. She dropped him on the roof of the smallest building nearby. Landing herself directly on that leg with enough force to break it too.
"This is your brother's body?!" Aitym hissed. He twisted away in much confusion. How could she be so heartless?
"The body of a coward." Hurricane narrowed her eyes and twisted his broken leg. She laughed at his screams. "My brother is dead. He's been dead for years." She brought the crooked spear to his head. "Losing him again won't crack this cold armor--" She was stopped as the blood from the broken leg shot upward and into her shoulder.
"Foolish mare. This is your bother's body." Aitym snapped the shard-like blood off the leg and popped the bones back into place with ease. "However, as long as I wield it, the only pain I suffer is his alone." He swung the bloody shard across the jaw, making her bleed. "He is my arsenal, his bones are my shield and his blood is my weapon."
"Fine..." She spat her own blood in his face, making him wince with rage. Seeing her chance, she jumped forward and bash the blunt end of her crooked spear into her brother's gut. Lifting upward before he could even react, she swiped her fist across his face.
Hurricane laughed again and busted the bow of her weapon into his chest. Spinning away, she kicked him in the neck, cupping his throat between her heels. Falling away from him, she used the leverage of her leg to throw him over her.
Aitym forced Rainbow Dartz's wings into flight, despite the harsh motion. Feathers flew by him and he readjusted himself and crashed forward into her as she continued to flip. Much to Aitym's shock, she used the force of her own movement to land right on him, while he was in mid-flight.
The commander, as she always was, continued to take command of this battle, hooking the wings of her opponent with her spear and twisting the mind-control pegasus around until his flight was her's to command. She flew him up the same building they fell from and into two more buildings.
Reaching the area where Starlight and Clovis were, she crashed him into the tables. The unicorns were just as shocked by the wild event coming out of nowhere. Hurricane jumped back as Aitym slashed back. Her wings kicked the surrounding air, throwing her away from his attacks, but wasn't quick enough to stop the shard as it flew, tearing through her wing.
This attack threw Commander Hurricane into another pile of tables on the other side. Starlight and Clovis rushed over in shock and disbelief. They did not know what was even going on. Nor did they know who they were about to encounter.
The Crooked Wing was filled with partying cheers as the griffin, Hermes Mercury, jumped around the room. He was so hyped by the sugar, the drinking, and the food. The rest of the occupants weren't much help in keeping him contained.
Some just watched him fly by without a care in the world. Rare few were too drunk to even notice anything going on. And plenty would cheer him harder. This left Red Steel and Silver Pear alone. Not that he minded caring for the griffin greatly and often.
Meanwhile the earth pony was barely keeping himself together. Silver Pear was never great with heights and even though he was inside on solid ground, his legs were still shaking. He could barely keep anything down longer than five minutes and he certainly couldn't get drunk.
The greatest problem lay in the closeness to the Pegasus isles. The Crooked Wing, being a part of the middle belt of the Giant Blue Hourglass, was in neutral territory. However, it was also lying on the east side of the Giant Blue Hourglass, the outcaste to the celestial ocean gave them a direct view of any oncoming forces like the mortal enemies of the pegasus, the griffins.
Hermes never cared for the warring between the griffins and pegasus. He hated conflict and especially rage. Which is why he was so close to the calm soul of Red Steel. They were always seen as the odd couple, even if they were just friends. A mighty and tall wall of fur, and yet a kind-hearted buffalo who never spoke a word as long as the griffin knew him. As such, Hermes was perfectly fine, being the voice for both of them.
Neither knew each other's motivations for hiding away among the random public, far from their homelands. Neither cared as long as they stood beside each other to the very end. The purest symbol of best friends. They were great companions to Rainbow Dartz and were glad to go with him when he got the call back to his homeland, even if they wouldn't enter the very land itself.
The two had no idea why Rainbow Dartz needed to come back to his homeland. Nor did they know what his current fate was. Ignorance was bliss to them only because they desired no conflict at all. Sure, they could openly boast for it, well at least, Hermes would, to excessive detail. But neither wanted it.
The griffin went for another lap around the bar. This time he took every drink he could into his claws and hugged them down just as quickly, hoping to hit the ultimate crash. Ponies helped by ordering more and laughed louder with him.
As a limit was reached, Red Steel held up his hand. He grabbed Hermes out of his griffin blur with no effort at all. The griffin shook violently, laughed loudly and cheered while trying to hold in a puke. "That was fun. Let's do it again in an... hour." This was the slowest the griffin would ever talk. No surprised as he could barely keep his mouth open.
All of them came to a halt as shadows swarmed through the room with no warning. This blackness charged toward the centermost clearing and twisted around into a vortex of shadowmancy. The ones sober enough to notice came to attention at the sight of it.
Their cheering was stopped in place by the blackening shadow. Red Steel dropped Hermes to the ground and stepped forward. He lowered his sight as if sensing what the others could not. Out of the shadows fell, Princess Platinum and a siren filly wrapped tightly in a cloth in the arms of Clover the Clever.
The seafoam unicorn was very hesitant to be in the place. She couldn't put up much of a fight with a broken leg. Nonetheless, she bashed her bow staff on the floor as a show of strength.
Red Steel smiled and walked forward. He bowed to the body of Princess Platinum. Picking her up with ease, he didn't even give a word to Clover. Instead, he took the princess to a table and laid her down.
"Red Steel! Wait, that is you?!" Twilight's voice echoed from the vortex. The buffalo turned his attention back and nodded in agreement. "Perfect, Clover, give the child to him, too."
"Are you sure?" Clover was hesitant. She knew the siren had been through a lot of hell. She wanted to take it back to its siblings, but the unknown magic within the titan airship prevented this.
"You can trust... him..." Hermes could barely stand, making her fears only worse. The griffin never understood discretion.
"Yes," Twilight assured her again, "There is no kinder soul in this timeline. Ney, no greater rival for the Element of Kindness."
"Okay." Clover presented the child to Red Steel and stepped back into the shadows. "Let's finish this as soon as possible." Her eyes widened as the shadows didn't overtake her. "No!" she shouted. "I'm going with you."
"You are injured," Rex's voice echoed from the shadows. His regret was unmistakable.
"You will only be in the way," Cold Blue was so blunt with his answer.
"Please, stay behind," Twilight tried to speak kinder. "We will come to find you when this is over."
"I..." Clover traced her eyes over the shadows and the occupants of the bar. "I understand... but..." She limped over to a chair and sat down.
"Wait, a minute!" Twilight shouted. "Silver Pear!!" Her alicorn magic reached out of the vortex and grabbed him. "What are you doing in here?!"
"No, no, no!!" he shrieked away. "I'm not going out there!!"
"Oh yes you are!!" Twilight roared.
"Never!!" He pulled out his claymore and aimed it at the hand of magic.
"Silver Pear! You are worst then Applejack with heights!"
"I said, I'm not leaving."
"Fine..." Twilight turned her magic back to Clover and picked her up. She dropped her into Silver Pear's arms and laughed, putting on a posh rich kid accent, "Oh, daddy, I want that annoying stallion to listen to me! Could you force him to carry Clover around so she doesn't feel left out."
This action left Silver Pear utterly confused. Before he could give a rebuttal, the earth pony fell into his own shadow along with his weapon and Clover. Twilight gave a gleeful yawn. "See, Rex, you are good at this job."
"I'm not spoiling you." Rex deadpanned as the vortex closed, and the shadows returned to their original positions.
******
Deep within Pegasus Isles the battle was getting harsher pegasi scattered at the explosive crash of the two fighters. Starlight and Clovis prepared themselves as one of the fighters skirted over to them.
"What's going on here?!" Starlight summoned her gentlemare sword.
Hurricane crashed at Starlight's feet and winked at her. "Hey, sexy! How about you and I go on a date?"
"..." Starlight barely had time to process such a bold question as the tables flew back toward them. Hurricane spun her crooked spear around and knocked all the tables away from Starlight. Clovis wasn't so lucky, but he did manage to teleport through them.
"What's going on here?" Clovis stopped teleporting.
"No idea, unicorn?" Hurricane snarked back. "I just woke up and found this freak using my brother's body." She pointed to Aitym walking out of the rubble.
"Rainbow Dartz?!" Starlight's eyes widened at the host.
"Damn?!" Hurricane laughed. "Don't tell me you know my pitiful brother, too?!" She rolled her eyes up Starlight's rather sexy form. "He must have gotten so popular after leaving this place behind."
"Your brother..." It took a moment for Starlight to realize due to the chaos. "Wait, you are Commander Hurricane?!?!"
"The one and only, sweet heart--" Hurricane was stopped by Aitym crashing back into her, thrusting his sharded hand into her spear. "Always great to meet a fan." She kicked back the air with her wings and pushed Starlight out of the way. "Stay out of trouble while I deal with this and I'll fuck you later!" She rushed Aitym through the entire parkway, tearing up the ground as they went.
"... did she just?" Starlight was again at an utter loss.
"Don't even attempt to process." Clovis dusted himself off. "Commander Hurricane's flirtation with mares is legendary."
"What? I don't even swing that way?" Starlight laughed.
"Huh, and here I thought you would be more worried for Silver Pear."
Starlight's face went red. "Me and Silver Pear are not a thing at all either!!"
"Not going to matter. I heard she once bedded three mares at once while slaying a dragon that was holding them prisoner."
"I... I... That makes no logical sense." Starlight turned to Hurricane and then to Rainbow Dartz, almost expecting a confirmation, totally forgetting the current mind control he was under. "Right... questions for later." She pointed back to Clovis, who was facing the exit. "We can't waste time warning people anymore. The dead are here and here to stay unless we take out the source. Get everyone near here to safety while keeping your body here to help us from a distance."
"What are you going to do?"
Starlight smiled and filled her body with the levitation spell. She fueled her gentlemare sword with magic and trained her eyes on the battle at hand. "I've got a friend to save."
Aitym dodged the first strike from Commander Hurricane only for Starlight to catch him off guard. Her sword was barely parried by his crystal hand. Hurricane swung the opposite end of her spear, making him jump back and forth. However, he was stopped as Clovis teleported a table directly behind him, forcing him to duck under Starlight's next slash, tearing through the table.
The body stealer was again sent away into a roll as Hurricane stabbed the ground multiple times. Almost trapped as Clovis dropped several chairs on top of him. Using the wings, he cut through the cloud floor and fell through and out of sight.
"Ha, ha, you have good skills," Hurricane laughed at Starlight's efforts. "Are you this good in bed?!"
"Is sex all you think about?!" Starlight screamed in defiance as she scanned around them. "Where is he?"
"No," Hurricane sounded offended. "I just like a good tight ass."
"As a pegasus, you should be more worried about his ability to fly!!" Clovis agreed with Starlight. He teleported a table directly under them as blue blood shards rose to stab them. The two jump from table to table dodging each other.
"Damn it, how is he able to use so much light magic?" Starlight sliced three shards that nearly impaled her.
"Yeah..." Hurricane grumbled. "Dartz was a former practitioner of light magic."
"What?!" Starlight's eyes widened. "You mean to tell me I could have learned to train under him as well as Twilight!!"
"How is that a problem now?!" Hurricane questioned.
Clovis's eyes widened at realizing what Starlight was getting at. "Because she's an omnipony!" He threw down a shadow spell. He was never as good as his father or Rex, but he was good enough to do the simplest spell. "Shadow Spell Number One, Blackened Floor!" His shadow expanded around all three of them.
Starlight smiled and turned the tip of her sword downward. "Can you take it?" She smiled at his wink and filled the gentlemare sword with light magic. She stabbed directly down into the shadows. Passing through the blackness, her tip blasted bright light into the clouds. "Light Reversal!!"
"Light what?!" Hurricane covered her eyes as the light reached through the shadows.
Clovis screamed from the strain as his shadows slowly ripped apart. But, Starlight grinned prouder at the holes as her plan took effect. The clouds reversed through time until they were nothing but water vapor, revealing Aitym's hiding spot.
"Now, thirty degrees to the commander's right!" Starlight shouted.
Hurricane took the order and threw her spear in that direction, impaling Rainbow Dartz's body into one of the permafrost pillars. "What the fucking hell was that?!" she shrieked as she couldn't see where she hit the target. "Never seen Dartz do a spell like that."
"Twilight can only teach dark magic and normal magic, so I've been forced to rely heavily on enemy experience for my light spells." Starlight winced as she retracted the spell. "Luckily, Clovis was buffing us, or else that spell would affect us too."
"Doesn't explain your reliance on the actual spell over number spells." Clovis coughed hard as his shadows retracted. He was barely able to keep his levitation spell intact so he teleported to the near piece of the cliffside.
"What do you mean? I wasn't taught much about numbers."
Clovis raised an eyebrow at her words. "Really?! Yet you are so powerful."
"What's the point of numbers? I noticed that a lot in this timeline compared to the future."
"Invoking the full name of a spell amplifies its power." Clovis was dumbfounded by her reaction to this. "You don't even use the incantations either, in the future?"
"Nope." Starlight shyly smiled.
"The future sounds so childish."
As the light and darkness faded away completely, Hurricane's eyes widened in horror as she saw where she landed Aitym's host. "Fuck no, fuck no, fuck no!!" She rushed over at the sight of the crooked spear torn into her brother's chest.
"Huh," Clovis raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought she was pretty heartless for attacking her brother's body so wildly."
"All bravado..." Starlight sneered at the realization of what she had forced her to do. The unicorn raced down in the same direction. She filled her hand with more light magic, fearing the worse and unsure how to fix it.
******
Within the mindscape, the fleshing arms and faces squirmed around. They struggled violently against Rainbow Dartz as he reached out his hand. Their forces seemed to strain at the stabbing of the crooked spear.
Rainbow Dartz's chest twisted in agony. He looked upward as the images of the outside played out. He reacted reasonably to the sight of his sister stabbing him through the chest, by grabbing his chest tightly, expecting blood to burst forth.
It took him a solid few moments to remember that he wasn't grabbing his true body, but rather the mental manifestation for this realm. Despite the wound not appearing on this body, the agony was as real as the actual wound.
And yet, he smiled at this. Looking back up at the image of his sister, his eyes narrowed at her own reaction. The shock spread in her eyes to the trembling in her mouth. "Go ahead..." He mocked. "You hate me... now kill me!" he screamed at the image, hoping she could hear him.
"You... want this..." the voices around him echoed from each of the faces. All of them questioned in different tones and pitches, "Why?!"
"Because I deserve this." His smile grew bigger. "Whether it's through drinking myself under... or by her hands..." He laughed at the pain. "Actually this is even better. Go ahead..." He reached out to her with a screaming proclamation. "End my pain!"
"Is this what you truly desire?"
"Yes, with this... at least she will avenge Zword." Rainbow Dartz leaned back, presenting his chest in the mindscape as if he was still in control of the body as the crooked spear tore through him in reality.
Aitym's eye twisted around as if giving a wicked grin.
******
Back in reality, Hurricane rushed down and screamed at her brother. "Don't you dare fucking die, you asshole!!" She punched him across the face and grabbed at the crooked spear. Stopping, she remembered that pulling it free would only make him bleed faster. Her face turned just as pale as his by the second. "No... Come back, you jackass!"
"Stop it!!" Starlight pushed her out of the way. "First you tried to kill him, then you panic and slap him."
"I hate that jerk, I never wanted him dead!!" Hurricane shook the body, her eyes tipped with tears.
"Stand back!" Starlight screamed as she pressed the light magic-filled hands onto his chest. "Mini Light Reversal!" The male pegasus shook violently from the hit, but the blue blood kept flowing.
"Do it again, you stupid bitch!!" Hurricane dropped all flirtations and screamed louder.
"I'm trying!" Starlight stopped her yelling out of fear as this pegasus made even lesser sense by the minute. The emotions of this famous commander were a massive mix of wildness and recklessness. The pegasus mare was nothing like the history books, However, she did start to notice similarities to her teacher's descriptions of a similar pegasus mare in their present time. "Rainbow Dash... I'm sorry," she whispered under her breath as she blasted the male pegasus again with more light magic.
His body jolted again before stopping completely. Starlight's eyes widened and she pulled away, making the commander break until the tears couldn't be held back. "No..." Hurricane struggled to speak. "Don't give up."
"Why?!" Aitym's laughter cut them short as shards of blue blood shot out from the chest wound, pushing the crooked spear out and into his hand.
They jumped back as he swung at them. "How? His heart stopped?!" Starlight shielded them.
"I'll admit you are better than any amateur at light magic. But even that is nothing compared to a master like me." With a wave of his hand, all of Rainbow Dartz's wounds were healed as if they never happened. He blasted them all back
"You cold hearted monster!!" Hurricane roared.
"Monster?!" Aitym narrowed the host's eyes. "And after what I did." He spun the weapon toward them. "His soul might have left his body for a moment, but I managed to take it back before Saturn's scythe could claim it."
"Let him go, you fucking monster!!" Hurricane repeated as she charged forward to take her weapon back.
"You're the one who kept trying to stab him," Aitym laughed, meeting her advance with a punch to her gut with the blunt end before letting her have it back. "You pegasi only see monsters, because you are monsters too."
"What are you talking about?" Starlight jumped back.
"It was their species that purged all griffins from the mainland." Aitym pointed the host's hand at the pegasus.
"No, we fought them bravely." Hurricane boasted proudly.
"Brave? Such a strange word for slaughter!" Aitym raised an eyebrow.
"We are not monsters... not like you alicorns!!"
"Yes, it was one of our kind that brought the umbrums to near extinction, but that was after my time." Aitym used the blood around Rainbow Dartz's face to form a new face, showing his original appearance. This revealed an alicorn of incredible beauty, lacking all flaws. "I wasn't always a monster... I had a wife and even beautiful children." The blood fell away as if his power couldn't hold the form of his face, changing back to the face of Rainbow Dartz.
"What happened to you?"
"I wanted too much... I craved too much." He narrowed his eyes on Starlight. "However, not for the reasons you think. I wasn't greedy, or selfish. Everything I took, I stole for another."
"Prove it."
"As a Nykur, my daughter wanted so desperately to be a leader, like you." He pointed to Commander Hurricane. "So I gave her to a king without a single hesitation, all so she could stand as one of the greatest queens in existence... The same happened with my sick wife, I gave her as much land as could be given and life, and yet..." The eyes lowered and Rainbow Dartz's throat dropped as if dread tipped the alicorn's voice. "I gave both my daughter and wife the shiniest kingdoms in the land and it turned them into blackened monsters with sunken flesh!"
"Wait..." Starlight's eyes widened, almost knowing every detail of that legend. "You are related to..."
"It's good to know my daughter still exists in the present. Unfortunate that her mother couldn't see this grace you think of."
"Whatever he means," Commander Hurricane raised her weapon higher. "His examples are nothing. He is an alicorn, using the body of a traitor, therefore he must die." She charged forward one final time. Having heard enough, she pushed her wings out with all her might, ready to kill him where he stood.
Stabbing into his shoulder, she crashed him back into the wall and twisted the sharp edge of her crooked spear toward the heart of her brother. However, as she did Aitym saw his chance and used the pegasus blood to morph the face again, stopping the mare in her tracks.
"Gale..." a small male voice echoed out from Rainbow Dartz's lips. Half of the face had been changed, it wasn't of Aitym or Rainbow Dartz, instead, it was of a young male light blue pegasus with a long golden mane.
"No..." her reply was filled with so much trembling. She couldn't hold her spear after seeing that face. Backing away from it in defiance and horror. "That's not fucking right!" She screamed as she fell away
"What's wrong?" the voice continued. "Is it simply easier to kill a stallion you deny rather than the colt you can't deny?" Aitym forced a smile from both Rainbow Dartz and the new face and boasted with the voice louder. "I never knew why you and your brother hated each other so much. He kept that memory locked tightly away." Aitym pulled out the crooked spear and ripped off the green cloth. He clenched it to the new face as it melted away. "But, you are far more clear. All warriors wear their shame like a banner."
Aitym stained Rainbow Dartz's blood and the image of the colt's face on the green cloth and dropped it into the clouds. "Zword is the shame that both of you bare." He stepped over Commander Hurricane and continued with Zword's voice. He held the crooked spear over her head. "The shame of murdering your little brother." With that ultimate sentence, he dropped the tip downward.
"What kind of monster are you?" Starlight stopped the tip with her magic.
Aitym turned his attention to Starlight and remarked. "Before the alicorns, there was the Nykur and Kelpie." He looked back to Commander Hurricane. "I have the answers I need." Throwing the crooked spear into the countryside, he vanished in a bright light.
Far above, in the highest points of the sky, a giant pink pearl orb flew by at hyper speed. Inside was far larger than it appeared, having several floors of rooms. Near the top of the structure was a control room. Sitting in the captain's chair was Princess Celestia.
To her, right was Luna, inside a status pod. The white alicorn checked the destination once more while keeping her sister in her sight. Celestia wiped the fear off her face and told herself, "This is okay. We're almost there."
"This is a stupid idea..." Luna grumbled. "Why should I listen to the warning of Blood Diamond's lover? Especially after he nearly killed me."
"Because..." Celestia didn't know how to word this at all. "Hollow Prince can be trusted."
"Can be?" Luna questioned her wording anyway. "Sounds like you are trying to convince yourself as well as me."
"It's not Hollow Prince that I'm questioning." Celestia placed her hand on the side of the status pod. "You don't have to use all of... her power."
Luna took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She stared onward as the giant blue hourglass came into sight. "Rex is in danger... And so are these time travelers... If Hollow Prince is right..." Luna didn't know how to finish that thought either. The blue alicorn narrowed her eyes on her sister. "Celestia, make sure the time travelers never find out we're here..."
"Why?"
"I don't know..." Luna grumbled. "I was told by..." She rolled her eyes away and whispered a name. "We can't make direct contact with them."
******
Back in the Pegasus Isles, the undead was reaching a peak. It was the perfect time for help to arrive. Twilight and Cold Blue landed with grace, stabbing into the undead on the way down. Silver Pear, despite being covered in a levitation spell, provided by Twilight, crashed face-first into some cloud grass. Rex came up from below, trapping many corpses by the legs within his shadows. Clover followed last, landing on Silver Pear's back.
The undead was pulled away from any nearby victims by Rex and toward Twilight and Cold Blue as they charged their weapons with magic; Twilight wielded her kopises, and Cold Blue, with his falcata.
"Cresent Moon!" Twilight channeled.
"Spring Song!" Cold Blue waved out.
They both swung blasts of magic outward, taking off the heads of each undead Rex had trapped. They didn't have to worry about holding back. They had been told by Rex to take each one down as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The two wizards were already working on their next spell when more charged in.
The undead charged at a few pegasi mares near Silver Pear. Hearing their girlish shrieks was enough to bring him to attention. He jumped over and bashed one undead with the hilt of his claymore. Spinning it around and slicing two others in half, before impaling one in the head. He gave a wink at the mares, but then the corpse he stabbed started flailing about.
Clover clung to the earth pony's back thanks to some magic. She bashed the enemy several times but it wouldn't go down. Silver Pear sneered at the extra weight but kept up with the group.
"Stabbing and bashing will only slow them down," Rex shouted as his chains ran around the undead's neck in a sawing motion. Splashing blood over Silver Pear as the head was taken off. "The best suit is to chop off as many limbs as possible to ensure they can't scratch, stab, or bite you."
"Can the disease spread from host to host?" Twilight questioned.
"No, only the one that cast the spell can spread it. Any who die within the field of effect will rise to his command." Sweat dripped from Rex's face as he summoned more chains. "We are too far from the field of effect. And only an umbrum can contain such a spell."
"Agreed, but you are not a full master," Cold Blue confirmed.
"Really?" Twilight was in disbelief until Rex confirmed. "Either way, Aitym is not an umbrum at all, not even a dark magic user."
"Yes, but using my memories of the event, he managed to find a way to stabilize them." Rex regretted.
"Doesn't mean he's the one that first activated the spell." Twilight pointed out some of the dead being unicorns. "Could he have used Princess Platinum as a conduit?"
"Unlikely. Some of these undead are too old to match up with the moment she went missing."
"That only leaves one possibility," Cold Blue corrected as he stabbed a massive undead corpse. "The wendigo."
"Of course, their species are masters of necromancy," Twilight confirmed as she flipped over and chopped off the arms of the massive one, with Rex taking care of the head. "What was the spell originally used for?"
"Defence..." Rex hesitated as the memories flooded back. "My species was under attack by some unknown force..." He waved his head as the images played in rapid fire. "I never knew what the force was. Only that the alicorns were in some way connected to it."
"What?!" Twilight's eyes widened. One of the undead tried to grab her in shock, but Silver Pear sliced it in half.
"Yes, the alicorns were connected, but I never understood how." Rex lowered his eyes but still took down more undead. "When the spell activated, something went horribly wrong. It was meant to only affect the umbrums and have them only target outsiders... not each other."
"Maybe if we figure out the anomaly that caused the original spell to go wrong, we could..." Twilight was stopped by Rex's disapproval.
"A better idea would be to take out Aitym since he's the one currently twisting the spell." Cold Blue stabbed another with his ocarina dagger. Playing a few notes, blasted sound magic through several other ones nearby.
"But, how? This place is several miles wide." Twilight sliced another in half. "We only landed near the center to hit the biggest crowds first--" She was stopped as a massive shaking through them all about. Turning toward the source, she saw a pole of light and dark magic.
"Looks like somepony is already giving him a good fight." Rex used his chains to draw a new circle in the shadows, aiming toward that direction.
"That power can only be Starlight..." Twilight flipped into the shadows, dragging Silver Pear and Clover with her.
Rex and Cold Blue wanted to follow, but the shadow stopped. The pathway faded as Rex took a step back. The umbrum grabbed his head as intense pain pulsed through him. His chains receded and his power damped.
Cold Blue narrowed his eyes only to stop at the sight of the dark alicorn amulet's glow. He pushed Rex against the wall and demanded, "What are you seeing?"
"I don't know what you are talking about?" Rex pushed him away and attempted to open another doorway through the shadows. However, nothing came forth, making him angry. "Damn it, not now..."
"Your magic is being redirected by that damn amulet, which means?"
"I know what it means!" Rex yelled at him.
Cold Blue grabbed out his ocarina dagger and placed the note in his mouth. "Who is it? Twilight or your mistress?"
"Neither..." Rex narrowed back. "But the visions say... Someone close is going to die!" The umbrum forced a shadow to finally open, covering his face in sweat.
"I see." Cold Blue turned toward the direction Twilight and the rest had been sent and played a few notes. The notes took physical form and flowed through the winds toward Twilight's destination. "Where?"
"The... dagger."
"That dagger! Fine..." Cold Blue stopped as his ears picked up something. Looking up to the sky, his eyes narrowed on the clouds. "Go on ahead of me..."
"Not like you to let me win--" Rex stopped as Cold Blue pulled out his falcata.
"Go, now!" Cold Blue roared.
Rex took his leave, he didn't notice what the intense hearing of the siren was picking up. Far above them at the very edge of the giant blue hourglass, a single red snowflake dropped. It was heading for Cold Blue's direction.
******
Back on the titan airship, Starswirl turned on the scanners to figure out where they were. Looking outside proved pointless as there were thick clouds all around them. It was clear that they were high in the sky, but how high? Starswirl couldn't exactly take another chance of falling a great height. Yet for all he knew they could be just thirty meters above the ground.
"I could survive thirty meters..." He stopped and waved the thought away. "Not without any broken bones and then how useful would I be?" He turned his attention to the communication controls. "I need to figure out what's going on outside..." His eyes narrowed as pressing the buttons did nothing. With the airship in lockdown, he couldn't use the electronics without unlocking it first and he still lacked the password.
"Knowing Fredricson it's probably related to mares and his whoring around with Lady Cat..." Starswirl stopped and thought about it more. "Wait, his dead son. Mon... Mon..." He facepalmed. "Rex and Clover would know more, he was their former ally." His mouth moved to the words in his thoughts, trying to shock his mind into remembering. "Mon... Mon... Mon Grand..." His eyes softened. "Mon Grand Etalon."
He gritted his teeth and typed in the password. The alarm blared and the screen pulsed red. "What? I thought for sure..." He stopped his thoughts mid-sentence and tried typing them backward. "Nolate Dnarg Nom."
The reaction was long this time, the longest twenty seconds he ever had to deal with. Soon enough, the screen shined green. A new alarm rang and the doors unlocked. The communications and sensors came back, lighting Starswirl up with joying. "Now, where are we?"
His typing was stopped instantly upon seeing the strangest part of all. He could only look at the screen with wide eyes at the sight of an endless ocean just beyond the clouds. "How did we get this far out?!" His eyes narrowed as he typed faster. Fredricson was always far better at working this machine than Starswirl.
Moving the scan out further revealed the truth. The titan airship was several miles out into the Celestial Ocean, near an all too familiar island. "This makes no sense. What am I doing outside of..." He ran over to the door and opened it. Now he could force his magic to part the clouds without being blocked by the airship itself.
Removing the veil urged his fears and confusion. Seeing the ocean was one thing, but just beyond them was an island he thought he would never see again. He narrowed his eyes at the still frozen and burnt remains of a castle outcasted to the ocean. "That's the former homeland of... the sirens." Starswirl stepped back in utter loss of reaction. "But how? This is thousands of miles away. It would have taken months to get here."
"And yet, you traveled here in an instant." A new voice caught the old wizard off guard. The horrid smell brought his face away from the source just above the door.
Starswirl covered his mouth but kept his eyes on the rotting corpse floating above him. "And you are?"
Thule let loose a massive decaying grin, barely containing his tentacles in his cheeks. He did not answer his name and simply pointed to the castle. "Deep within that hellish warzone... he was born."
"Who?"
"Lord Frost, the icy beast you all fear!!" Thule laughed at the old wizard's lack of knowledge.
"And you are?" Starswirl turned the question back to him.
Thule bowed to the old wizard. "I am the light in his darkness."
Starswirl's eyes widened. "That phrase... Thule." The old wizard trembled back and attempted to hide his cold sweat. Without giving the corpse a chance to see, he slammed the door shut and ran back to the controls. He didn't stop there, pushing all the controls to full blast.
Thule frowned in disappointment. "So that was Starswirl the Bearded." He held out his hand to the titan airship. "Reasonable reaction when a child like him faces an ancient being like me." With that, the rotting hand split open revealing thousands upon millions of tentacles, shooting at such great speed and size that seemed physically impossible for his shape and body.
In fact, as each tentacle spread outward into massive hundreds of feet bigger than him, the flesh of the body pulsed and twisted as if flowing like a piece of fabric across the water. It took only seconds to reach the titan airship and stop it in place. "Careful..." Thule sneered. "I just barely got this container a few months ago and unlike Aitym, all hosts eventually die under my command."
******
Nearby where Twilight's group arrived, Starlight's group was flying around as the horde of corpses rushed after them. They were caught off guard so badly that all they could do was dodge. Starlight spun around and sliced the wings of some, while Clovis teleported from place to place.
Commander Hurricane was in complete shock. Her famous bravado had faded at the sight of her brothers in her mind. She showed incredible hatred for Dartz, but the second she saw Zword, she broke completely. All she could do was stand in the air, unaffected by the undead swarming toward her.
Just in time, Twilight, Clover and Silver Pear landed between her and the attack. Twilight sliced a zombified griffin in half as she landed. Silver Pear arrived behind, swinging his claymore horizontally to clear out as many forces as possible before placing Clover on a table.
"Could you be more graceful?!" Clover mocked. "I've seen drunk clowns with better moves." She stopped as an undead got the pass. With little care, she bashed her bow staff into the monster's head, knocking it toward Silver Pear's claymore.
"Hey, I don't do good with heights!" He barked back, grabbing the table for balance.
"You'll be fine with my spells!" Twilight jumped over them. "Now keep fighting." She twirled around and landed by Commander Hurricane. "What an honor it must be?" She mocked the shock, unknown why such a legendary warrior had shattered.
"She's not okay with her brother being a host for Aitym!" Starlight landed beside them.
"Well, I know the feeling!" Twilight laughed shyly. "I'm sort of at fault here, after tossing him out of the siren sisters."
"Calm down, honey." Clover spoke nicer, "You didn't expect him to jump into the nearest light magic user."
"Would have been useful information if I knew Rainbow Dartz was a light magic user." Twilight took down another corpse. "Let alone a sibling of the legendary Commander Hurricane."
"Yeah, we should have notified you, deary." Clover apologized.
"Deary, honey?!" Starlight stepped between the two. "Am I missing something--" She was stopped as Twilight gave her a tight hug.
"Nothing at all my student, just apparently, I've been adopted." Twilight pulled away as another corpse tried to grab them both. Luckily, Starlight and Twilight stabbed it together.
"Missed you too, Teach." Starlight gave the happiest grin she had in a long time. Even if it was in the middle of a warzone with the undead, she was still glad to see her teacher after so long. Though, she had no idea of the time difference between the two's separation. Such a thing would have to be revealed later.
"Enough about reunions," Clovis interrupted. "Any ideas on how to stop the undead?"
"Stopping the caster, obviously!" Twilight answered. "Rex confirmed that himself since it was his species that forged the spell."
"Right, that would be useful if we knew where Aitym was?" Starlight answered back.
"Yeah," Clovis confirmed, just as ashamedly. "We lost track of him after his shock to the Commander."
"Okay," Twilight leered over Commander Hurricane's shocked look. The mare still hadn't moved once despite the battle happening around her. "Does she act a lot like Rainbow Dash?!"
"The founder?" Clovis questioned.
Starlight's eyes lazed. "Wrong Rainbow Dash." She pulled Clovis and Silver Pear out of the way as Twilight charged magic into her fist.
"No, not the founder of Pegasus Isle, the Rainbow Dash from my timeline, AKA my ex!!" With that, Twilight punched Commander Hurricane in the gut so hard that it knocked her directly into the crowd of the undead.
"What are you doing?" Silver Pear was stopped by the utter laughter in the crowds.
"As Rainbow Dash would say, waking up a bitch!" Twilight winked at the burst of blood and body parts as Commander Hurricane broke from her stooper and charged her way out.
"What the fuck is wrong with this hot mare?!" Commander Hurricane crashed into the table.
"Glad to see no matter the timeline, you still like it rough." Twilight laughed at the parallels in the timeline. "Now come on, we have to stop Aitym."
"Twilight..." Starlight spoke up. "What is this Aitym?"
"What do you mean?" She stopped.
"I thought he was an alicorn at first..." She flinched at her own body. "Is he like me?"
"No..." Twilight waved her head.
"But, he said..." Starlight tried to word it but she found it strangely hard. "Ny... Nykur."
"Nixie is another way to say it... The Kelpie and Nixie." Twilight laughed. "I saw it when I attacked his image in the mindscape. They are what the alicorns were before..." She mumbled the rest as even she was unsure of every detail she saw was true or not. "Now he is nothing but a nuckelavee. The defiled remains of an alicorn spirit beyond death."
"I see." Starlight straightened herself. "So, not an omnipony. Thank goodness."
"Enough arguing what the fuck he is!!" Hurricane screamed. "I'll punch him, beat him, stab him and kill him!!" She took off to the sky, leaving the others to follow behind her. Neither knew what direction she was going, but it was clear she was after blood and her only target could be Aitym.
*******
Back in the Crooked Wing, the place grew silent after Silver Pear left. It wasn't because he was the life of the party or the source of much joy. In fact, usually Hermes could keep the party going purely on his own. However, he was noticing something was very off with Red Steel.
The big wall of fur was constantly staring out the window. The griffin was unsure why only that ever since they left he stopped drinking and refuse to react to anything from his tricks to the voices of other conversations. Red Steel never spoke a word around the griffin, but it never felt like silence until now.
It was an eerie cold silence that struck through each of the patrons so easily. Slowly but surely, each one of them felt on edge, but neither knew why. Some of them wanted to question this turn in the buffalo, but none of them wanted to bug him. So one of them pushed the griffin closer.
Hermes crashed right into Red Steel and apologized. No response was given in return. In fact, the buffalo's breath stopped completely now. Hermes slowly reached out and padded his friend's shoulder. "Is something wrong, old pal?"
Red Steel kept his calmness and never turned away from the window. It wasn't facing the battle that Twilight mentioned. It wasn't facing anything. Outside was the view of the Celestial Ocean. This vast blueness covered everything beyond the window and yet it appeared as if the buffalo were looking directly at something.
After what felt like forever, the concentration in the buffalo faded, and a cold sweat replaced it. Without giving any more hesitation, he pulled out a telescope from his pocket. He zoomed in the same direction he had been looking before.
Hermes was perplexed by this object, as he had never seen it on his friend before. As far as the griffin knew, the buffalo hated such 'advanced' technology, deeming anything greater than glasses to be worthless. And yet, here was the buffalo using this telescope so effortlessly. Hermes leaned in closer at the sight of writing on the side. It was far too small to be from Red Steel and it had faded to the point of being unreadable.
"No...." A single word was uttered from Red Steel. Hermes jumped back as it had been the first time he ever heard the buffalo speak and yet more words followed that only brought more confusion. "It can't be him..."
"What?" Hermes reached for the telescope, only for his hand to be swatted away with extreme force. The griffin was scared by such an attack, but the fear in his friend's eyes was just as terrifying. "Who is him?"
Red Steel pointed out to the window, as something finally came into sight from beyond the edge of the horizon. It was a flag, bearing the symbol of the griffins.
"My species!" Hermes raised an eyebrow. "What about them?"
"No... it's who is with them." Red Steel's eyes narrowed. "... Carnival Carnage."
Back in the past, deep within the circling winds, a painful scene was yet to play out. The Hurricane siblings and Pansy reached their final destination. All four of them were barely able to crawl as the winds crushed down upon them.
They had done far better than the parents had expected. But even the greatest training meant nothing as the final winds around the scythe were so strong they acted more like an unbreakable wall of the densest of diamonds. The winds were so loud they covered every sound, preventing them from hearing their parents' recall.
Dartz didn't care. Either way, he wanted the greatest prize of all. Lying beyond them were just the fewest amount of names, but they all knew none of these names had done the impossible, lifting the scythe. They knew of only one of legend that did and that pony wasn't even a pegasus. The mere fact this unknown put it back afterward was the greatest insult to Dartz.
He punched the ground and sneered screaming, "I'm not some weak pony... I am a pegasus!!" He lifted himself off the ground with all his might and reached out for the weapon. The winds got so strong that they were cutting his flesh. He pushed his wings out and feathers cascaded away with ease at the harsh winds.
He roared in agony at each feather being ripped out and punched forward. His fist hit the wind wall and the skin at the tip of his knuckles shredded off. More skin cleaned off as he punched again and again. Blood didn't even get the chance to escape as the bones of his knuckles were exposed.
Fear grew in the other pegasus. They realized the pointlessness of this endeavor and its terror struck their very souls. The true purpose of this test was never to find a winner but to see which one would fall first.
Pansy, the weakest and furthest away from the center, near the beginning of the circle. Her eyes watered and her teeth gritted. She stabbed her knife into the ground and started to mark her name.
Ahead of her, near the middle of the circle was Zword. Hearing her craving, he conceded too. He pulled out his knife but refused to mark it until his other siblings were ready. He narrowed his eyes at his brother and sister.
Gale was next, right behind Dartz. She cursed under her breath at the sight of Dartz continuing to punch the wall in vain. She pulled out her knife and reached out as far as she could, stabbing in just behind Dartz's foot. She marked down her name.
Dartz didn't hear any of them. Nor did he come to realize what they had done from his example. Both his hands were bloody and bony, but he refused to yield at less than an inch from the scythe. He felt as if he had been punching thousands of times. Every punch only pushed him by milometers. He screamed in defiance and punched more with every breath, pushing closer and closer.
The bones in his hands chipped and flaked away. The remains of his wings kicked with no feathers at all. He didn't care if his feathers never came back at all if it meant no claim. This trophy would be worth everything.
He couldn't reach out until his hand was ready or risk losing his fingers. Yet as more time passed, the easier that temptation became. Would his fingers too, be a fair price, would his whole arm be a perfect offering to the titan of darkness?
"Pluto!!" Dartz called out with his final punches. "Son of Sanity, the great goat of darkness, space..." He could care less about the remaining honorifics, but he still hoped the titan was listening as he reached closer. "Your power!! It is mine--" As the remains of his knuckle pressed onto the scythe the wind stopped without warning.
Everything around them turned into such a perfect silence as if no winds, not a single sound could reach them. Dartz laughed in silence and wrapped his hand around the scythe. However, something was very wrong as a new sound hit them all.
The most twisted and vicious roar echoed from the scythe as darkness spilled upward from the top. It swarmed downward and around Dartz as a damn voice followed the roar. "You dare to mock me!!" Though in the darkness, they could see glowing purple eyes surrounded by green smoke.
"What do you mean--" Dartz was stopped as agony surged through his arm. Much to his shock, the wounds the winds gave him started to heal. No, it seemed more like they were reversing.
This made no sense, could this be time magic as in light magic? This was impossible. The scythe was of dark magic origin. On pure reaction, Dartz pulled his hand free, somehow with ease, and his hands continued to heal. All aches faded away and his wings were fully restored. "You're healing me--"
"I said, stop mocking me!!" the scythe roared again.
"I'm not mocking." The surrounding ground cracked away, revealing another weapon, a dagger, stuck in the ground beside it that they didn't see before. Dartz was perplexed, as it seemed to be hippogriff in style. The pegasus came to attention as the scythe lifted out of the ground without warning.
"You are not of Sanity's womb. You do not contain his blood!!" Greater rage echoed from the eyes. "First, that umbrum chooses to not keep me, and now you show up. A descendant of my father's enemy!! You wish to claim me as some sort of mockery!!" The darkness wrapped tightly to Dartz's body.
"What do you mean?" Dartz urged in confusion. "I've survived the pegasus and the darkness loyalty!"
"You are a light magic user!!" It pressed so hard and lifted the pegasus into the air and roared a peal of venomous laughter. "An insult like you should just die!"
"I... am... not..." Dartz struggled to breathe. He didn't know what the voice was roaring about. It had to be some sort of mistake. "I must be worthy!!" the pegasus gave his final breath.
"Enough!!" With that, the scythe's tip span around, rushing toward Dartz's heart.
Zword's eyes widened and his wings moved faster than ever before. He jumped toward his brother without a single hesitation. Zword was always ready to step in the way, the youngest and the bravest of them all.
He never got the chance to write his name. The only sign of him being there was his knife still stabbed in place... and his blood dripping down over where his brother's line would have been. His heart was taken instead of Dartz's.
******
In the present, Aitym admired the vision's full beauty as he stared at the very same test the three pegasus children once faced. Before him were the very same hurricane winds surrounding central winds so strong flesh could be ripped from the bone. He narrowed his eyes at the single most point. Though the scythe was gone, it was never his prize.
"Why... are we here?" Rainbow Dartz's whimpering voice echoed inside the host's mind. "The scythe vanished that day."
"Because this is what I've been building up to."
"What do you mean?" Dartz strained for an answer.
"I wanted to use your sister's body for this..." Aitym leered at the winds and commanded time to stop. The winds refused despite the pull of light magic he had with this body. "I had hoped she would have more light magic than you."
"Pointless. I am the only one in the family that unlocked that power." Rainbow Dartz regretted. "I unlocked it in this place by pure accident."
"Yes, and you are too weak to help me now anyway."
"Why are we here?" Rainbow Dartz demanded. "The scythe is gone!"
"Let's just say this is my gift, to me." Aitym raised the crystal hand to the edge of the first layer. "After helping that wendigo for so long I figure I deserve something for myself."
"What?" Dartz still didn't get it, which annoyed the light alicorn greatly.
"My body was stolen thousands of years ago as... they called it punishment." Aitym fueled light magic into the crystal. "The wendigo simply wanted me to spread chaos here... I was never sure why he chose this place or this moment in time..." He laughed wickedly. "Neither do I care for his plan. Working for him was just a means to the end."
"Are you that selfish?!" Dartz screamed.
"This coming from a pegasus who sold his own brother's beating heart for power!!" He pointed to the blood-stained at the furthest point. "See for yourself... No other name has ever gotten closer." Aitym laughed even louder at the pegasus with his own lungs. "Your victory was worth every ounce of blood."
"I..." Rainbow Dartz's spirit shook inside the mindscape. "I... I... I didn't... I don't want this..." He pulled back with all his strength, making his real arm, in the physical world shake and quake.
Aitym took the other arm and crushed it down on the crystal limb, pushing out more blue blood. "Don't deny reality. I've made that mistake for millennia. I trusted the liars from my brothers in arms..." He squeezed tighter, making the limb stretch outward. "I trusted the lustful abominations that were once changelings I molded from swamp and clay." The crystal arm grew bigger and longer. "Heavonus said we would change the world... Redsting said we could change fate... And Lighttone... that damn lion said that reality would be free for the taking!!" Screaming his loudest, the arm reached its furthest and tipped into the final circle.
The light alicorn sneered as pieces cracked off upon reaching through that final edge. He gritted his teeth and charged forward. "They took away my body... my family... and my name!!" His rage channeled to the object he sought, inside the crack where the scythe was stood. "And left me as nothing but a nuckelavee!!"
******
At the far end of the Pegasus Isles, the two ifrits arrived to attempt an escape. Their mission had turned into utter chaos upon Aitym's dismissal of them. They had received no respect from him and even fewer answers from the wendigo after the undead were unleashed.
Vanity stayed loyal despite everything she saw, but even now there were pinches of doubt. Sage had made his doubt clear from the beginning, leading the mare to the exit the whole time. She simply saw it as they no longer need to be here. He saw their presence as an utter waste.
"Slow down..." Vanity grumbled under her breath. She gripped tightly to the jar of ashes that was once her sibling. "We need an order from Lord Frost before we can leave."
"An order! Now of all times." Sage threw up his hands. "Look around us, even this far from the undead, there is still panic and fear." He pointed to the rushing soldiers and raging weapons.
"Wait..." Vanity stopped. "Why aren't they pointing their weapons toward the center of the country?" She noted they were out looking at the ocean as if something else was drawing their attention.
"They probably received a message from that legendary Commander Hurricane!" Sage raised his hand to the sky. "Where else would they be going?"
"Look, just calm down!!" She shouted back, reaching her peak of annoyance. "Lord Frost sent us here for a reason, right?!"
"What? To simply stand as witnesses." Sage stopped at the edge. His eyes widened at something beyond their sight.
"Well..." the doctor looked back and forth between the country they were just in and the undead they left behind, to the edge of the Pegasus Isles and the ocean she assumed was just beyond it. "Maybe we are here to witness." She placed the ash jar gently down and grabbed him by the shoulders. "What are we? A doctor and a politician. What do we have in common?"
Sage didn't answer at first. Instead, his jaw slowly dropped at the sight Vanity had yet to notice beyond the edge. He refused to budge no matter how much she shook him. This made her look outward at what he could see and she quickly had the same reaction.
"What do we have in common...?" He repeated her words in a slow mumble. "I just know that neither of us is ready for this..."
"Well, we finally agree on something..." She nodded. Their fear was so intense that neither noted their hands reaching for each other.
What they were seeing was impossible to express right away. More chaos was coming for them all and only these two knew the full scope of both sides of the battlefield. But neither knew the light alicorn's plan as the jar of ash behind them started to shake violently.
******
Back in the central hurricane, the winds scattered in defiance of Aitym's attempts. It had been several minutes and as seen from the mass of shards swirling, he had yet to get any closer. Rage bloomed forward with an ultimate roar as the host went numb.
"Ha, ha, ha..." Rainbow Dartz coughed inside the mindscape. Even at this distance, he could sense what the light alicorn was denying. "Pegasi might have the largest amount of blood to any other species outside of alicorns, but even we have limits."
"Your species evolved to have incredible endurance, thus a larger heart and more blood." Aitym smirked, "You lasted longer than I expected. Maybe it was the constant battling that pushed you to this limit."
"And if you push any further?" Rainbow Dartz noticed his breathing was getting worse. His mind was wracking with all the pain of his real body. Sweat, tears, and blood, just how much more could he lose?
"You will die..." Aitym said so bluntly.
"And you..."
"Unless your sister suddenly appears I will be without a body."
"And thus we are both doomed." Rainbow Dartz threw his head upward and was shocked to find his own laughter echo from the mouth. Aitym was losing the fight he clearly wasn't ready for. Had Rainbow Dartz done the flight himself, they might have made it to the edge, but the light alicorn's arrogance prevented such efforts.
Thinking about it now, Rainbow Dartz had a hard time believing that he would ever accept the demands of this evil, even if it wasn't using him as a slave. He was bold to the very end, refusing to listen to his sister after she took command of him, turning away as his parents' honor was shamed by his leaving. And yet, had the command come from Zword, things might have been different.
"Just let me die..." Rainbow Dartz calmed his breath. "My final debt to this stupid nation is to drag you to Tartarus with me." He leaned back, offering his head. "Take it, Saturn!"
"Do not call upon that titan's help!!" Aitym raged. "I will not be mocked. They chose to stand above us for so long. Even after the first alicorns were made they still refused to acknowledge us."
"Made?" Rainbow Dartz questioned his word choice.
"Yes, forged with knowledge and power. Leaving our songs and swamps. The Nykur and the Kelpie united under a single banner. That of the alicorns!" Aitym sneakered after remembering something. Out of his pocket, he pulled out the alathar, the Eye of the King. "We claimed our immortality with the blood of the gods..." He held it up to the edge of the winds and spoke, "Yanhani Lilmalik!"
Blue blood screamed from the pegasus' mouth as if it was running from something. Aitym forced the teeth closed and repeated the phrase louder. Rainbow Dartz's mind screamed in pain as a new voice echoed forth. This new voice seemed to be coming from the alathar itself. It sounded similar to the voice of the titan Pluto, but somehow far older.
"What is this?!" Rainbow Dartz fought for command over the mouth.
"The voice of Sanity himself, the god of darkness and space..." Aitym felt the body fading. "Stop fighting or his voice will rip us both apart.
"Why?!"
"Because we are both of Madness's womb. Our light magic is an insult to Sanity's will." Aitym regretted his next actions in taking a step into the first layers of winds. Just as he suspected the first was a terrible fight, but he hoped the large amounts of dark magic inside these winds would calm that old goat.
"Yanhani Lilmalik!!" Aitym pushed all normal magic he could muster into it, hoping to tip the balance his light magic could not. Using an alathar and not being a dark magic user would already be a dangerous bargain. This body had already lost so much, he was unsure how much more it would lose before just dropping dead. This was his last chance. "Yanhani Lilmalik!!" More blue blood flooded out of his mouth. "Yanhani Lilmalik!!"
"You can stop..." Rex landed behind them. "That old goat refuses to listen to me, so what makes you think he will listen to some coward in another pony's body." The umbrum walked forward and flowed his chains around them. "End this and surrender the pegasus."
"And die..." Aitym pooled the blue blood around him into a crystal shield. "Yanhani Lilmalik!!"
"Stubborn Nuckelavee..." Rex rushed forward only for everything around him to slow. His eyes widened as his body slowed in the air and the dust beneath him scattered upward from his movement.
Aitym smiled as his host body moved normally. "Yes, about time." He admired everything moving in slow motion. From Rex to the undead and the pegasus, all bending to the command of the Eye of the King. "Now, to spread it to the rest." He held the Eye of the King to his undead army as they came back to normal speed.
All of them stopped what they were doing. "My army of hatred and anger!! March to my new body!!" At that word, they charged toward the hurricane winds. Aitym laughed as his plan came to reality, thousands upon millions raced into the winds. The first few were ripped apart, but others used the shredded remains as shields to reach further.
"Let's finish this!" Aitym crushed tighter onto the Eye of the King and the winds slowed to a soft breeze. His power flowed through the pegasus's eyes fueling magic from far away.
Down below, within the Batpony Canyons laid the Dark City. The imprisoned unicorns stopped in place as the undead left their posts and flew up to the center of Aitym's command. Above, the undead rushed in further and quickly hit the edge of the final circle with a splash of blood and bony bits. Even with the extra forces the Eye of the King didn't have enough command in its current state to stop them completely.
Aitym walked to the edge and pressed the alathar against the wall of winds. He roared the line again, "Yanhani Lilmalik!!" Nothing came so he mocked it, "You stupid goat. You dare to ignore us for so long!! You are a weak piece of shredded mass trapped inside a damned amulet!" No reaction still, so he expanded his words. "Do you remember who sealed you in there? That same god tricked me too, he stole so much from us. You stole so much from us! All I demand of this!! Yanhani Lilmalik!!" He pushed forward with all his might and fell into the final circle.
Back within the Batpony Canyons, the ground shook violently. The Dark City seemed to quake and roar with vicious savagery. The ashes of the long-dead umbrums rose from their resting place. The shattered and burnt remains were still under the control of the spell, despite all these years, and rose upward with the undead. They all flew to the same source.
The winds stopped utterly. Rex fell to the ground as reality for him and everything else outside of the circle returned to its true speed. The umbrum jumped through the winds as they tossed him around. Using his chains to anchor him down, he continued his efforts to stop the light alicorn.
The spirit gave little care to this. His prize was in his sight. Reaching into the crack where the scythe once sat. Deep within sat an azoth dagger. He pressed his host's hand upon it and laughed louder. "Yes, here it is."
As he pulled it free a massive burst of light shined out blinding everything. Rex cursed as his sight blurred and his shadows faded. The winds threw him back as the entire circle ripped apart. A great shaking followed the cracks, pushing out beyond the entire place.
******
Far up in the sky, Celestia's giant orb was struck by a massive wave of energy. Luna forced herself out of the pod to try and see what was going on. Her sister stopped and told her to lean back as she checked instead. The pink-maned princess rushed over to the overview and looked down to the Pegasus Isles below them.
"What is it?!" Luna screamed when her sister didn't respond. "Tia! What do you see... Celestia?!"
"I..." The alicorn shivered back at the sight of it. "Pegasus Isle... It's ripped apart!!"
"What?" Luna couldn't lay there any longer so she forced her way out of the healing pod and raced over to her sister's side. "Your words make no sense. Are the pegasi losing or... dying." She backed away at Celestia's frozen. "What's happening to Pegasus Isles."
"It's..." Celestia slowly pointed out the overview. "It's literally shattering."
Luna looked over only to be filled with the same amount of shock and confusion as everything she said was true. The entire landmass, including the Giant Blue Hourglass that encased it, was being ripped apart. Massive cracks the size of cities were surging out from the central point and spreading to each peak and edge. "What could be causing this?"
"His return!!" Lord Red's words echoed without warning. His form seemingly slivered into reality and appeared in front of them. He approached the edge of the overview and pointed toward the source. "That pitiful abandoned alicorn is using one of my brother's alathar to resurrect that forgotten beast!"
"Who is?!" Luna screamed. "Does this have anything to do with what Hollow Prince warned us about?!"
"What..." Lord Red's eyes widened at her use of the name. "When did you make contact with my--" He was stopped as an alarm blared through the giant orb.
"Shit!!" Celestia rushed back to the controls. "No, no, no, no!!"
"What now?"
"The air pressure around us is changing rapidly..." She bit her lip and raced her fingers over the keyboard hoping to stop it. "Our position is becoming unstable."
"You're crashing..." Lord Red regretted stating the obvious. His form started to fade away much to Luna's rage.
The blue alicorn reached out to him and demanded answers. "What is happening? Who is being resurrected?!"
Lord Red glared at her with intensity as the centipede symbols on his armor moved around in flaring motions. Powerful corrupted magic pulsed off of him, pushing Luna toward her sister. "You two will survive the crash..." Their eyes widened at the strange feeling of invisible strings crawling around their bodies. "But know this..." He pointed to Luna and then the source of the cracking. "All this failure falls upon your damn umbrum!!"
Luna's eyes widened. "Rex..." She wanted to know more but Lord Red vanished completely, leaving them there. They could still feel his strings, but the giant orb wasn't so lucky. The two sisters leaned against each other as the thing began to burn up, crashing down to collapsing Pegasus Isles.
******
Back at the edge of everything, the ifrits were shaken from their hand-grasping embrace by a loud bang. Vanity jumped around to the source only to see the jar shattered and the ashes of her sibling flowing outward. She rushed over to grab what she could but it was in vain.
Sage turned back around slowly. Her screams of horror did little to break the signs of defeat on his face. He saw everything she was doing to save her sibling and this made his legs shake. The sight of the ashes rising to a giant shadow looming over the country's center broke him completely. He finally came to process why they were here.
"We are witnesses. A doctor heals... a politician leads. But we both are here to witness what we need to lead them out of..." He reached out to Vanity to train her distress. "We are here to see it all happen."
"See what?!?!" she screamed in horror. "We've lost so much..."
"And there is so much more to lose... Before we can be the light that shines in... in..." With that, he lit his flames up. Sage shined a light over Vanity and the ground around them.
Vanity saw the shadow growing over them all. The pegasi, the undead, the two ifrits. They were all just specs of dust under the weight of what was to come. And yet, the two ifrits flames stood against this darkness. "It was what Thule said. We are the light. The Nine Families are the light."
"The light in the darkness."
******
Twilight and the rest of the group were caught off guard by the shaking. It was so sudden and threatening that all of them were tossed in a different direction. Clovis and Starlight were tossed to Silver Pear, knocking him to the ground.
Clover slid from his hands and toward Twilight and the clouds split out between them. Ashes of the long dead swarmed upward from below the clouds. Reaching the center of the Pegasus Isle where they started to connect to something beyond their sight.
"That place is where Rex went, right?" Clover pointed out.
"What makes you say that?!" Twilight picked her up.
"His shadows!" She narrowed her eyes at the sight of giant shadows being pushed back by a powerful source of light. "That's his Kraken spell." She noted the tentacles. "But that light... is it?"
"He must be trying to stop Aitym." Twilight leaned Clover against a table and tried to reach out to the rest of the group. "Come on, he's this way!" She shouted to them.
"Wait!" Clovis pointed out to the ashes flowing around them. Twilight followed his eyes back as the ashes took the shape of something. One of the piles of ash shot out from the main source and went upward before solidifying.
"That's... a horn!"
"Not an alicorn horn..." Twilight backed away as the shape looked so familiar. "No, it can't be..."
"Ox horns..." Clover confirmed.
Hearing her words made Twilight's mind flashback to something she had seen before all of this started. "Wait there was a battle near here long ago. I saw it in the mindscape."
"So did I!" Clover jumped to attention, trying to stand. "Something that involved the batponies, pegasi, and the..."
"Centaurs," Twilight answered.
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I saw it in Cold Blue's memories..." Twilight's eyes widened and she turned toward the source of the shaking. "Aitym is searching for a better body. And there's only one he could be after here--"
Without warning the land they were standing up lifted upward before splitting into two, then three and four, ending in five... fingers. They all came to attention as Twilight and Clover found themselves in the center of a giant hand of ash and dead.
Twilight rushed over to grab Starlight and the rest with her magic only for rocks and clouds to rise from the crack and separate them. Her eyes widened as screaming followed, she shouted to Starlight and Silver Pear, wanting to follow but Clover was on her side.
Things became worse as the rocks around the rising ground fell apart revealing the ash transforming into flesh and hair. Twilight's eyes widened at the giant hand. A slight relief came in that this hand was not of her forging. This was a real creature's hand. She grumbled as her fear reached its peak.
"There was an azoth dagger..." the alicorn leaned back into a fiddle position as the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. "They contain the magic of all forms including bodies..." She narrowed her eyes upward as a massive shadow of the ashes cloaked the sun and clouds. The original light source set into the center of a giant creature cloaking over the land. "So that was his plan. Thousands of souls to break the barrier..."
"What is this?"
"Not what, whom. The greatest giant to ever exist outside of the titans. Aitym's new body is the king of all centaurs, the father of Tirek... Ixion."
******
Clovis, Starlight, and Silver Pear watched on in horror as the city was ripped apart around them. The giant arms destroyed buildings left and right. It reached beyond their grasp, separating them from Twilight and Clover.
"No!" Starlight screamed. "We have to get to them!!" She was stopped by Silver Pear.
"This is no good," Clovis answered. "We must get out of here before it gets any worse."
"But, our friends are right there?!" She tried to float up to them only for her magic to fail. "What?" She repeated and got the same result. "No! Impossible!"
"It is possible..." Clovis grumbled at his legs. "I can't teleport either."
"Which means?!" Starlight rushed over and shook Clovis, demanding answers.
"That thing is stealing all our magic to stabilize its new form!" He pointed to the clouds falling around them. Buildings didn't even need to be nearby to be ripped apart by the force of its power.
"No!" Starlight threw him down and rushed over to the edge. "Teacher!!" She screamed out to Twilight. "Please!! Answer me!!" She called out to her but there was no answer.
Her eyes slowly widened at the sight of her friends gone, just like the rest of the country. This made no sense to her at all. She just barely found Twilight again. She couldn't lose track of her now. Yet here it was happening again, only this time a massive giant monster stood between them.
"We can't just leave them up there..." Silver Pear urged.
"And what you expect to do?! Neither of us can fly!" Clovis roared at him. "We've lost..."
"No." Starlight clenched her hands and tightened her resolve. "I will not run away like a coward!!" A large amount of magic surged from within her, only to slip away and into the giant. "I won't give up!!" She pulled out more pools of magic, aiming her sight at the giant hand that had taken Twilight and Clover. "I refuse to fall!!"
Without warning, a sharp piece of permafrost broke off from the force of both powers clashing. Clovis raced over to Starlight and didn't even hesitate to push her out of the way. The spike tore through his stomach.
"Clovis!!" Starlight screamed as his blood splashed over her.
He used whatever magic he had left to push Starlight into the safety of Silver Pear. "Sometimes, being a coward is a good thing." Before any more could be said, the permafrost ripped apart the ground around him and sent the unicorn falling into the canyons below.
"No!!" Starlight tried to reach him, but Silver Pear rushed her away as all the ground collapsed. "Let me go!!"
"He's... gone!! We can't save him!!" Silver Pear covered Starlight under some tables as more stuff fell apart around them.
******
Just outside of the Pegasus Isle, the figure of the centaur was so big that his tail was rising at the edge of the ocean. This did little to put fear in the griffin armies that Sage had witnessed landing upon their arrival at the edge of the Giant Blue Hourglass. Thousands of ships were at the ready, with cannons firing at both the ashy tail of the mighty centaur as well as the pegasi outposts.
"King Grover, is it wise to make our move now?!" the lower soldiers questioned.
Cloaked in shadows behind an all too familiar earth pony, the griffin king admired the sight of the Giant Blue Hourglass. "Long ago, my family was ripped apart by those thieving pegasi! They slew my father right in front of me..." He held up his sword and shouted out. "Their damnation has been at their doorstep for centuries! And I refused to let some undead forgotten king claim what is rightfully ours!" He swung his blade forward.
"You've made the right choice," the earth pony agreed. "Everything is going according to Lord Frost's plans."
"Know this well, Carnival Carnage. That wendigo will know his place too..." The king lowered his blade to the shoulder of the earth pony. "I'm willing to make deals with gods and devils... but both will bend under my claw!" He stepped out of the shadows and shined his golden armor on his crew and the emblem of their kingdom, Griffinstone. "On this day, I shall avenge my father. For Lord Gallus!!"
They turned their blades upward, their fears vanished in an instant. "And we raise our greatest lord. King Grover!!"
******
Without warning a bright light smashed into the ground right in front of the Giant Blue Hourglass. It stood in stark defiance to the griffins slowly arriving. Its power shined in defense of the crumbling Pegasus Isles.
The light slowly faded to reveal a red pegasus mare fully transformed and altered by Lord Red's power. A muscle bounded red demon, shadowing in place of her weak and frail old self. The super powered, demonically charged with corrupted magic, Private Pansy stood ready to defend her homeland.
The Giant Blue Hourglass once stood as the greatest symbol of strength and power. Standing before the pegasi and the batpony. It was forged thousands upon millions of years ago by the umbrums during the reign of Cthulhu, the great separator.
This gross beast of tentacles and beaks separated the light and the darkness. The umbrums feared him more than their own god, Sanity. So they imprisoned themselves with the Giant Blue Hourglass. From there, they watched his empire rise and fall to the alicorns.
They only opened their doors when Sanity returned to claim the lands from the alicorns. This led to a great war that unveiled Sanity's brother, Madness as well as many other species like the sirens and the wendigoes. The umbrums stood strong even after the fighting reached its peak.
In this fading of blood, war, and death, the smaller species like the unicorns, pegasi, batponies, and earth ponies, sought a place of safety. The unicorns stood with the naga and the earth ponies fought alongside the centaurs and minotaurs. Meanwhile, the batponies and the pegasi united in search of a land of safety for them both.
In time, these two species found their safe haven in the Giant Blue Hourglass. Due to their ease of flying, they were able to enter the massive domes from above. However, the umbrums weren't the main problem for them upon arriving. That was the griffins.
The griffins had long nested within the Giant Blue Hourglass during their travels. They didn't care for the warring of the alicorns, Sanity, and Madness. They wanted a constant trade with the umbrums and a home-away-from-home with this land.
The griffins only stayed for a few years at a time. Once they had the resources they needed, they would leave and stay within their homeland until these resources weakened and thus they would return. This constant replay was a fine deal for the umbrums as the land was still theirs.
This was a problem for the pegasi and the batponies. They needed a permanent stay to escape war and the constant replay with the griffins proved to only increase the chances of war. However, this new peak wouldn't come until the arrival of a strange rotting pony by the name of Thule.
Thule met with the leader of the pegasi, Curiasian Curtain, the mother of Rainbowous Julia Dasherton, and the leader of the batponies, Narsassis Lace Nox. He told them that the land wouldn't be theirs until they convinced the umbrums to turn their back on the griffins. To do this they revealed the griffins' species line led back to the god, Madness, the enemy of umbrum's god.
The griffins were offended by this accusation as they never cared for the gods at all. Most, if not all the species were atheists, believing in no god at all. Yet, the blood couldn't lie, Thule revealed their blood was of Madness. The umbrums were outraged and fought the griffins off.
Ever since that day, the griffins have hated the pegasi and the batponies with all their might. They deemed the two species as pure evil incarnate and thus a new warring across the oceans began. Thule vanished with this proclamation.
Ever since then, the pegasi and the batponies held a mighty grip over the Giant Blue Hourglass for many years beyond this point. Even as the umbrums too fell to the hands of the alicorns, the pegasi and batponies stood strong.
That is until a centaur king laid his eyes upon this glorious symbol. Now, King Ixion wanted the Giant Blue Hourglass and he would do anything to claim it. The only one that stood in his way was the last standing umbrum, Rex Moba.
Starswirl walked down a hallway, marking grades and reading new spells. His eyes were so intent on the knowledge, yet he never once crashed or lost track of where he was going. Instead, his concentration only broke at the sound of a hard crash and a scream.
The old wizard's head shook out of the notes. His eyes widened at the direction of the sound. He hastened his speed back to his classroom.
Entering the room he was shocked to find Fiend pressing Sting against the wall. The normally frail hippogriff glared at the old wizard before turning his attention back to his brother. "Why would you do such a thing?!"
"He just wants to heal you, brother?!" Sting argued. His normal rapping tone was gone in total fear of his brother.
Fiend stamped his foot on the ground, but kept his anger in check as he spoke. "Does it matter to you at all what he wants in return!"
"If it means keeping my family alive, I don't fucking care!!" Sting yelled.
"You fool!" Fiend squeezed his hand on his brother's throat. "You have no right to make such a bargain for me!!"
"Stop this now, Fiend!!" Starswirl rushed over, only for the frail hippogriff to throw him to the side so easily. "This has gone too far!"
"Do not think to tell me what to do!" Fiend snarled at his teacher.
Sting laughed and didn't struggle against Fiend's grip. Instead, he tried reasoning with his older brother. "How can you be so selfish?"
"I am not the selfish one here!!" Fiend pulled him back and bashed his throat into the wall. "It is you who is selfish! You are willing to sacrifice our sister's life for me!!" The hippogriff punched his fist into the wall beside Sting's head. He ignoring the fact that his bones cracked from the movement.
"That's not true!! I wouldn't do that!!" Sting protested.
"Then why did you agree to this deal?!" Fiend demanded.
"I agreed to the deal!!" Slang's voice interrupted them.
Fiend froze at that answer and slowly turned to see Slang in the room. Slang stared up at her larger brother with fear and remorse but stood strong. "I agreed to Ixion's demands!"
"What?" Fiend asked, his eyes wide in shock. He dropped his brother as his sickness finally kicked in. The other two siblings watched on in horror as he coughed, sweated, and heaved. "You... dare!!" He shouted at her before reaching for his respirator.
Slang recoiled at the sight of him falling apart in front of them but refused to yield. "Eldest brother!!" She clenched her hands together and moved closer to him. "You... are dying."
Fiend looked down at his health monitor and saw just how dire the situation had become. His heart rate was skyrocketing, and his blood pressure was rising steadily. Yet he didn't care, rushing at her, only to break his arm on the wall beside her. "I will live!!" He ignored his agony. "I will not die!!"
"Don't... do this to yourself..." Slang shook her head at him. "Please stop. Please."
"Shut up!" Fiend screamed as he ripped off his mask and threw it across the room. "I am the crown prince!!" He grabbed her by the shoulders but never hurt her in the same way he would his brother.
"And you need help!!" Slang pushed him away. "That's why I agreed." She leaned into his chest and pleaded. "Please..."
"But..." He gritted his teeth and padded his sister's head. "I can't... make you do this?!"
"I know more than anyone the price I pay!!" Slang screamed at him. "You aren't making me do this?!" She lifted her head and looked at him, deep in the eyes. "I know what that monster wants from me!! I've always known!!" The mare struggled but pushed him away more. "But, our species needs money and trade resources. It needs medicine and food... And it needs you!!" She grabbed him by the face and pulled his head down to her forehead. "You are needed here... I am not."
Fiend felt the tears welling up inside him and let go of her. He staggered back and grabbed his respirator, gasping for air. "Do not think... I take it lightly!!"
"I know..." Slang whispered. "Go ahead and hate me..." She walked over to Sting and picked him up off the ground. "But don't hate him..." She smiled sadly at her younger brother. "He's... been protecting us since we were little."
"Protecting?" Fiend growled. "You call that rapping protective?! This is sick!"
"No..." She cupped Sting's cheek. "He's horrible at it, but he always puts a smile on our faces." She turned to Fiend and reached out. "That's what I want from both of you now." Her voice shook as she continued. "I want you two to smile for me!!"
"Why?" Fiend asked.
"Because... I'll be okay..." Slang answered, her eyes fluttering closed. "After all, what could make a girl happier than to become a bride!!"
******
In present day...
Fiend slowly drifted back awake inside his dozens of respirators. The scene from before had long faded and was replaced by a blackened cave entrance, near the Earth Pony Conglomerate. He couldn't tell how long he had been asleep, only that his strength was still very low.
The first thing that came into view was a freshly beaten pony at his feet, alongside ten other long-dead ponies. Those were attached to his machines. While the beaten pony was still breathing but too weak to move.
The hippogriff rolled his eyes at it and leaned back. He knew the pony wouldn't get very far. Frankly, he wanted to go back to that dream from before. However, his eyes moved around at the sound of footsteps approaching.
Sting entered with another tortured pony, whistling. "Yo, bro?!" He waved at Fiend. "You're finally awake enough to feast." He placed the other pony down and continued. "Come on and take what you can, at least!"
"For your information," Fiend answered in a flat voice, "I have no desire to eat any more souls today."
The hippogriff stallion's face fell. "Why not?! They're good! You need to eat and should!"
"Fine... if it will stop your rapping!!" The older hippogriff growled and reached down. He pressed his hand on the forehead of the nearest pony and a light glowed out. The pony's eyes lit up with new forms of agony as his soul was wrenched out. All it could do was convulse and twisted under Fiend's grip.
"This wouldn't be needed if you didn't lose to Starswirl so badly!!" Sting leaned against the wall and tried to think of a phrase that rhymed with that.
"Neither of us was told..." Fiend grabbed the other pony and stole its soul as well. "That demon, Lord Red, would be with him!!"
"True, but he didn't expect us either!" Sting gave an inner cheer as the words came to him. "Yo, that grey wizard thought he was so cool. But he needed a false pony to be his tool!!"
"I said... stop!!" Fiend threw the wasted corpse at Sting's feet.
"Don't dis the player. You just can't understand my layer..." Sting smiled boldly at him.
Fiend conceded and leaned back into his respirators. "Just get more souls!"
"For sure!" Sting swung some gangster symbols at him, and his older brother just rolled his eyes. He turned away and dropped his rapping voice for only a moment to give one final line before leaving. "You know... Today is Slang's birthday..."
"Hmm," Fiend gave a wicked smiled and turned his attention in the direction of the Giant Blue Hourglass in the distance. "So it is... How ironic?" He leered closer as smoke rose from it and a giant of ash and madness tore through the rubble.
The shadow of the resurrected corpse of the centaur could be seen even from this far away. "A shame... that we aren't there to see her revenge play out again for a second time."
*****
In the distant future... Beyond the reach of Hearth's Warming... just days before Twilight and Starlight got trapped...
Three pegasi flew through the long-dead ruins of a giant blue hourglass. The shattered pieces were now scattered across the land, moss-covered with them. A lone pegasus stood before the broken remains of the hourglass, her eyes glowing like fireflies as she stared into its depths. "So cool!!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"What?" Quibble Pants asked, looking up at Rainbow Dash as he studied an old scroll they brought with them.
"The hourglass!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly. "It's still here! After all these millennia!!"
"We can see that!" Daring Do commented. "Now will you get down from there?!"
"Never!!" Rainbow Dash bounced around the edge of the giant shattered piece of glass. "Just follow me inside!!" The pegasus asked calmly.
Daring Do rolled her eyes, but obeyed. She followed Rainbow Dash into the Hourglass and inspected every nook and cranny for safety concerns. Last time she trusted Rainbow Dash with a treasure hunt it ended in total failure. This place stunk of problems she would need to rescue them both from. "There has to be something here," she whispered.
"I'm sorry for her recklessness." Quibble Pants flew up beside Daring Do. He was just as worried that his friend might be going too far. "It's dangerous to fly so high, especially when we don't know what lies beneath us!"
"Don't worry! I'll be fine," Rainbow Dash bounced higher than ever before.
"You will not!" Daring Do stomped her foot louder. "Now calm down!!"
"Why should I?" Rainbow Dash asked innocently.
Quibble Pants could only watch in horror as Rainbow Dash continued her climb. "She knows no fear..." The male pegasus shivered into his hands. "I knew I should have just taken my wife's offer for tea!"
Daring Do groaned, watching as Rainbow Dash flew higher and higher. "Damn it, so reckless..."
"Unfortunately..." Quibble Pants agreed. "She never gives up on any mission she takes on, even if it means risking her life!"
"I know..." Daring Do answered so bluntly. "And having her biggest idol and her best friend here is only going to make her push harder."
"But that's what makes her such a good representation of the Element of Loyalty." Quibble Pants couldn't help but giggle.
"More like the embodiment of stupidity." the mare whispered under her breath. "How are we supposed to find anything without her flying into more danger?"
"Easy!" Rainbow Dash screamed out, "Just look for something shiny!" She hit something loud, making them race to her faster.
"Damn it." Daring Do shook her head. "Careful what you are touching--" She stopped at the sight of Rainbow Dash throwing rocks at something within the cloud layer.
The two pegasi flew up to meet Rainbow Dash. She stopped, cheered, and hugged them both tightly. "See? It's perfectly safe up here!"
"She doesn't know what danger means!" Daring Do told Quibble Pants.
"That doesn't matter!!" Rainbow pointed out to the distance. "Look over there!" She picked up another rock and threw it, much to the annoyance of the others. It hit something loud on the other side of the cloud layer.
"What is it?" Quibble Pants questioned.
Daring Do looked where Rainbow Dash was pointing, only to see nothing. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Is it a mirage or something?" She could hear the same thing they were hearing but couldn't quite see it.
"No! Look closely!" Rainbow waved her wing over her friend's head.
"There's nothing over there." Daring Do examined what Rainbow Dash was pointing at more carefully.
Annoyed, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings heavily, kicking the air around. Soon enough something finally came into view. It looked like a piece of permafrost. "A piece of ice... That's what you wanted us to see? Those are everywhere."
Rainbow Dash facepalmed and flew closer to it and moved away from more clouds. "I know that! But look bigger... Doesn't it look like a rather strange shape for permafrost?" The two other pegasi leaned back as the shape of a giant blackened claw peered through. It seemed to be fused to the permafrost. Its fingers alone were hundreds of feet in diameter. "There was no way this could be natural."
Daring Do raised an eyebrow and flew closer. Tapping it revealed that it was just as hard as the permafrost, if not harder. Where the ice was cold, this was warm like a fire. She touched the tip of the claw and felt a tingling sensation run through her body. "This isn't permafrost..."
"I know right?!" Rainbow Dash cheered at the discovery and pushed away more clouds. Yet no matter how much she removed there was no sign of a source of ending. It could reach all the way down to the ground, or somewhere too high in the sky for her to reach. "It's so damn big?!?!"
"It seems impossibly big..." Quibble Pants noted the detailing of the arm connected to the claw seemed so real. "What is it?"
"Find of the century!!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "This is worth a fortune!"
"It's worthless until we catalog it." Daring Do pulled out a pickaxe and stabbed into it.
Without warning a loud echo shook around them. It was so strong that it tossed them all into the air. Their eyes widened as the source was coming from the claw itself.
"What was that?!" Quibble Pants yelled.
"I don't know..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and rushed at the pickaxe once the noise calmed. She pulled it out and stabbed back in the same place Daring Do did. Again the same reaction came from the claw, only this time even louder. "Wow..." The mare smiled boldly and smashed the pickaxe in again and again. Each time growing the noise even louder and stronger.
Quibble Pants landed as the sound began to hurt his head. "Stop!!"
"We need proof!!" Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and pulled back, swinging forward with her hardest hit yet.
Even stranger was the sound didn't repeat this time. Instead, the tip of the pickaxe bent backward and cut her hand. Rainbow Dash screamed in pain and threw the tool to the side.
Daring Do caught it and was perplexed at the strangely bent shape it had now. It was twisted a full ninety degrees yet the wood never tore once. There weren't even cracks on the handle. "How the buck?!"
Quibble Pants rushed over to Rainbow Dash with a bandage only to stop at an even stranger sight. Her blood floated in the air and toward the claw. Each drop vaporized on contact with the surface and the mare winced in pain as if she sensed the destruction of each drop. "What's happening?!" She twisted around in the air. "Why did that hurt so much?!" The mare grimaced at such a small cut.
"Blood magic..." Daring Do's eyes widened and she flew over to Quibble Pants.
"Blood what--" Rainbow Dash was stopped as Daring Do took Quibble Pants's finger and cut it.
"Ouch!" He wanted to know why she did that but her answer was given upon his blood doing the same thing as Rainbow Dash's, with one important difference. It floated to the claw and was absorbed, not destroyed.
Daring Do cut her finger as well and watched her blood flow toward the claw and vaporize. "Thought so..." She grumbled and pulled Rainbow Dash away. "Don't get near it."
"What about Quibble Pants?!" She reached out to her.
"He'll be fine. It doesn't hate his kind!"
"What do you mean by his kind?!" Rainbow Dash pushed her away only to fly back. her wound reacted, filling her body with pain. Yet Quibble Pants could fly right up to it and even touch it with his wound and suffer no pain at all.
"Daring Do?! What is this?!" he questioned.
"Blood Magic Claw... is an ancient form of cursing. When a dark magic user or a light magic user commits a grave sin according to legend a giant claw formed of their blood shall rise."
"What?!" Rainbow Dash reached out to Quibble Pants and touched his shoulder. The stallion finally looked at them as if for the first time.
"Sorry." He apologized and flew back to them.
"Don't be... Your family line must contain light magic or dark magic... Depending on the type of claw." Daring Do pulled out an old map and took the scroll from Quibble Pants. She overlayed them and continued. "As long as your family tree matches the type of magic they were using when they formed this you will be fine..."
"How do you know so much?"
"I don't..." Daring Do answered so bluntly. "This is the first time I've seen one up close. But rumor is there are four others in Equestria that have been recorded." She pointed out the spots. "The ruins of one near an old village just on the other side of the Everfree forest. Another deep within the Celestial ocean... one said to be buried deep beneath... Ponyville." She turned back to the claw in front of them. "Finally, there is one in the far north, on the highest mountain of Equestria. Counting this one makes five within Equestria's borders. But there are dozens outside of Equestria and a few supposedly in the thick blizzards around the Crystal Empire near Yakyakistan."
"Wait, wait, wait?" Rainbow Dash pointed to Ponyville. "I've lived there most of my life. There's no way there's one buried there."
"I know. I've checked nearly every tunnel near there. Started to think they were just legends..." Daring Do rolled up the scrolls and gave back Quibble Pants's copy. "Where did you find this scroll?"
"It was among Discord's old stuff," Quibble Pants pointed out the rim. "According to him, they belonged to an old umbrum friend of his."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the tag name. "Rex... Umbrum, never heard of such a species."
"Either way, I'll need to have a talk with Discord," Daring Do agreed. "And the sooner the better." She turned to Quibble Pants. "Do you have any idea where he might be?"
"Fluttershy said he was heading to Canterlot." Quibble Pants led them back to camp.
"Okay, we'll head there next." Daring Do nodded and placed down a beacon gem. She stuck it on the side of the giant piece of glass facing the massive claw. "For now, I'll have some pals keep an eye on this site."
"Wait, what?" Rainbow Dash questioned. "You want to leave now?!"
"We can't do much else right now." She placed her arm over Rainbow Dash's shoulder. "Neither of us can get near it."
"Right..." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and kept a watchful glare on the claw as they flew back. She grimaced as the clouds covered it once more, unveiling it from all sight.
As the three left, the gem beacon shined on, waiting for help to arrive. It stayed on for several minutes... when without warning an orange hand reached up and crushed it. A white cloaked figure slowly rose up from behind the glass and watched the three pegasi carefully. His crooked horn slipped out of his hood and K shaped mask glowed at them.
Suddenly, he stopped as his hand rose over his face. The hand shook and twisted against his will. He huffed and stopped the glow in his horn. "Fine, they can live."
Deep within the Titan airship, a loud bang brought the earth pony pirate to attention. He opened his eyes slowly as he was still very groggy. Stumbling to his feet he finally noticed the strangeness around him.
Looking around he found the lights and strobes at his feet. Lifting his head upward revealed the chair of the cockpit of the airship and the other seats on the ceiling. This meant only one thing, the Titan Airship was upside down.
This made no sense as the balance system, while not able to stop leaning and tipping, would have prevented a complete flip of the airship. This meant either most systems had been shut down or severely damaged.
Fredricson huffed in annoyance, hoping it wasn't the ladder, and rolled around until he could stand. Quickly, he found Lady Cat laying beside him waking up just as slowly. He gave her a hand and helped her up. "Here, stand with me."
"I'm fine," she grumbled back. "Just great, I take one nap and you break the ship."
"Hey, this is my airship and I doubt it's broken." He barked back at her. "If anything, this is a prank by Starswirl."
"With the rest of the crew still searching for Twilight? Highly unlikely!" She tripped but caught herself on a wall.
"Just fly, you batpony!" Fredricson moved aside. "We need to reach the engine room." He held his hand up for her to grab.
Annoyed, Lady Cat lifted Fredricson to the controls. The two reached it and the pirate looped his arm around a hole in the chair. Pressing a few buttons he noticed that the airship's defense system had been turned off. "Odd, why would somepony do that?"
"Don't know," Lady Cat flapped her wings over to the window. "At least we can see outside now--" She stopped and slapped the captain on the back of the head.
"What was that for?!"
"Proving myself right!" She grabbed him and yanked him to the window. They both grimaced at the sight of the ground. "We crashed!"
"How did we crash?!" The earth pony questioned.
"How am I supposed to know?!" Lady Cat screamed back at him. "We were both unconscious."
"Well, there has to be a reason." He checked the system logs. "The engines are dead! Though, there was clearly a shutdown before the crashing."
"That means someone else was in here, making sure we had a soft landing." Lady Cat made her way to the door. "Can you fix it?"
"Give me some time, sure..." Fredricson's face twisted into a scowl. "But that isn't our biggest problem." He pulled up scans from outside. It showed the weather to be twenty below zero. "With the engine dead soon the heating will fail."
"Then we'll freeze to death," Lady Cat dreaded.
"Not if I can help it," the captain declared as he grabbed out some wrenches and headed to the engine room. "Either way, check on the children."
"Why do I have to?"
"Because they are you too much!" Fredricson yelled back as he rushed down the hallway. "Now go!"
Lady Cat stomped off in the other direction. She didn't know what was more concerning, the position they were in, or the safety of the children. In fact, her mind was quite blurry on the whole thing. The batpony couldn't remember much before waking up.
Soon enough she found the children's room, they were huddled together, shaking but still asleep. She felt a strange chill of fear upon seeing them and her ear inched uncontrollably. She entered the room quietly and wrapped the two in thick blankets. Tightening it until they were barely visible underneath.
After which she sat beside them and hummed over them. She brushed their manes lightly and shushed their fears. As she sang she felt a strange warmth wash over her. The children started to match her hums in their sleeping daze and filled her with more vigor and strength.
At the same time, Fredricson reached the engine room. He became perplexed by the strange fact that despite the scans telling him the engine was dead, he found the opposite. The power of the Titan airship was indeed still going but rather slow.
He smiled at this as this was a much easier fix. Though he wondered why the system checking was so wrong. Could power be drawing elsewhere? The source in question could be severely drained, hence why it gave the appearance of being dead. "No, that wouldn't make any sense. This airship is meant to only drive power from this engine." He shook his head. "Still, I'll look into it later."
He opened the side panel and began to work on the engine itself. After a bit of tinkering, he was able to get the machine running smoothly again. He sighed in relief. "Thank goodness." Yet, as always, he never noticed the brown spider watching them.
******
Hours passed by like seconds as King Grover's armies charged to the Giant Blue Hourglass. He had a simple goal before nightfall and that was to tame this land. He gave no care at all to the giant centaur rising from its ruins. This land that once belonged to his species would be theirs again.
He cheered and crowed like the mighty griffin he was and held up his sword. The Giant Blue Hourglass's walls began to glow in a bright, azure light as if recognizing his light magic blue. "We shall bring it all back under our command. Maybe then the umbrums, our dark halves can return! Maybe when every single pegasus lay dead under my foot..." His teeth gritted and his jaw shook. "Father, your will be done!!"
The ground below quaked with the sound of his voice. And yet, his forces refused to yield. They marched forward until their blades were touching the very walls of the Giant Blue Hourglass itself. They all crowded with their king and struck the wall, making the glass scream with scrap metals.
"I'll make them pay for this!" Grover roared, aiming for the sky as they climbed up the walls. Wings would leave them wide open so they tucked in their defenses and charged ahead. They knew that Carnival Carnage's allies had ensured the forces of Pegasus Isle would be crippled but they didn't want to give them an ounce of an advantage.
They continued until they were at the boundary between the top of the Giant Blue Hourglass and the bottom. They moved over the Crooked Wing without a care and pushed into the pegasi border.
The two ifrits just stood there as the forces passed by them. Sage and Vanity barely watched each griffin arriving and fighting through the pegasus. They were both focused on their own survival. The two knew why they were there and thus had no fear left at all.
Carnival Carnage rolled up on his unicycle and laughed at their faces. Their broken will reminded him of his victims. He moved closer and stroked their faces. "I see, both of you have accepted fate!" They two only nodded at him and kept watching the world of hellish war around them.
"So these are the two witnesses." Grover's golden armor shined out from the blood and fighting around his soldiers. "Will they be useful to us?"
"No, they are here to simply watch..." Carnival Carnage leaned over and licked Sage's face. The ifrit didn't even flinch even as the earth pony flipped over and did the same to Vanity. "Leave them where they stand!" He rolled over to the shattered remains of the vase that once held Annity. "The dead and the pegasi are your only targets."
"Good..." Grover's eyes turned away from them and even the giant centaur. They all meant nothing to him. He instead turned to his soldiers and cheered them on louder. "Diomedes will lead the charge!! Agamemnon will flank the guard towers! Meneleus claim every city in the north. Teucer will claim every city in the south. Ajax will stay back and claim every city in the east. Nestor, secure and protect Carnival Carnage for gracing us with this victory. As for me!" The king gave his final proclamation. "I shall kill every descendant of Crucian Gale!!"
The armies separated into several large forces. Ajax's forces stayed back as commanded and pushed her forces around the walls. She did not want to take any chances of losing her spot. She wasn't the best general, but she served her king faithfully like the rest. Yet she had no idea what awaited them.
As the forces grew too far apart, a bright yellow light shined out from behind them. It was the same light from before, but this time instead of ignoring them as they rose to the edge of their victory, it chose to charge in at full force. Ajax jumped in front of her armies and stood proud as the light beam crashed right into her.
Blood splattered out of her mouth as the hand of a pegasus tore off her arm so easily. Ajax screamed in agony at the sight of the unknown pegasus crushing the bones and shredding the flesh before throwing it at her feet. "What the fuck are you--" She was stopped as the light faded to reveal Private Pansy. "Impossible..." It was true, though her body was very different from the reports.
Standing in front of Ajax matched some of the details of Private Pansy. But the mane was longer, the muscles were so refined and her glare was like a mad monster akin to the wendigoes of legends. Her armor wasn't like the raggedness of the original reports, still similar but polished to shine as if crafted by a master smith.
Ajax couldn't get words out of her mouth quick enough as the soldier stepped closer to enemy. "You can't be the lapdog..." She coughed up more blood. "You can't be that Gale's stupid fat bitch--" She was stopped as Private Pansy ripped off her other arm.
"That is Commander Hurricane!!" Private Pansy roared out loud and grabbed Ajax's head, squeezing it tightly. She giggled and shivered with joy as the griffin screamed back, only to be stopped as her weeps were cut short by the girffin's head shattering under her strength.
"That was gruesome..." Lord Red's voice echoed in Private Pansy's brain.
"It's not enough..." Tears dripped from her eyes. "I want more blood..." Her hands shook the blood off as fast as possible. "I... I... wanted them all to suffer... Suffer!!" She pulled out her massive wings and rushed through Ajax's forces and onto the next army. Her rage left a river of blood and agony in her wake.
Beyond her sight, two creatures watch on in horror. Not the ifrits, who had long given into the madness. Instead, Hermes Mercury and Red Steel climbed up at the edge of the Giant Blue Hourglass. They didn't know how to react to the sight of her rage. They only knew one thing, she wanted the blood of griffins. And poor Hermes might just be next in the line of fire.
******
Deep in the rubble of the collapsing peaks, Starlight woke up with a shock and thud. Her head throbbed loudly and her limbs shook violently in all directions, trying to get a grasp on reality. The previous scene was still flashing firmly in her head.
The ground shook, the Giant Blue Hourglass being ripped apart by an unknown force. Her eyes widened at the sight of Clovis standing over her. A massive shard of permafrost tore through his chest. She was knocked away as everything went black.
Realizing what happened, she rushed out from under the table. Unsure what to do she screamed out for him. "Clovis! You fucking coward!!" She hit the walls and screamed louder. "Don't you dare die saving me!!" She shoved her body into the wall, punched, and even kicked it, yet it wouldn't budge.
"That won't help..." Silver Pear tried to stand.
She screamed again, punching until her fist tore and bled. "You asshole!!" Lifting up her hand she forced out what magic she could but only fizzle echoed out. "No, no, no, no!!"
"Please, Starlight stop!" Silver Pear coughed and wheezed.
"I will not!!" She forced her magic out only for it to bounce off the walls and tear through her leg. Blood flowed down her skin before her body collapsed back onto the floor. The unicorn winced and shivered at her rage backfiring.
Silver Pear tried to move toward her, but his legs were barely holding him up. He had taken the full brunt of the rubble to protect her. Yet she was more concerned about the corpse that threw her into his safety. "Please, Starlight. We need to find a way out of here." He looked around the room before looking back. She refused to face him, so he repeated much louder. "Starlight!!"
"I don't know!!" She screamed at him. "But we have to save him--"
"Clovis is dead." Silver Pear didn't scream or yell. He stated the bluntness of reality that finally broke her.
Starlight's eyes filled with tears, yet it took a solid minute before she answered him. "Why?"
"What?"
"Why would he save me?" Starlight's voice hitched. "He didn't respect me! He clearly hated having me around!!" Her voice screeched with a dry throat. "Why would he make such a heartless move? Why save me?!"
"I... I don't know." Silver Pear forced his legs to move. Much to the obvious, he got about a few steps before crashing down near Starlight. "I don't know at all why he would do such a thing."
"Would you ever be so selfish?" Her eyes tilted toward him.
"I don't think he was being selfish." Silver Pear turned away. "I think he just reacted. To save his Lord's ward."
Starlight stopped and thought about it for a moment. "He... did it for Lord Red."
"Possibly. He adored him, after all." Silver Pear didn't know how to word it, so he used a comparison. "It's like Clover and Rex."
"I don't think Clovis was in love with Lord Red." Starlight laughed at the thought.
"No, but he would do anything for Lord Red, just as Clover would do anything for Rex." Silver Pear laughed back, realizing how that sounded. "Yeah, I guess the family of CC siblings is pretty selfish, after all."
"I guess, you're right." Starlight's tears finally stopped. She didn't know what to do next. After witnessing one friend die, knowing more friends were in danger, she was at least happy to know that Silver Pear was right beside her in this. The unicorn would need all the help she could get in order to get out of this problem.
******
Once finished with their work, the two pilots managed to pry the Titan airship's door open. Fredricson and Lady Cat stepped outside of the Titan airship, only to be caught off guard by the intense chill. The wind howled cold and freezing rain at them, knocking them to the ground.
"I'm freezing!" Lady Cat shouted as she covered her mouth with a sleeve. "The wind is too strong! I can't even see where we're going!"
"We need to clean out the outer walls..." Fredricson shouted back over the gale. "Or else the airship will never get back into the sky."
"Okay, lead the way!" Lady answered. "The quicker we get done, the faster we get back inside for warmth."
Fredricson looked over the sides to measure the damage. "The wings are frozen solid and buried under all this snow and ice. We'll have to dig for quite a while." He gave her a shovel.
"Great... Where did we even crash?!" Lady Cat replied, looking up at the swirling storm. She could barely make out the outlines of the buildings around them through the thickness. "This is insane..."
"No idea..." He gritted his teeth and moved some snow out of the way. "What did the scans say?"
"Nothing but static! That's why I'm asking you!" Lady Cat growled back. She grabbed a scoop of snow and threw it in the direction they came from, making her point clear.
"I don't know where we are?!" He yelled back.
"Oh, I know where we are..." A new voice echoed behind them. The two froze colder than the icy air at the unfamiliar. The horrible smell finally reached them, making them twist and gag as they faced the source of the voice.
Both of them back away to a massive shadow with the fog of icy cold rain. A pair of eyes shone through the thick fog above the two as it made its move. It slowly rose up from the stormy clouds until it was hovering over the two pilots. Slithering out in sight with thousands of tentacles was the twisted and shredded remains of a rotting corpse, holding tightly to a weakened Starswirl the Bearded.
"Sir?!" Fredricson called out to the old wizard, but he was too beaten and broken to respond to him at first.
Instead, Starswirl's eyes traced over his rotting capture. His attempts to fire chaos magic at it did little to hinder it as it slimed closer to the two pilots. He knew enough about the legends of this beast, and knowing what he wanted, he turned his magic to his pilots. His pulse of powers did little to scare them back.
The two wanted to free him, not knowing what the tentacle monstrosity wanted. They held up their shovels as weapons and ready themselves to save the old wizard. Neither knew the greater danger lay in fighting this tentacle lich of a wraith. The monster pulled itself over the edge of the Titan airship and moved quickly over the two. With its numerous tentacles, it wrapped around both of them and squeezed tight.
"Get us out of here!" Starswirl shouted at them as he kicked the slime-covered creature.
The two put on brave faces, willing to do anything to save their friend. The pilots wrestled with the beast, trying to free themselves from its grasp. But the tentacles would not relent, squeezing tighter and tighter.
"So..." The monster's voice echoed from within the corpse barely hanging together jaw. "Since the wizard gave me such a fight..." The head swung close to each one of them. "Which one of you will make a fine host?!"
Fredricson stabbed his shove into several tentacles allowing them to breathe. Lady Cat threw her whip out and sliced the tentacles around Starswirl. Both quickly saw the pointless of fighting as each wound regenerated as fast as it happened. "Sir?! Fight him!!" The captain urged his ally.
Starswirl's head fell in defeat. "I can't even lift my arms. I am powerless against this thing..." His chaos magic faded away and he grimaced at his helplessness to save them despite their own desires to save him. "You don't understand... It is pointless to fight him... this is Thule, the progenitor... of all monsters..."
The entire Giant Blue Hourglass shook violently with each step taken by the beastly giant towering over everything. The mighty corpse of the former king of all centaurs raged with wrath and violence. Its eyes were blank to the world, completely under the command of Aitym. With little effort, it tore apart the walls of the hourglass, sending them shattering to the ground, creating landslides and hurricane winds to fly out in all directions.
Deep within its massive mane, Rex slowly awoke. He scratched his head and straightened his chains. He got up, trying his best to stand upon the unstable flesh of the giant monster. His body winced in pain from all the backlashed dark magic. He was never a master of its power and it proved pointless in the end as he failed to stop the beast's resurrection.
"Damn it... Aitym!" Rex turned his attention to the giant face of the monster. "You used us from the very beginning." He growled at his body and failures. "You let us rescue Twilight and Cold Blue, knowing it would give you a view of our minds and past." He flinched over at the icy storm forming around the beast, slowing its efforts. "You didn't have enough information from Cold Blue's memories, so you needed mine..." His eyes narrowed at the two shadows clashing in the snowstorm. "Looks like I'm alone in this."
Rex gripped his chains tightly and threw them off his body. Dozens upon hundreds of chains flowed. His eyes glowed and his shadows expanded outward over the body of the giant, as far as he could push it. Out of every foot, more chains flowed out. "Shadow Spell 72, Chain Coffin!!" Slaming his hands down, his entire arsenal of chains wrapped around the giant centaur.
Despite the massive number, it was barely enough to cover the face of the creature, dropping to the ground. Rex gritted his teeth and pulled back, hoping to suffocate it. But that proved fruitless too as it continued its advance, unhindered by him at all.
"This is pointless... That head is simply a piece of flesh." Aitym's voice echoed under him. Looking down to the flesh revealed the face of Rainbow Dartz peaking out like an eyeball. The previous host of Aitym was still entirely under his command.
"So you succeeded..."
"Oh, the irony. The Centaur King invaded this land for the sole purpose of claiming this zombie spell from the ruins of the umbrum capital. Fighting so hard that he was sealed away by the very umbrum standing before me now. And to top things off, I'm using that very spell to take command of him."
Rex tried to step on it, only for it to move away, sliding through the flesh like it was liquid. "Damn you, let them go!!"
"Which one?"
"Both the pegasus and this monster!!" Rex screamed back.
"Oh, you don't know the truth yet..." Aitym laughed at his efforts.
"What are you talking about?!" Rex sent chains after the head only for it to sink back into the flesh of the giant centaur.
"You will learn how cruel reality is soon enough!!" Aitym's voice faded deeper into the flesh. "For now, accept fate and die!!" With that, the flesh rose up around Rex's feet. The chains wrapped around the giant's throat and began to glow with light as they tightened their grip.
"I won't do that!" Rex shouted back. Yet his efforts continued to be pointless as the flesh moved like lava over his legs and his hips. "I won't give up!!" He pushed his magic beyond its limit, and the flesh reached around his chest. With that, his chains faded away, back into his shrinking shadows. "No!! Amulet!!" He called out to it, but it gave no answer, leaving his eyes wide. The flesh wrapped around the dark alicorn amulet and reached his neck.
"What now?" Rex muttered as his resolve shook. "All my spells mean nothing..." He dropped his head in shame. "I couldn't defeat this thing before... Not alone..." The flesh reached over his face. "I need... help!!" His voice echoed outward in all directions as the last of him sank within the beast's flesh.
******
The roaring reached the cliffs of Pegasus Isles, where the remains of a pink orb airship crashed down. It ripped apart on contact with the cliff edges. Luna and Celestia were sent flying out of it. They barely had enough time to pull out their wings as the fires of the explosion hit them, tossing the two alicorns into buildings on the left and right.
"Celestia!" Luna's eyes widened as the roaring hit her ears. She tried to stand up but was so off balance by the crashing. "I... I think I heard Rex..." Flying out of her building, she fell to the ground just as hard. "Celestia!!" She called out to her sister. "Answer me!"
"I'm... fine..." Celestia tried to lie as the blood poured out of her mouth.
"No, no, you aren't!" Luna rushed over at the sight of the piece of permafrost stabbing through Celestia's hip.
"It's fine!" Celestia tried to laugh. Summoning magic to cut her free, she winced as the saw shape cut through the back and front ends of the permafrost. Luna was barely able to catch her and land her slowly.
"I'm supposed to be the reckless sister here!" Luna moved to remove the permafrost.
Her sister stopped her and sat up. "No, you need to leave me behind." Celestia sneered at the pain. "I'll be fine, you have a mission to complete."
"I'm not leaving you behind!" Luna traced her fingers through the clouds around them. They turned black and flowed around Celestia, lifting her into the air. "We are sisters, even in this madness, that can't be forgotten."
Celestia looked at her. "You're serious?"
Luna nodded before dropping her eyes. "I know what the mission is, but I can't do it without my sister beside me."
"Luna..." Celestia smiled and nodded back in agreement. "Thank you, Let's find Rex together."
"Good." Luna led her to the source of the roaring.
From the shadows, Gale watched the scene playing out. Seeing the two sisters moving together only made things harder for her. Here she was planning to murder her own brother and free him from the enslavement of Aitym. She had already lost one brother, and now she was considering killing another.
Hearing their strong connection broke the proud Commander Hurricane, making her fall into her spot. She looked at her hands, covered in her brother's blood and flesh. Rubbing it away proved fruitless as the images couldn't fade. Grunting and growling at herself, she slapped her legs. "I can't freeze up now..." Throwing her head against the wall hard she screamed.
She breathed harder and harder. Slapping herself in the face twice over and jumping back up. "I must... I must kill him!!" Gale fixed her armor and smirked at her helmet. "I'm fucking Commander Hurricane!" She threw her hand up only to remember she lost track of her legendary crooked spear. "And..." Her eyes widened at the shame. "I don't even know how to stop him?"
"Commander?"
Gale spun around to see a soldier crumbling toward her. She rushed over to catch him, only to see he was among several, calling out to her. Seeing all of them reaching out to her, asking for her command. "I... I am your commander."
"Commander Hurricane!" they shouted at her with a mix of joy and shame. "Commander Hurricane!!"
"I... I am your commander!!" Her eyes narrowed and her stance straightened. She held up her hand with no spear and shook it as if her weapon never left her hand. "I am Commander Hurricane!!" She turned toward the sight of the giant centaur moving toward them. "And I must kill my brother!" Pulling out her wings she took off to the sky.
Never once did she realize the soldiers not following her. She hadn't considered, no, she would rather deny the reality of those soldiers as they faded away. They were never there to begin with, just the ghosts her ever-growing guilt, stabbing deep into her soul.
The lone soldier with nothing but ghosts at her back, kicking her wings harder through the icy winds. She gritted and roared with fury and rage. "I will end this!! I will make sure this Aitym pays in a thousand tons of blood!!" Gale closed her eyes and flew faster than she ever did before
******
Deep within the giant centaur's mighty grasp, darkness faded away to the bright light of Twilight's horn. Sparking a soft spell above them, she sat down next to Clover. The unicorn was shivering in fear as both could hear Rex's roaring fading outside. The alicorn raised her wing around her. "I'm certain he hasn't given up yet." She waved her head back and forth.
"How can we win now?" Clover dropped her head in shame. "We're trapped in here."
The alicorn turned her face away. "I don't know. Ixion is a beast beyond all of us in power and might..." Twilight pulled in her legs too. "On top of that, he's under the control of Aitym, an alicorn greater than any other." She stared at the bright light she cast, knowing it wouldn't last forever. "If Rex can't defeat him... If Cold Blue can't either..."
"This war shouldn't have happened," Clover answered her so bluntly. "We should have never been in this war to begin with."
"War..." Twilight spoke the word slower. "War... War?!" She shouted the last word.
"What?!" Clover jumped at Twilight rushing toward the light. "What's wrong?"
"This isn't the only war that this centaur has been a part of right?!" Twilight screamed at her. The unicorn couldn't figure out what she meant so the alicorn rushed over and shook her. "Ixion wasn't just involved in this war!!"
"Yeah, and?" Clover raised an eyebrow. "He's a corpse, we already knew that."
"Yes and who killed him last time?" Twilight demanded.
"I... I don't know, that part of history is a total mystery." Clover rubbed her head. "Frankly, I only know Rex was involved because I saw it in his memories."
"And I saw the same in Cold Blue's memories." She pointed to the hand. "Aitym was able to use both those memories to see where Ixion was imprisoned, so he also must know who killed him."
"Asking him is pointless!" Clover threw up her hands.
"We don't need to!" Twilight laughed out loud. "We can just use the same trick he did!"
"What do you mean?" Clover was even more confused as Twilight sat down in front of her and took both of her hands into her hands.
"Both our minds have been inside Rex and Cold's memories." Twilight stopped and smiled. "You... You are greatly connected to Rex. Just as I'm..." She waved her head back and forth. "I've been training with Cold Blue for over one thousand years in the mindscape."
"What?!--" Clover was stopped as Twilight covered her mouth.
"We are the closest connection they've had in a long time, right?" Twilight gripped her left hand tightly around Clover's right hand. "You and Rex." Grasping just as tightly with the other hands she finished. "Me and Cold Blue."
"Twilight... What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, in order to defeat Aitym and Ixion, we need to know how Rex and Cold Blue survived it last time." Twilight wrapped her wings around Clover's shoulders. "So... Clover. Would you join me in the mindscape?"
Both closed their eyes as a mind egg of magic swarmed around them. The two slowly floated into the center of the mindscape embrace. The air of the world around them flashed from black to white in color. The flesh below and around them was replaced by the emptiness of the void.
"Hollow Prince?" Twilight spoke out. "Please help us once more in finding something hidden within our memories and hearts."
"Right?" Clover agreed. "Show us the past of those idiot stallions in our lives."
It took a few moments but soon he answered them. "Bold proclamation. You dare return to me now!" His rage was so intense that both of them opened their eyes.
Just as before, images flashed around them. Their forms changed rapidly with each image. Clover saw the image of a younger Twilight with no wings at all, growing into the adult in front of her. The alicorn's form changed in the unicorn's eyes so fast that she could barely process the next few, being Twilight with paler fur, then the Pale Mare, in all her madness, and finally a being of pure ice and rage.
Twilight called out to Clover, making her flinch and twist. "Don't break the connection. He is showing us possible futures. It's a side effect of his power."
"Then what do you see?!" Clover called out to her.
"I... I'm not sure." Twilight visions of Clover were more fuzzy. She saw a younger Clover grow up into the one before her but there was something else that made no sense. There were the flashing images of chains around Clover's body, particularly around her neck and hips. At first, she thought they were a visage of Rex's chains, but everything told her that wasn't right at all. They look so very familiar to her, but nothing like Rex's chains at all.
On top of that, both were hearing a strangely familiar laughter. It wasn't the venomous laughter of Elisus, but rather a rageful malice whose source was a complete unknown. It traveled over their ears and faces, below their chins, and craving against their throats. It squeezed with more wrath and hatred than any other feeling ever could.
"Patience, you two will be reaching the shared memory very soon." Hollow Prince's voice was filled with annoyance and frustration as he formed a memory bubble around their minds. "While you are there, another will be watching. Someone of whom you have yet to free from his command."
"The pegasus, Rainbow Dartz!" Clover questioned.
"No, another unicorn named Mira!"
Twilight's eyes widened. "Princess Platinum!"
******
On the other side of the mindscape, her eyes popped open at the sounds around her. The princess didn't move at all, instead, she tried to force herself back to sleep. But her eyelids were so light that they wouldn't stay closed. It felt like she had been sleeping for eons. Even so, she would rather be asleep than awake in this place.
The sounds got louder as if they were digging into her ears. She could hear voices arguing, wailing, screaming, and moaning about around her. Her ears were ringing from all the noises, but she couldn't understand a single word of it. The princess couldn't even make sense of what language they were speaking in.
Unable to void them away with sleep, she stared upward, hoping to distract herself. White, purple, blue, and pink lights flickered in the dark space above her. She looked around the place in confusion, as there were no walls around her or even a ceiling. Her body could feel a floor or moving mass, but her mind doubted there was anything at all below her either. Plus, a sneaking fear was forcing her not to confirm these doubts.
The princess shut her eyes in a last attempt to go back to sleep, but the noises had grown to be unbearable. The longer it went on, the easier particular sounds became. The ones that shook her the most were emotions pf children crying and parents arguing.
These parental voices brought tears forth in her eyes as she was made powerless. They weren't voices she knew, but each word of an unknown language they spoke made her shiver and twist around. Never would she face them, instead being forced to listen to every syllable. She shut her eyes as tight as she could, only hearing their yelling voices through the walls of her eyelids. Her hands covered her ears only for the voices to scream louder than before with even more aggression as if sensing her defiance.
The princess opened her mouth and finally screamed back, but was only able to produce a whisper. "Stop..." It was the only thing her mouth could muster. She forced her voice harder, and less sound came out as if she couldn't speak at all. "Please... stop..."
The princess felt the soft breeze brush over her body, feeling her nose with a sweet smell of exotic food from an eastern land. "Father..." She knew his cooking anywhere. But there was no answer, the voices just kept going. "Father, I know you are there! Father!" Still no reply, only more noise. However, the more she said, the more her voice returned. Taking in a deep breath she screamed as loud as she could. "Father!"
The screaming sounds stopped abruptly. The moving mass under her stopped at the exact moment. The darkness beyond her was replaced by a softer light. Her eyes opened slowly and revealed herself in another place altogether. Feeling a great sense of safety she lifted her head up and looked around.
She could recognize the white marble floor, the rows upon rows of tables, covered in her favorite foreign foods. The tapestry on the wall had writing she knew all too well. It was her father's handwriting and it said, "Happy Birthday!!" Her eyes stopped on her father smiling at her. "Happy birthday my darling girl,"
Her hand reached out only to stop at her crystal hands in place of her previous limbs. She pulled back and touched the hands out of curiosity. They were as cold and hard as the marble floor. "Father?"
"Daddy!!" A small filly ran past her and into his arms. The princess's fear returned in full force to see that it was her younger self. "No!" Her teeth gritted. "That's just cruel..." She dropped to her knees at the sight of the proof. From the smaller horn to the hidden wings, yet to be removed, long after his death. "Father, no..."
"Your mother sent you a gift." He placed the filly down and pulled out a tiny box. Her younger self opened it without any hesitation, revealing a red broch. Her eyes widened at it as she lost it years ago. She was still looking at it when her father vanished.
The whole scene around her changed. Her younger self had looked up to his statue, tears dripping down her face. The princess approached her younger self from behind and placed her hand on her shoulder. Her eyes winced at the scars from the wings being removed. "No!" She snapped at her past self. "Stop it! Stop looking at the statue! It won't bring him back!" Jumping in front of her, she dug her fingers into those scars. "Removing them won't bring him back!!" Her voice shivered and ached. "It will just take more from you."
Her younger self didn't even acknowledge her, keeping her eyes on the statue. She pulled back at the smell of the rotting flesh approaching from behind the young filly. "Look away..." The princess pleaded with the filly. "Hurry and run away from... Thule." But the young filly kept staring forward, ignoring the warnings as the smell got stronger.
A sense of quick safety came as an axe stood between her and the corpse. Her eyes fell upon the image of her naga guard as the scene slowly morphed again. His visage filled her with warmth and joy. That is until the area was replaced by a mountainside. This scene shook her away to see her younger self now an adult, watching in horror as a beam of light tore through his chest.
The naga fell in slow motion, his eyes turning to hers. She felt his blood spurt into her face. "No..." She pleaded for her past self not to look at the scene. Before this scene felt like eons ago, but now it felt like she had been reliving this single moment over and over for eternity. "Please, stop..." She could no longer move. Her feet were rooted to the spot by a force she could no longer comprehend.
The images faded and the feeling of motion under her returned in full force, along with the screaming voices. As everything cleared away she finally saw the source of this rage, agony, and torment. Thousands upon millions of souls flow by like a river. Their faces looked back at her, each face full of pure hatred. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." She repeated to them all. Though most of the faces she couldn't recognize, there were plenty, unicorns, that stuck deep in her eyes. Those were the faces of her soldiers. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you." All because of her stupidity and foolishness. Her ears burned in her skull as the voices screamed at her. "I'm so sorry... please forgive me..."
"Don't be sorry..." A new voice answered. "The fault is ours."
Her eyes moved up from her knees and found the owner of the voice. Standing in front of her was another mare. The image of her face burned deep into her mind. "Mother."
"I see your mind has healed much from when we last met. Yet it still has much to go before you can truly be whole again." The queen nodded with a smile, her wings folding out to her. "Please sleep again..."
"No!!" The princess didn't know what made her make a bold statement. She had been wanting to go back to sleep this whole time, but now after seeing those images. Her legs kicked her body upward into a stance, aiming her rage at her mother. "I'm not going to sleep, not ever again!" She screamed as loud as she could. "You've been the one wanting me to sleep!?"
"Yes, I have wanted you to sleep." The queen spoke in a soothing tone. "Your soul has been trapped in an endless cycle of nightmares since they died."
The princess felt the fire inside her increase. "No, they didn't just die! I killed them!!"
"No!" her mother argued back. "You didn't kill them." Images around her showed that of a wendigo and alicorn. "They did with their selfish and hateful nature."
"Liar!!" The princess popped back. "I killed them, by forcing them to follow me into battle." Her body trembled from the rage she felt. "I couldn't even save one..."
"That's not true..." The queen pulled back her wings. "You can't use your rage on yourself." She raised the images over her daughter. "They took them away from you. Aim your rage for the truth." Her hands dropped onto the shoulders of the mare. "Take these new hands and smite them for what they did."
The princess looked down at her new hands and back at her mother. Her memories were unveiled to reveal that it was the same alicorn that killed her beloved naga guard that took her arms. No, it was someone protecting that alicorn, just like her naga was protecting her. The image appeared behind her mother and stood far taller than her or the images she used to bring out her rage.
"Hollow Prince..." The mare didn't know why she said such a thing. However, everything told her to turn away from her mother and the image behind her. Her legs moved ahead of her thoughts, ignoring her mother's call, and she ran away from it all.
"Once again, you run..." Hollow Prince replied from outside of the memory bubble that Aitym had trapped the princess inside. "When will you realize that running is pointless in this place? If you wish to leave, you must face the real evil in your past. Seek the anomaly, destroy it and the one responsible for it all."
The rain beat down hard on the street lamps, distorting their torchlight. It was the only sign she had that time had passed. The rain had started at noon and was so thick that time couldn't be read from the sky. The flicking of the torches showed that she had been out for several hours now. The clouds were so dense that she couldn't even tell if the sun was up anymore.
There were no passing carts or pedestrians, just the pounding of the storm against her umbrella and the sound of her own breathing. She felt like a drowned rat looking around for the nearest pipe to die in. Her fingers were numb from the cold and wetness, making it all the harder to hold onto her umbrella.
She continued to walk, unable to find her way home. She didn't know where she was. Only knowing she'd left the park by this point but hadn't made it to the house yet. Was this her way home? Was she going in the wrong direction? Nopony came to pick her up so she wasn't certain in all this rain. Maybe she missed them while walking by? Maybe they arrived to early for her to find them? Or worse, they never showed up at all?
She stopped when the thought struck her. "They are gone," her voice echoed aloud. "No, they were probably worried sick about me?" she argued with the thought. "What happened to them? They always show up on time! Where did they go? Did anyone notice me?" She scolded herself again.
Her thoughts wandered in circles, getting nowhere fast until she realized how stupid she was being. "If they can't come get me then I'll have to figure out my own way home!" She tried to smile, only remembering that she had this same argument with herself not but hours ago.
Nothing changed, she couldn't find them or her home. She continued to walk aimlessly through the rain, trying to find something familiar so she wouldn't get too lost. A building, maybe a signpost, or perhaps a massive arrow pointing her in the right direction? The sheer absurdity was a funny thought. No one would ever see such an absurd thing, especially in a situation like this.
"I really wish I knew where I am," she grumbled to herself. Doubt began to seep into her head again. She didn't want to repeat the same argument again so she picked up her speed. It wasn't much but it was something.
She could hear her heart beating within her chest, almost drowning out the rain's drumming. Every few steps her body tensed up as if anticipating a sudden finding of danger. She looked behind her, scanning the darkening streets for any threat. There was nothing there though. Just her and the rain. Maybe it was her sense of hope, longing her to push harder and further.
Her feet stepped on the road more sharply than before, becoming heavier with every step. Each footstep was louder and closer, the clacking of her shoes echoed in her ears. She had to keep moving, the pounding around her was deafening. The thought of stopping was terrifying, every moment passing with her standing still was a waste.
She kept running, hoping to make it home soon. The rain pounded harder, the thunder booming louder. The lightning illuminated the sky for brief moments, revealing the world to her in a new way. It showed an empty road devoid of all life, breaking her resolve. She faltered, her legs wanted to give out.
"Hang in there!" she told herself as she started to trot. "You're doing great!" she urged herself. "Just keep going! I'll find home?!" She smiled despite the rain. Her thoughts were filled with images of home and warmth. She imagined a nice cup of hot cocoa and a warm bed to sleep in. The sight of her parents, Mommy reaching down to grab her--
The moment was stopped as she slipped and crashed face-first into the road. Her vision blurred, everything was spinning. She blinked and looked around, seeing nothing but black. In the distance, she saw a flash of red in the darkness. She rolled over onto her side and tried to stand.
Her body refused to cooperate. It took all her effort just to make it to her hands and knees. She couldn't move any further than that so she flipped over and lit her horn up. Her knees twitched with pain, scrapped, edge to edge. Reaching over her head, she found it bleeding profusely. "Ow!" she screamed. "Oh, please no!"
She barely noticed the rain anymore, only focusing on the blood dripping from her head. She reached up and touched it. "Why did I have to be such a dumbass?" she whimpered to herself. "Now look what you've done!" She shook her head, tears falling down her cheek. "This is all your fault!" She screamed at her reflection in the puddle.
Her bloodied hands dragged her off the road as she crawled towards her reflection. Her mind was clouded by fear and confusion. It looked as if there was another figure in the reflection. Though it was covered in shadows, something told her to say, "Mommy!" She cried out, unsure if her mind was playing tricks or her doubt had finally reached a peak. "Why did you leave, mom?!"
The figure in the puddle tried to reach out for her but her reflection stopped her advance. She wanted to question why, but the reflection refused to answer. Wanting desperately to touch her reflection, to see her mother's face, she reached out. But they wouldn't answer her. Not wanting to stay away any longer, she leaped forward.
The sound of venomous laughter followed by the crack of her skull echoed in the dark. She turned over and everything became woozy. She could feel her blood pouring down the street, tattered clothes flapping in the wind. The rain fell upon her, soaking her like a sponge.
However, in this darkness something changed. It was getting colder, but not like the icy embrace of death. No, this was much softer and kinder. It was the feeling of a gentle hug from somepony. She felt warmth in her chest as tears flowed down her cheeks. She let out a sob as she curled up against her mother's heart.
In truth as the sight of the moon cut through the clouds of blackness, it revealed what was caressing the little one in her darkest hour. She was still alone, but not out of sight. There was no pony there to comfortered her. And yet she could feel arms around her. There was nothing there at all, nothing but the light of the moon and red snowflakes falling over her instead of rain.
******
On the otherside of the puddle, within the mindscape, Twilight and Clover backed away from the image of the little filly as it faded away. Both were puzzled by the sight of it. The filly had reached out to them, acting as if it saw them. That would be impossible if they were just seeing a memory right?
"That makes no sense." Twilight rubbed her eyes at the filly's broken face. "I wanted to see Rex's memories, not this!"
"Who does this memory belong to?" Clover tried to reach out, but Twilight stopped her again.
"I don't know..." Twilight kept a straight face even though her mind was racing at a mile a minute for answers. "It could be anything."
"From our memories?" Clover asked.
"I was never abandoned as a child." Twilight fired back so boldly and turned away from the image as it faded completely. "I..." She stopped herself from leaving and turned back to Clover. Her eyes strained at Clover looking down in shame. Grabbing Clover's hands, Twilight pleaded for her to listen. "Before I got trapped in this timelines, long before I came to Ponyville, I was raised by two good parents. My father was a scholar, my mother a cheerleader who fell for his dorky brain."
"And..." Clover pulled away. "What about your past self?"
Twilight cupped Clover's cheek. "I know she has a strong and stubborn father..." Her words made Clover laugh. "And I'm certain you will be a great mother too." That comment killed all doubt. The two turned away from the puddle and left in search of the true memory they were after.
"You're right... For all we know that could have been Mira's memories." Clover held tightly to Twilight's hands. "We need to find her too while in here."
"Yeah." Twilight bit her lip. Unsure if that was the right answer at all, or if she was lying to herself about who the little filly was. A prick of fear echoed at the back of her neck. There was one thing that had no connection to Mira at all and everything to herself. That venomous laughter, just who was that other voice and why could only she and the filly hear it?
Hollow Prince watched them from above, at the top of his realm. His power was still slowly draining, but he did as they asked and provided a path for them, through several memory bubbles. He wondered why he felt a need to help them. They had been forced into his realm by another and he had no reason at all to help them outside of removing the annoyance of Aitym.
Seeing them back though, he began to wonder what to do next. What would happen after they freed his realm from that evil alicorn? Would he go back to his eternal silence? Would he only come out to visit his beloved Blood Diamond? Maybe, he could go back to his lab? That old experiment.
Holding his hand above him, the images of tanks rolled by him. All of them had numbers and bodies in different levels of development. He smirked at the sight of 001's tank open. "That boy is as stubborn as his daddy." He waved his hands and moved the images of the tanks around. Stopping at the sight of the infant standing by the elevator. "No, no, no!"
The infant reacted to the voice and turned toward him. Being able to see into the mindscape much like the filly from before. He lowered his eyes and bowed. "Father... I don't want to sleep no more."
"But, you're not finished yet." Hollow Prince moved his fingers over the torn mouth and eyes. "Let those orifices develop properly and you can leave the tank sooner."
"I want to get out now!" The infant stomped its feet on the ground.
"So defiant." Hollow Prince snapped his finger. The infant fell to the ground and turned limp. Holding out his finger, the infant's body floated into the air and back to his tank. "I'll have to reboot you, again." He rolled his eyes and locked the tank back up and refilled it with liquid. "Such a shame, rebellious, sure. But at least you don't feast on your other siblings like 002 does."
He put his hand on the images and focused his magic through it. The tank began to glow brighter and then slowly went dark. When it finally faded back to normal, the infant was floating in the liquid. Hollow Prince let out a heavy sigh and stared at the tank.
"Such wasted potential." He moved his hands over the tank and continued rotating the images.
"All this just because you wanted children." Another voice echoed behind him.
Hollow Prince's eyes widened, and he flipped back around. His fear softened at the sight of Lord Red, floating upside down. "What are you doing in my domain?"
"I'm not here." Lord Red corrected. "But I am nearby the two, Twilight and Clover... right?" He raised an eyebrow, hoping Hollow Prince would get the hint of the question.
"Let's see." Hollow Prince twirled his fingers. "In a metaphysical sense, they are thousands of miles away, or rather years away."
"And physically?"
Hollow Prince dropped his face into a wrathful frown. "About a hundred feet above you, sir!"
"Good." With that final word, Lord Red vanished.
This left Hollow Prince to enjoy his quiet time again. Or at least, the lord of this realm would, once Twilight and Clover removed all of Aitym's will from his sight. Mira, Princess Platinum, Rainbow Dartz, and finally the swarms of umbrums souls that were now leaking into the realm alongside the massive centaur king. "This is going to be a long while."
******
Back in reality, another griffin captain fell to Pansy's blood soaked hands. Her rage had yet to fade, in fact, it twisted deeper into her heart with each enemy slain. She killed two more griffin soldiers with a backslash of her wings before realizing it. She turned too late to see their corpses fall to her feet. All she could do was twitch at them and turn her attention to the oncoming forces.
The air between her and the rest of the army grew thick with the blood of more bodies as she tore through them. The sounds of crunching bones and splattering guts were becoming familiar to her. This horrible soundtrack of reality only served to make her hatred grow. A fire burned in her chest as she thought of the pain of every life she had taken.
Pansy's muscles pulsed against any weapon that tried to stab her. Every hit sent vibrations through her body and forced her to lash out with her wings. The rush of the air from her strikes shook the griffin's hand, legs, and then heads, raining them down to the ground. Any blade that grazed her body was shattered by her claws or simply torn out of their hands by the muscles of her hands alone.
This dance lasted for minutes but felt like hours, Pansy moving and slaughtering as many griffins as possible. But no matter how many were slain, there seemed to be endless waves of soldiers in front of her. Her smile was against everything she ever thought before. Previously she would coward and wait for Commander Hurricane to save her. Relying on her leader's will and control was once every part of her soul. Now, here she was taking that spot for herself.
All the kills were hers, every ounce of torture was by her hands. They ran and screamed in fear of her might, not another. She stood strong with bones, organs, and blood falling behind her steps. Her wings kept her steady, never failing her as she stood ready for any new foe to come her way.
Agamemnon and Diomedes were the next captains standing against her. They had heard the news among all escaping her sight, that this was the evil they needed to stop. Pansy was once the one mocked by all including the enemy. Before none would waste even their weakest soldiers on slaying her, but now here two full fledge captains stood in her way.
She didn't care if they were here out of respect or fear, just that they too would soon die to her. They didn't waste time with words or doubts, her might was all around her. So charging forward, Agamemnon hit her from above with his axes, and Diomedes aimed from afar with her bow.
The two blows slammed into Pansy's body, knocking her back as the incredible strength tore into her devil-blessed flesh. She let out a shrieking roar, the pain sending vibrations through the enemy's ears. He flipped forward, yanking her arms around to give the arrows from Diomedes a free shot. The pegasus took the arrows through the chest, barely missing her heart.
Instead, she kept her attention on the griffin above her. Doing the unthinkable, she grabbed his throat with her tail and pulled him further back. His eyes widened as his strong grip meant nothing as she tore him out with his axes still in hand. Seeing the pegasus prepare her wings to attack him, Diomedes saved her friend with four more arrows, one through each joint.
The pegasus stumbled down to the ground, landing hard enough to break the arrows in her chest. Sneering at the archer, Pansy beat her wings harder anyway, ignoring the snapping of the wood tearing more into her joints. The force sent her up and at the captain in front of her who lost their guard at such shocking actions. The pegasus dragged Agamemnon through the corpses by the neck and bashed her wings into Diomedes, forcing the very arrows she had shot out through her throat, eyes, chest, and stomach.
The captain stopped cold from the sheer agony of her own arrows being turned against her. Pansy placed her hand of the griffin's chest and listened to the heartbeat slowly fade. Agamemnon tried to scream out to his ally only for Pansy to give him as much pain. She used her tail to pound him into the ground with each sound of the other captain's heart. The sound of its slow beats of dying was only matched by the crunching sounds behind her.
Once both stopped, her wings had ripped back and the wood plucked out, spilling blood out like a fountain. Pansy's head twitched, her body shivered and her limbs ached as it sprayed over her muscles and armor. She had never been this happy since her early years in the academy, but the rage kept her from enjoying every second. Deep in her soul, something kept telling her this was so very wrong. This wasn't the real her at all, yet all she could want more was right here.
"Tell me, Lord Red..." She turned to the sky, hoping for an answer to this confusion. "Where is my Commander Hurricane?! A bloodhound like her... Yeah, she could tell me the truth."
******
On the other side of the battlefield, Celestia and Luna continued to look for Rex. They knew he was alive somewhere; they could sense his presence. However, the only problem was that there was so much panic and debris. Plus, the longer they looked, the harder it would become to hide their presence from the giant thrashing through the place.
"He's around here somewhere," said Luna. "I can feel him." She held her horn upward.
Celestia nodded. "Hopefully we find him soon."
They walked along the pile of rubble, searching for any sign of Rex. There were many places where he could have been trapped. Neither knew where he really was during the start of all this panic. Only that he had to be with the rest of the group. Yet, they hadn't found any of them either.
Celestia and Luna knew for sure that he wasn't inside the giant blizzard building ahead of them. The magical signature inside there was strong, but a very different form from Rex. It was an almost foreign feeling to them.
But as they went on, the only other places he could have been trapped were within the giant monster. "Luna, we might have to consider the worst."
"No!" Luna screamed. "He wouldn't lose to that monster, not again." She turned her horn away from the giant. She didn't want to think about it. But she couldn't just turn her back on the possibility.
She glanced down at her sister. "We'll find him, I know we will."
"Yes," agreed Celestia. However, she rushed over and stopped her sister's advances. "But, if somepony has indeed used that monster as a host, it would make sense to take out the one who brought down the beast last time--"
"I know what happened last time." Luna threw out her arms. "We all know what happened that day!!" She screamed at her sister. "What price was paid and what sins were committed?!"
Celestia remained calm and collected. "You're right Luna. We do know what happened. And that monster tore Rex away from everyone. Rex was better once--"
"No, he always fought for the side of good!" Luna pushed back. "He stood strong even as his species died out. He stayed loyal even as their killer commanded him to slay that beast!!" She knocked her sister to the ground. "And then... and then... He...
"He ran away from you." Lord Red stopped them with but a wave of his hand.
Luna could feel invisible strings pulling her away from Celestia with ease. She struggled to get free, but it was no use. "After everything we've done, after all these years, after everything I helped him through..."
"You lied to him at every turn!" Lord Red yelled at her. "And you still wish to lie to him!" He smiled at her shame. "Tell me, are you really searching for him to help stop this beast!" He stepped closer, clenching his strings tighter around Luna. "Or are you after something so much more... selfish."
Luna turned her head away from him and refused to answer. Instead, she tried to break his impossible strings of reality. It was a pointless effort, but anything was better than facing those questions. She needed to find Rex and now. Channeling all her magic outward, she gave up any care of hiding their presence from the monster.
"Do you really think he'd forgive you?" Lord Red's words stopped her cold. "Not after what you did to her?"
Luna tried to speak, but could only nod. "Please... please let me go!"
"Not yet," Lord Red postered. "I have something else to show both of you." He pointed up to the giant's right arm, covered in crystal. "The truth you seek is right there."
"What do you mean?" Celestia questioned.
"Inside that hand are Clover and the time traveler."
"That's impossible," argued Luna. "How can they be there?"
"They are about to see through the lies you've hidden. At least some of the lies." He turned his hand toward Luna. "Soon they will know what must be done. The only problem now is... do you?"
Luna shook her head. "There's nothing more I need to know! Nothing!" She beat her wings against the strings, but she couldn't escape them. Lifting herself off the ground, she tried to fly toward the hand.
"Don't lie to yourself as well." Lord Red showed no bother. "Frankly, I don't have time for such denial." He forced her to ground. "Right now, I have several soldiers outside the walls of this hourglass trying to contain the pieces. A new soldier on a bloody war path in search of the ones that allowed this beast to be resurrected. And possibly a new student in the line of fire."
"What does you mean by new student?" asked Luna.
"That doesn't matter to you." Lord Red responded by stepping on her wing. Celestia tried to stop him, only for more invisible strings to grab her too. "Luna, you have to listen to me." He walked in front of her and spoke to her with more urgency. "I don't like to be cruel, but time is running out and your admiration for the umbrum is going to doom us all"
"No..." Luna's eyes teared up.
"He moved on, so should you." Lord Red lowered his eyes.
"No!" Luna yelled. "I won't give up on him!! Not again!! He doesn't know the truth..."
Lord Red stomped his foot hard in front of her head. The centipedes on his armor twisted and swirled around, moving downward. "It's time to stop looking for him and start fighting for him!!"
The alicorn's eyes widened as they slipped off his plates and over her flesh. Each step they took burned and twisted her fur. Slowly, they made their way up her arms and over her back. They forced her to stand and face the beast. Her horn pointed upward and sent out a massive amount of magic. The color was her magic at first, but as more pulsed out, the more maroon red it turned.
"Please, master! Don't let him see me like this." Luna pleaded.
"The true you!" Lord Red laughed. "No, Rex won't see that. however, he will see an old enemy once again!!"
Luna tried to argue again, only for a primal scream to force it's way out of her mouth. Red Maroon liquid splattered out of her back as the centipede bit down. The ooze wrapped around her wings, expanding their size outward. Then they moved over her flesh, overtaking her arms and turning them into claws, molding her legs into blades. Her mane flamed upward and turned as purple as the starry night sky. Her eyes were crescent like the moon and her teeth sharpened like daggers.
"No, this wasn't planned..." Celestia tried to argue.
"Oh, yes it was." Lord Red retracted his centipede and slowly backed away. "Accept reality! The only thing that defeated the great centaur king last time was the scythe! And the only dark magic user here with enough power to summon it is Cassandra Eveningstar, or as the time travelers called her, Nightmare Moon!!"
Under the rubble of the Giant Hour Glass, Starlight and Silver Pear slowly got their strength back. Yet they still lacked a way out of this rubble. The unicorn searched the walls of the cave-in, hoping to find out how thick it was. Meanwhile, the earth pony was carving on one side of the walls. Starlight tried to channel out the noise of Silver Pear working hard as she continued to think.
"There has to be some way out of here," Starlight muttered to herself.
Silver Pear paused and looked at her. "Are you sure about that?" He dropped the broken end of the table and stopped stabbing the walls. "We've been at this for hours."
"Well, I'm not giving up," Starlight snapped and tried to summon some magic. Just like before the magic was fizzled out. However, this time those sparks moved toward something. "Hold on..." She tried again, maintaining a longer stream of magic.
"What do you mean?" Silver Pear wiped the sweat off his face.
"Its as if..." She repeated the spell one final time in a completely different direction only for it to flow to the same spot. "Something is calling on it... No, eating it!" Her eyes widened and she grabbed the broken table stand. The unicorn stabbed it in the direction of the flow. The wall cracked, but not by much.
"This is pointless." Silver Pear complained. "The rock is too dense there."
"Yet, that's where the magic is flowing!" Starlight yelled back at him. She reared back the table and sliced at the wall. It gave a bit more. "Now, come on help me."
Silver Pear growled and grabbed another piece of broken metal. Soon both were attacking the same wall. Pound after pound, they beat against the wall. The work was hard, but they needed to get outside and help in any way they could. The pair had no idea how long they kept up this routine. Their hands and legs ached, but the path of her magic kept them going.
"Come on!" Starlight cried out, sweat pouring down her face.
"Just a bit further!" Silver Pear pushed onward with more vigor. "We can do it!"
Starlight reared up and rushed forward, stabbing the wall with the table leg. A loud crack echoed through the cave in walls. The table leg snapped in half and the pair fell to the ground. The ceiling gave a groan and the walls vibrated. Starlight quickly got up and stood by Silver Pear's side. He leaned on her and she on him. The two took deep breaths as the walls continued to shake.
Neither one separated until the shaking stopped. Much to their disappointment, the walls settled down and no opening appeared. Defeat trench at their shaking legs. The unicorn and the stallion stood up straight and stared at the wall in front of them for several seconds before turning to each other.
"Will we ever get out of here?" Silver Pear's eyes widened in defeat.
"We have to!" Starlight urged him. "We have so much more we need to do!" She pulled away from him. "I need to find my teacher and finish my training. You need to find your mother and fix your family's problems." She pointed to herself and then to him repetitively, trying to find more examples, but the only other one that came to mind was, "We need to get out of here..."
Silver Pear jumped forward and caught her as she collapsed to the ground. "Are you alright?" He looked over her with a worried expression.
"I'm just tired." Starlight lied as she pulled away from him. "I... I just want to go home."
Silver Pear frowned, knowing what she was feeling. "I know what you mean." He paused to take in a deep breath, and slowly, he started to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Starlight crossed her arms and scowled at him.
"I just realized something." The stallion held his head high. "It's not important."
"What does that mean?!" Starlight was suddenly so offended. Especially, as he laid her aside and stood up. "You have to tell me now."
"No..." Silver Pear crossed his arms and shook his head. "Instead, I'm going to break you out of here!!" With that, he rushed at the wall with his bare hands.
"What?!" Starlight yelled at him. "What are you doing?!"
"This is ridiculous!" Silver Pear slammed his hands against the wall. He punched at the wall with his right and left fist, but he had no luck. Despite that, he kept going, scrapping at the wall until his knuckles bleed. "Yes, we just need to keep going!!"
"Stop!!" Starlight screamed as blood streamed down his arms. Yet, it was as if he suddenly couldn't hear her. She pushed against his back and even kicked his legs, but nothing could stop him from continuing to hit the wall. "Please, Silver Pear! This isn't going to work!!"
"It will!!" He growled at her strangely. "I know it will!!" His fists hit the wall harder than before.
Starlight didn't know what suddenly came over him until she saw his eyes turn maroon red. It started soft, but a faint maroon glow formed over his hands from all the blood. His muscles became stronger, and he never stopped.
"Silver Pear!!" Starlight's mind flashback to the images of the Pale Mare taking over Twilight's mind. She feared the same thing was about to happen here, with Silver Pear. "Stop!!" She wrapped her arms around him and begged. Yet a different transformation started to form.
His hair got longer, his teeth sharpened, and foam poured out of his cheeks. He didn't know what was happening to him only that her holding him was the only thing stopping him from ripping her apart. Instead, all his rage was being channeled into attacking the wall. He didn't know what was bringing this out of him.
The edges in front of them started to shift on their own. A large chunk of the wall crumbled and fell away. Daylight shined through a new hole in the wall. It hit his face and snapped him out of his wrathful rage.
Starlight was surprised as Silver Pear fell to the ground. She pulled away only to find him out cold. The bloody hands turned back to the natural red and stopped glowing. Seeing freedom and a lack of madness from Silver Pear, she breathed a sigh of relief. "We did it. Now let's go find my teacher and the rest of the group--"
She was stopped as a nightmarish shadow loomed over the Giant Hourglass. One might assume this was from the centaur, but the sight of Silver Pear's maroon blood flowing toward it said a very different story. Starlight stood up and held out her right hand. Channeling the smallest amount of dark magic, she found it flow the same exact direction as the remains of maroon blood.
"Another dark magic user... Or could this be the Pale Mare?" She feared both possibilities and tipped Silver Pear over her shoulder. Running toward the source she hoped to find Twilight okay and maybe not the source of this far darker transformation that seemed to be affecting anyone nearby with even the slightest amount of dark magic inside them.
******
Back within the mindscape, Twilight and Clover finally found the memory they were searching for. It hit them with a bang as they crashed down through a hellish warzone happening within the past version of the Giant Blue Hourglass. Twilight held up her wings over Clover on pure reaction, unsure how real this memory was going to be. It was from neither of their past, but from the minds of Rex and Cold Blue so they were unsure how dark and twisted this was going to get. However, they needed answers, even if it was from this hell.
"This was a bad idea, Twilight!" Clover tried to shout over the explosions.
"I'm aware!" Twilight retorted. "Now, try and spot Rex or Cold Blue."
Clover narrowed her eyes and tried to locate either one in the chaos. It was tough, the smoke and blasts of magic making it impossible to tell anyone apart. It didn't help that the smoke was a mix of maroon red and cyan blue.
Twilight thought back to the memories she had already witnessed from Cold Blue perspective, but this was different. His sight of the warzone was from above and broader, like he was summarizing the details. This was different for Clover too, as she witnessed memories from Rex before the warring broke out.
"I remember that Rex was hesitant to join the fighting." Clover tried to clear her thoughts.
"Strange compared to what we know of him now." Twilight narrowed the range of her wings when she was sure the explosions weren't affecting them. "Nowadays, he's a warrior, true and true."
"No!" Clover argued. "He's always hated fighting, especially killing."
Twilight laughed at the thought. "The last kind shadow, or a murderous shade."
"You know that phrase." Clover was shocked by her confirmation.
"Yes, Cold Blue mentioned it from time to time while we trained." Twilight glowed her horn to speed things in the memories up.
"From time to time..." Clover stood up and turned away. That line really got to her, the way Twilight said it sounded exactly like how Rex would refer to his past. The speech was much like an immortal's endless parade. Flipping back to the title, "The alicorns were the first to call him a murderous shade." She was stopped at a massive shadow of wings flying above them, distinctly alicorn wings. "One exact alicorn in fact." her eyes narrowed at the turquoise feathers.
"The first ruler of the Crystal Empire..." Twilight motioned the memories even faster. "We aren't here to see him." Scanning until she found an image of Rex, her eyes widened at him close to Princess Luna. "That's not what I expected."
"He served the princess for many centuries." Clover gritted her teeth and bowed too. " She never told me why he left her command. Truthfully, I was more overjoyed with him working with me instead of...--" The unicorn was stopped as Rex spoke.
"Please, there has to be another way!" Rex argued with Princess Luna.
"No, if you must face the evils of your past then so should I!" Luna's spoke with a deep voice that sounded so familiar to Twilight. "We are afraid it is the only way." Her eyes glowed and knifed like a crescent moon.
"Clover!" Twilight stepped in front of her. "No, not this..." She trained her stance, and her reactions forgetting this was just a memory. "Why would she rely on her?!"
"What do you mean?" Clover tried to reach out to them. "Why is Princess Luna speaking in a third person?"
"No, it's not Luna speaking at all." Twilight narrowed her eyes and prepared herself. "Nightmare Moon." Just as she said, the princess's form was twisted into the dark alicorn mare. "But why? Why her in this warzone?"
"Look!" Clover pointed at Rex's form also shifting. The power from his dark alicorn amulet shined brightly and distorted all nearby light into darkness. "I've never seen him use so much dark magic."
"I see..." Twilight's wings flexed. Even though this was just a memory, she too could feel the dark magic within her getting stronger as well. "Being around even a false dark alicorn is enough to greatly increase the mastery of dark magic. No wonder Cold Blue wanted me to train with him for fourteen hundred years."
"Fourteen hundred what?!?!" Clover screamed in shock until they were both stopped by another shockwave above them. They backed away at a massive blizzard building above them.
"It's affected Cold Blue as well." Twilight spun the memories around until they came upon the images of the giant blizzard, Nightmare Moon and the ultra powered Rex clashed with the giant Ixion. "Here it is, the final battle."
Thousands of shadows swarmed out from all over the entirety of the Giant Blue Hourglass. Hellish rain blasted alongside them, crashing through the giant centaur's defenses. They were followed by another far bigger storm of crystals, three different types clearly from the three alicorns of the Crystal Empire. From behind, two mighty flames rose up to consume the centaur's legs, channeled out of Celestia and her father. it was truly an inspiring sight to see all these powerful beings working together to slay this monster.
"Yes, but how did they win?" Clover bit her lip as the centaur fought off the powers so easily.
"We need to know and now!" Twilight tried to move the memories further, but they refused. "What?" She summoned her strongest spell, yet the memories stayed in place. "Why?"
"This is as far as the memory bubble will go!" Hollow Prince's voice echoed around them.
"No, we need answers!" Twilight tried to move the memories again, using all her strength. However, a random crystal flew by and cut her hand. She winced in pain and was kicked back into Clover's arms by intense winds.
"What's happening?" Clover found the winds fighting her too.
"The memory has become too real for us." She pointed to their shadows fading into the magical battle happening before them. "We're running out of time."
"But he's not defeated yet!" Clover argued. "We need to know how Rex defeated him the first time--" She was stopped as Twilight threw up her wings to protect them both from massive flames. "Twilight!!" The mare shrieked at the agony on Twilight's face.
"No..." Twilight fought through the pain. "I need to stand strong."
"Why?!" Clover wanted to step in and help her.
"Because my father is standing strong!!" She pointed to Rex's power overflowing outward over them. He looked more like a mad monster of endless shadows than the stallion that Clover loved. Yet, Twilight could still see the umbrum that would one day raise her preincarnate.
"If it is true..." Clover wrapped her arms around Twilight. "Then that makes you my daughter too!"
"You mean..." Twilight was stopped by her actions.
"I love and adore Rex more than anything." Clover smiled and channeled her magic with Twilight. "And I would be honored to call you daughter."
"Thank you, mom!" Twilight tried to match the flow of combining magic. It projected a large shield over them as the memory continued to play out.
Rex's shadows grew larger and larger until he stood taller than skyscrapers. Yet it still wasn't enough to bring down the centaur king. "It's so strong!" Twilight threw back her head. "Yet, what was the tipping point?!" She gestured her hands over the memories to zoom in, hoping to get a clearer picture. "Hold on..." She stopped at the center of the Giant Blue Hourglass. The hurricane winds had stopped in place.
"This is the place where Rex chased that body snatcher in the future," Clover confirmed. "This has to be the place of the final moment."
"Yes, but look!" Twilight pointed out to the scythe standing in the center. "It's shaking." She zoomed in until they were standing right next to it. Just like with Nightmare Moon, Twilight could sense another burst of dark magic surging within. It felt like she was floating above everything in creation just being near it. "What is this power? Why does this scythe look so familiar?" Her eyes narrowed on it.
"That's the Chains of Pluto!" Clover answered her.
Twilight's eyes widened. "I've seen an umbrum wield this before..."
"Another umbrum--" Clover was stopped as the scythe suddenly shot out of the ground and span in place.
Twilight's wings spread outward, and a voice echoed in her head. Even though this was just a memory, she felt a desire to answer it. No, it was if she wanted to beg for it's power and strength. "I must take it..." Clover pulled her hand away from it.
"That is the voice of Pluto, the last titan to exist in the realm of the living and the first son of Sanity." Clover yanked Twilight to the ground as the scythe flew at them. It went beyond them and exited the hurricane ring and rushed toward Rex.
The giant umbrum's shadows reacted violently to the scythe clashing with them. Rex screamed in agony upon touching his hand on the surface of the scythe. The surrounding shadows rushed into his flesh as he took hold of the scythe. The thousands of shadows turned into millions of shadows, merging with his form and stabilizing into a different monster altogether. Rex's form was now like that of a dark alicorn cloaked completely in the black outside of his horn, no longer blue but a more distinct maroon red.
At that moment the memory faded completely. "What?! No!!" Twilight screamed out as the answers faded before they could see the truth.
******
On the flip side of the mindscape, the images of a different warzone shined outward, knocking the princess to the ground. Her legs shook from all the running and kept moving in the air as if she wouldn't stop escaping. Despite being trapped in a bubble of Aitym's making, she could sense the emotions blasting from another memory altogether.
They cracked through the edges of her prison, flooding through the images of her father and her naga guard dying over and over. The thousands upon millions of souls swarming around her shrieked in fear and greater agony than ever before. They saw the same thing as her and raced away faster than she had been running.
Everything came to a stop as she tried to stand. A wave of fatigue and nausea rushed over her, yet relief was edging at the tips of her face like a dazed sleep breaking forth. Tears streamed down her eyes as she spotted her father's statue being replaced by the ship he left on, then him by her side at the birthday party. The image of her guard lying dead on the ground flipped to the image of him loving her then to the image of her knighting him. It was as if every image was playing in complete reverse, going back to the first memories she had of the two.
"It wasn't your fault." Her mother's voice echoed behind her. She covered her ears hoping to tune her out. "This wasn't your fault, Mira." Her mother stepped behind her and wrapped her wings around her, resting her chin on the top of Mira's head. "It wasn't because of you... them..." She let the pieces of bubble fall to reveal the shadows of Twilight and Clover on the other side. "They are to blame."
"No! This wasn't them! This is my fault!" The princess narrowed her eyes on them. Her mother's words dug into her head despite her blaming being elsewhere. "I am the fault..."
"Wrong," her mother spoke softer. "You need to blame them." She held up her hand to Twilight and Clover embracing each other. The princess saw this but didn't see it the same way her mother did.
She saw Twilight and Clover embracing each other as a mother and daughter would. It made her look up to her mother's chin over her. "They have a loving family."
"No!" Her mother's voice got more hateful. "They are lying to themselves. Their false love is blinding you to reality!" Her hands moved like claws around their image. "They are to blame for your pain. All things around you are to blame." The souls from before swarmed back between her mother's fingers and over her, grasping her neck. "The soldiers are to blame. The weak are to blame, everyone else to blame, but you."
"Mother," the princess struggled against her words. Something felt very wrong about her reasoning at this moment. Looking at Twilight and Clover, she saw a love she never knew before. That was a real mother and daughter. It was nothing like her own relationship. Her father raised her, her naga guard stood beside her, but what did her mother do for her. A thick dryness filled her throat as she turned to her mother's face. The beauty was slowly being replaced by the truth. "Please! This isn't right!"
"What do you mean?" Her mother was caught off guard as she broke free from her grip.
"You don't know them, not like I do." The princess's head flinched as memories hit her like a truck. These were very different from the ones before. They were so very terrifying, yet she couldn't turn away as they played out around her. The mere sight of them made her mother shrink away.
These images were of her mother's rage at everything and everypony she loved. Attacking her father for being weak, breaking her naga guard for phasing in battles. No, her face flipped away as these made no sense. her mother never did any of that. The images played even faster than the previous memories and even harder than she ever felt. They forced her eyes open, not out of a cold rage, but out of a strange sense of kind curiosity, as if they wanted to show her the real truth that she had been denying the whole time.
She jumped back at the images of her mother slowly morphing into herself attacking these characters in her life. No, this image of herself spoke with her mother's voice and used her magic. It was a complete stranger, no, a reality that had been hidden! This wasn't who she was, this was her mother speaking through her.
The princess turned to her mother as the images played, but she no longer needed to see them at all. All she thought she saw was her own self-hatred, but in reality, it was the hatred of another. "It wasn't my fault."
"Exactly--"
"No!!" The princess stepped toward her mother with defiance. "I'm not to blame, you are!!" Holding her hand up, her rapier appeared, tipping at her mother's throat. "You pushed me into every single action, ever since the day you died... on my birthday!" She swung to the left, sending out a blast of dark magic. "You have been speaking to me from the moment you lost your breath. No," Throwing magic on the other side as well. "You spoke with my voice, moved with my hands, tempted my will under your command until it became my will." Rushing forward, she braced the blunt hilt tightly against her mother's windpipe. "Soon it became that my will no longer exist in your shadow!!"
"No," Her mother gasped out in pain. "You can't mean that, I am your mother!!"
"Yes, but you lost the right to that the moment your corpse went cold!!" She pulled forward, slashing her mother's neck open. "The moment I began to feel guilty for your death. That was the day I lost myself!!" No blood splattered outward, instead sand dripped out.
"You... need me... Please, Mira ask for... my help..." Her mother's eyes narrowed at her with a hateful glare as she dropped to the ground. "You need more power and might."
The princess laughed at her statement, stepping up and trampling her foot into her mother's skull, breaking into smoke. "I am Princess Platinum!! I don't need some weak soul's power. Nah, I am power incarnate." With that final word, the bubble shattered and she started floating upward, to the exit of the mindscape. Her final gaze was on Twilight and Clover, before waking back up in reality.
Around them, the mindscape trembled furiously. Clover and Twilight were strewn around. They attempted to use their power, but it was too much. Twilight tried to return to the memory bubbles, but the realm appeared to be resisting her attempts to locate the correct one. "No!" she exclaimed. "Hollow Prince, take a firm stand. We need these answers."
Instead of responding to her, the realm began to quake more violently by the moment. His voice would not come to their aid. There was nothing to send them back, so they couldn't even leave at this point. They had very few answers even then. Granted, they knew Rex required the scythe, but why hadn't he used it previously? After the struggle, why would he leave it behind? Why would it not be with him now? There were still a lot of undefined details.
Clover held tight to Twilight. "We will be safe..."
"That's not what I'm worried about." Twilight fell to her knees. "We need answers." She didn't know what to anticipate, and she didn't want to fail. "We were so close... and then..." Her eyes widened and turned to her mom. "No!" Twilight pulled away from the hug.
"What?" Clover pulled back. "What's wrong?"
"You!!" Twilight pointed to her eyes. "The doubt in them."
Clover reached over her own face, trying to understand what she meant. "I'm not doubting you. I'm embracing the love of a family."
"No, that's not the problem!" Twilight proclaimed by returning the hug. "You're doubting my safety... As any mother should."
"And that's bad?"
"No, rather kind actually." Twilight smiled and let tears break forth. "It's the greatest thing ever..." She pulled back and placed her head on her mother's head. "To have you as a mother."
"Really?!" Clover laughed at her daughter's words.
"Truth is, your history inspired me. I joined Celestia's school because of you. You were said to have problems with your magic and yet became one of the greatest wizards to ever exist. When I was young I also had horrible magic and hoped..."
"If I could control myself... then you could too." Clover embraced the alicorn. "You are my daughter. No, if, any, or buts. I will one day meet you and raise you."
"I love you... mom!" The clouds of doubt faded away and a happy warm light replaced every feeling around them. "You don't need to doubt me." Twilight stood up and spread her wings out around her. "I have been raised by the best family line ever!!"
"Indeed," Clover stood up with pride. "Together we will always be safe!"
"Agreed!" Twilight smiled. "Let's go back." She held out her hand and the memory bubble slowly reformed. Just as before, she saw the hurricane trap and the scythe breaking free and flying toward Rex. "Now, why would you give up that power." She turned her sight back to the crack the scythe escaped from. Her eyes widened at another figure fighting through the hateful winds. "That's a hippogriff..."
"Where?" She stopped as the alicorn pointed out to a hippogriff, draped in royal garb. "Who is that?!"
"Ixion's arranged wife." Twilight smiled and narrowed her eyes on something hidden in her hand. "And now I see it. The reason why Rex gave up the power... it wasn't enough without that knife." She gripped her own knife matching the design of the one in the hippogriff's hands. "I see, Cold Blue, you knew the truth--" Twilight was stopped as something else caught her attention, and a bright shine shot out through the memory bubble.
"What's happening?" Clover narrowed her eyes at the darkening shapes ripping apart the memory bubble's walls and taking them back into the shaking mindscape. Her whole body shivered as they grew more pronounced. "Twilight..." She gripped her daughter's shoulder only to find the same intense fear gripping her too. "We have what we need, shouldn't we be leaving?"
"I was expecting Hollow Prince to release us." Twilight gulped as the shine swarmed around them at high speed.
"And if not."
"Then, we would need to find the anomaly." Twilight's jaw dropped as the shine finally became clear. "Wait, gray with a shine... Metal..."
Clover's eyes softened. "Chains... It must be Rex--
A burst of twisted feminine laughter reverberated throughout the mindscape, stopping them in their tracks. It was weak at first, but as the shades drew nearer, it grew stronger and revealed itself to be chains—not Rex's. The owner was somepony else entirely. Twilight experienced a familiar cold that she vowed never to experience again. Like a drill, this cold twisted deep inside her ears.
******
Deep within the moving flesh of the giant beast, a lone umbrum floated by. He had spent several hours trying to fight his way through the massive ooze, but after a while, his efforts seemed futile. Why should he fight this monster yet again? The last time, the umbrum was consumed by utter darkness that took what seemed like an eternity to break. Why go through all that again?
"Do you accept defeat?" An old voice echoed around him.
"No, rather I'm accepting reality." He leaned back and let himself seek deeper into the oozing darkness. "Even after thousands of years, nothing changes. Here I am fighting this beast once more."
"Repetition is the cruelest form of my brother's power." The voice laughed at him. "And it seems to have consumed your mind."
"If anything, it makes reality easy to accept."
The voice stopped at his answer. In fact, it stayed silent for a solid moment before answering him with a far louder and booming voice. "No!! This isn't you accepting reality!! This is you running from it!"
"What?" His eyes widened at the accusation. He grabbed the amulet and hoped to mute the voice. "I am not running!!"
"Liar!"
"I'm not!" He turned away in an attempt to tune him out.
"Liar!!" The voice echoed even louder in his head.
"I'm not!!" He covered his ears pointlessly.
"You've been doing nothing but running from the beginning?!" The voice accused him. "You are nothing but a coward!"
"Shut up!" He shouted back. "Why do you even care?! You've never shown any sign of helping me, just yourself."
"Because you are mocking me now." The voice brought forth images in the darkness. "You do nothing but run, while everypony around you does the opposite.
The umbrum saw images of Twilight and Clover wandering the mindscape. Subsequently, Starlight and Silver Pear managed to escape the debris, while Gale and her warriors gave it their all. The images eventually came to an end with Princess Luna transforming into Nightmare Moon.
"Even that weak alicorn is relying on the power of my daughter, Cassandra." The visuals whirled and narrowed around him as the voice spoke. "Time travelers, common folks and soldiers alike fighting on, and yet here you are falling through my darkness." The glow on the amulet subsided and the voice stopped.
The umbrum looked down on his chest with fear sweating forth. "I'm not running!" He tried to argue back but the voice refused to continue, instead keeping the images around him. "I'm not running!!" He kept insisting, but his thoughts fell flat. "I'm..." His words stopped as his head fell low. "Not running..." Sweat turned to tears. "I... don't want to fight this beast... again!!" His voice rose loud as he screamed in pain and agony.
The voice didn't reply to his screams. It let the umbrum scream until there was nothing left in him. Instead, the emptiness of this oozy darkness over him was the only answer he received. He didn't know how much time had passed. His body ached, and his heart was shattered. Everything felt so meaningless like the weight of the world was bearing down on him. He closed his eyes, wishing to die and escape this torment.
Then a single word echoed within his mind. "...Why?"
"Huh?" The umbrum slowly opened his eyes. For a second, he thought it was the voice returning, but this wasn't wrathful, or malicious. No, this was his voice, his own thoughts echoing back at him.
"Why?" His thoughts continued, "Why am I running?"
"What do... I mean?" He found himself questioning his own thoughts. "I'm running because that's all I can do..." His body flinched with the command. "I've been so since I was but a child."
"I am immortal..." His thoughts answer him. "I am unkillable..."
"That doesn't matter?!" He fought back. "Nothing like that matters."
"When I lose somepony--"
"Exactly, I lose everypony--" He was stopped as his mind popped back with a cold answer.
"I can replace them with another."
"What?!" His eyes grew wide at the audacious claim his thoughts were making.
"I replaced Stygian with Starswirl... Mon with Silver Pear..." His training with the earth pony and the wisdom he had gained from the wizard rang in his mind gradually. "I've replaced friends and masters..."
"Stop it!!" the umbrum screamed at his thoughts and the images.
"I've even replaced ones I've loved." The thoughts forced his eyes open, seeing the image of a radiant mare slowly being replaced by Clover.
"No... That's not true..." Now his own voice turned so soft, to the point that he could even hear his own breath over the thoughts repeating in a loop.
"I replaced her with Clover..."
"I replaced her with Clover..."
"I replaced her with Clover..."
"I replaced her with Clover... and soon I'll replace Clover with another... and another and another." He found the words echoing from his own mouth. No longer were his thoughts fighting him, both had become one upon realizing the truth. He was running, always had been running from it all. He grabbed his face and squeezed, hoping to stop his mouth, but the words played out. "I am a coward..."
"You are Rex," The amulet's voice returned. "And you run away from everything."
"Yes..." His eyes dropped in surrender. "I am Rex, but..." He looked upward toward the path of the slime he had been tumbling through. "For this one moment..." His lips quivered as his teeth tightened. "Can I be anything but Rex?" He raised his head in the same manner. "Can I please stand?"
The ooze shrieked away with that last statement, and he ceased to fall. His body floated about slowly until he came to rest on a solid surface composed entirely of shadows. Something new sounded above him, like it was rotating very quickly. A gigantic scythe tore through the ooze and the sound of sinister laughing echoed out.
The weapon's bow struck his hand before yanking him forward and out of the darkness completely. Instead of asking why this was happening, Rex just let himself be carried by the scythe. With closed eyelids, the chains encircling his body released and began to trickle beside him. The dark alicorn amulet shone so intensely with darkness that all light seemed to flee from it, in dread.
As maroon smoke gushed out of his tear ducks, his curving horn pulsed out of his turban, changing color from blue to red. The shadows along his back formed the shape of wings taking flight as his cheek arched back to reveal his whole jawline. His eyes opened as he reached the edge of the Giant Blue Hourglass and looked up at the starry sky. Before plunging back down and focusing entirely on the dangers below, the surrounding pitch-black area provided a tranquil respite.
"I finished my part, summoning the scythe... for you." Nightmare Moon flew up beside him. "It's good to see you back."
Rex brandished the scythe as he saw Ixion, the enormous centaur. The same beast that thousands of years ago he had killed here. "I am the last umbrum. The fina defender of my native land." He took a stance and ready his will. His gaze was fixed on the lifeless body of Ixion, stumbling over the nation. He flinched at the massive blizzard stopping him in place, sensing two massive dark magic users clashing in there. "Cold Blue keep the wendigo back as long as possible, using that ever-growing power to contain the giant centaur's movement." He turned to Nightmare Moon for a moment and addressed Luna's worries. "Cassandra Eveningstar... cover the enemy from behind." Returning his gaze to the scythe. "Chains of Pluto... guide my might and malice." He glared at Ixion, but his attention was fixed on the dark alicorn amulet. "We are all children of Sanity. We oppose time and its cruel repetitions."
******
Thousands of miles away, on the strange island of icy blizzards, the brown spider observed as Thule's tentacles flung the two pilots around. He winced at Starswirl's helplessness to save them, but he did not hesitate to intervene either. Their safety was meaningless because none of them was his objective. His primary purpose in this timeline was to keep an eye on Twilight and Starlight, and since none of them were present, he didn't see the need to stay.
And yet, he continued to witness the fight between the pilots and the monster that was far stronger than them. Fredricson and Lady Cat's attempts to defend Starswirl would ultimately result in their deaths, they persisted in their fight. The spider was genuinely perplexed by this. Throughout their voyage, he observed them several times, yet until now, he hadn't seen them so willing to risk their lives to save others. The spider sought to know why they did what they did.
The two pilots were nearing their breaking point as the fight went on, making it harder for the spider to understand them. He grew to like their company, so it was a real tragedy. However, the spider winced as though something on his body was bothering him just as his hope was about to fade. He pivoted to face the Giant Blue Hourglass, thousands of miles away from them.
It was too far away for him to catch a glimpse of, but he knew exactly where it was. It was quite simple to sense the enormous amount of dark magic coming from it. That being said, his attention was being drawn there by another power source. His eyes grew wide as it dawned on him gradually. "The scythe... Somepony has summoned the scythe!! But the only one who can do that is..."
The spider studied the scenario, a faint smile spreading across his face. "This is very intriguing..." With clarity coming into focus, he carefully whispered to himself. "I see now, father, why you sent me here. The purpose went beyond merely monitoring your brother's time-traveling schemes." He turned his attention back to the tentacles.
He once again grimaced at their helplessness. It made sense, they were contending with a creature that occasionally even caused difficulties for the Titans of old. In all honesty, Starswirl's lacking will to battle shouldn't have surprised him. Yes, this was a futile endeavor for such feeble creatures as themselves. In this timeline, at least, Thule possessed power well beyond that of Starswirl. "Poor wizard, if you had mastered all forms of Chaos magic, defeating Thule would have been an easy task... Unless."
With his front four legs raised, the spider conjured up dark magic at their tips, resembling unicorn horns. "I'm unable to call upon the fabled Discord! However, I can make him respond." He then called out gates to appear behind Thule.
Unaware of the source of the magic, the four of them came to a standstill to two vortexes forming around them. Neither of them ever noticed him at all. How the brown spider liked things. He had to exercise caution, though, since pulling off several such antics would quickly draw attention. With accurate aim, he revealed the Tree of Harmony—or, to their collective confusion, two Trees of Harmony.
"Impossible..." Thule watched in confusion. "Who is doing this?"
"I only ever knew of one tree..." Starswirl watched in amazement. "Celestia and Luna would be just as shocked as I--" He stopped in place and something burned within him.
"Yes, that's it," the brown spider laughed to himself. "All this Harmony Magic seeping through should be more than enough to shock his systems." He leered in joy at the sight of Starwirl's body twisting and shivering in the grasp of the tentacles.
The sight of the gateways made Thule uncomfortable. He was well aware of what they had done to him previously and could sense the tremendous power of Harmony Magic emanating from each of them. Long ago, they had entangling his form outside of reality and making him hide among decaying corpses. It was bothersome enough to see them, but that force was overwhelming. Unaware of what was occurring to Starswirl.
The elderly sorcerer plummeted to the frigid earth and turned onto his back. A wad of pink cotton candy shot out of his open mouth. Popcorn splattered out of his hat and chocolate milk soaked through his sleeves. More significantly, though, was the weird and twisted magic that emerged from his horn, distorting the hues from yellow to red and white. As this was going on, his mind was overflowing with an endless mess of words and information that made no sense at all. He cried out in agony and rage, not understanding why his mind was acting in this way.
******
In another area of Giant Blue Hourglass, the Commander herself was hurtling toward the enormous centaur that loomed above everything, at breakneck speed. Despite the spirits of the dead haunting every wing flap, determination remained firmly entrenched in her vision. She would not lose anyone else on this quest, she told herself over and over. Never cared if this was a clear reason of thought or just pure insanity. Her only motivation was the will to rip that evil out of her brother's flesh and end his pain through death.
Her sight was so narrow that she didn't notice the griffins flying up around her. The pegasus' body flinched and twisted around each strike on reaction only. The moment their edges touched her flesh, she dodged left and right, moving by them with no true realization at all. They were no different than the terrain, buildings, and rubble falling around them.
The senses only broke as the best of the griffins stood in her way, punching her across the face and crashing her from her flight. It sent her into a spin, only to collide with a large piece of permafrost. She panted in heavy breaths of air, blood dripping out her left wing. The moment she saw the griffin's emblem she recognized it.
"What? How? When?" The Commander tripped back to the side of the permafrost, leaning against her torn wing. "Grover?!" She held up her hand, forgetting her spear was still not in her hand. "What are you doing here?"
"A soldier to her last bloody breath." The king pulled out his gladius. "It's the only thing that I admire about you, evil mare."
"No..." She waved her head back and forth. "I have no time for your blind propaganda. I have somepony to kill!" Her legs carried the pegasus passed him as if still ignoring him for the determination to finish her current mission.
"And yet, there is the greatest weakness of that valor..." he held his blade to her throat. "Your mission matters more than your own species."
"What?!" Commander Hurricane backed away at the king's bold claim. "I fight to protect only my species. We pegasus stand strong against any evil no matter the form!!" She spoke it so confidently as if she had memorized that quote since birth. "We are the strongest, bravest, the absolute best."
Grover's eyes narrowed and he bashed her in the face with his hilt. "Then, tell me what's your mission now?!" He placed his foot on her torn wing, hoping for a sign of pain on her face but got nothing. "Are you here to protect your pegasi? Kill my griffins! Or maybe..." Leaning down, he kneed her chest, pinning her in place. "Simply stand by and watch it all burn!"
The Commander only stared back with a cold glare. "My mission is to kill."
"Who?!" He punched her in the gut.
"My brother...my own kin..." She grimaced and finally gained a sense of rage toward the opponent in front of her. Her wings kicked back against the ground and threw him off.
"Exactly!!" Grover smiled in victory. However, this was only half the matter. He knew her rage was still aimed at the mission behind him, not at his throat. "They told me everything!" He took up a stance and was ready for a bloody fight. "I do not care that your brother has been enslaved, just as you've never cared about me avenging my father. So instead, what I want from you is to stand in your way."
To her, his remarks meant nothing. Rushing forward, she punched him in the face and gut. He swung his gladius and sprang back, barely escaping with cuts across her armor. She pushed back under his blows and into his joints, fracturing his right kneecap in the process. With a yell, he retreated and struck her left thigh with his hilt, pushing the rim into her hip bone. He then repeatedly hit her in the stomach and slashed the point of his blade across her face.
Each attack only enraged her further, screaming through the blood splattering from her face and bashing her helmet into his beak. She took her other arm and wrapped it around his shoulder to tip him over her. Yanking back and laughing at the sounds of his collarbone breaking. Flipping over, she slammed her kneecap into his throat. Then, with all her might, she kicked him in the chest, creating enough force to bend and warp his armor against his heart.
He coughed up plenty of blood over her eyes, blinding her and allowing him to jump back and turn his stance around. Pulling his weapon around and landing it on her neck. He readied his gladius to take off her head. "With this, my species reclaim their homeland!!"
She was able to use her hand to stop the edge, by having it tearing through the limb instead. Twisting her hand around, she yanked the blade out of his hand and punched it into his beak, cracking it, and stabbing the rim into his eye. The griffin staggered up and screamed in agony and attempted to rip it out, shredding the eye socket and bone in the process.
Now with him off of her and distracted by the intense pain, Commander Hurricane jumped up and ran to the edge of the permafrost. He tried to stop her with a final attempt to poke at her rage, but that didn't matter as she jumped off. He thought she had lost the last ounce of sanity until he noticed his knives gone from his belt.
Commander Hurricane smiled and threw out her unshredded hand, slamming a knife into the leg of the giant centaur as it passed by. Her mission was clear, the target had to be at the top of this giant creature. Taking the time, she wrapped only the wounds on her torn hand and wing. Once she made sure the wounds was shut, she turned her attention to the mission. Her eyes narrowed at the top. "I'll do it... Kill Dartz!!"
*******
The mindscape transformed into frigid ice and howling wastelands. The twisted laughing was all that was audible outside of those winds and their minds. The chains had come to a stop and formed an enormous circle around them.
"What is this?" Twilight yelled at the spectral creature that was approaching them. "You're no memory, right? What are doing you here? Some kind of spirit? Not at all! You have no significance. You're an illusion to reality..." She threw out her wings in defiance but left Clover in complete confusion.
"What is it?" Clover shook her daughter's shoulder. "What's happening?"
As the figure took shape, Twilight used magic to draw her weapons and assumed a stance. The spectral figure was twirling in the air, flipping, and laughing. The alicorn's eyes became wide as it noticed the frantic yet recognizable movement. "Cease! You can't be her!"
"It won't stop." Clover covered her ears in pain as the screaming increased. Still, the voices struck her the hardest, regardless of how firmly she pressed her ears.
"Why this laughter..." Twilight's face went pale as the figure's details came into view.
"Is it that Elisus you warned me about?" Clover tried to stand strong.
"No, her voice is venomous, eating at you like acid." With a clap of her wings, Twilight hoped the image would fade. This had to be a dream, brought to life by the power of this realm. Why now? What would make something like this appear at this moment, in this location?
"Well, who else could it be?"
"This laughter burrows and twists..." Twilight's speech trailed off as she became aware of her bleeding ears. Though in pain, Clover remained uninjured, unlike Twilight. Granted, alicorns were more perceptive than unicorns, but this was something else. Twilight felt as though the laughing was hitting her square in the ear. "It... It's like a... drill"
Her knees caved and Clover tried to catch her. "Twilight!!"
The roaring winds had subsided, and the giggling had gradually turned into speech. "Twilily, That is you, dear Twilily?" The figure spoke through the chains. The voice caused the alicorn to turn aside.
"No, you are not here at all." Twilight came to a halt and screamed "Not here... The mindscape is devoid of time. Future, present, and past exist together." Twilight came to a halt, and the chain whizzed by her face, almost splitting in her cheek.
The alicorn raised her weapons in front of Clover's defense. She couldn't deny the truth anymore and was prepared to defend her mother from this enemy. With a magical charge, Twilight focused her weapons on a figure emerging into the light. The figure's actual shape slowly revealed, the dark eyes and stretched jawline belied the wrath and laughter that whipped through the chains. Twilight shoved Clover out of the way of another chain, stopping her.
"It is her..." Twilight sneered.
"It can't be... an umbrum." Clover could see the truth through the discrepancies. She had seen countless records and images of Rex's species. Even after seeing images of his family through his past memories, one thing couldn't be denied. It was an umbrum, albeit a very different kind of umbrum, stood in front of them.
"Let's just say, Rex isn't the only one of his kind I know that uses chains." Twilight lost sight of the figure as it fully materialized, revealing an umbrum with bony wings and a distinctive red mane. "Selena... Moondie"
The shaking that had covered the entire Giant Blue Hourglass was stopped in an instant as two massive dark magic masters clashed into the shoulders of the massive centaur, knocking it to one side. A lone earth pony watched it all happen with on top of his unicycle, perched perfectly on the tip of a permafrost pillar. It was an incredible sight to him, seeing Nightmare Moon and Rex's full power bashing against the evils of Aitym's newest host. His eyes leered over the two watching in the distance, glad everything was going according to his master's plan.
"Look upon the grace of his knowledge." Carnival Carnage held out his arms. "Aitym thought he could deceive us, but no... Lord Frost's will be absolute."
"I can see that, Carnival Carnage," Nestor grumbled while flying beside him. "Shouldn't you take cover?"
"Fear overtaking truth?" The earth pony laughed at his guard's cowardice. "No, just as the ifrits watch, I shall praise. This is my master's purpose."
Nestor huffed in response, keeping his eyes locked on the fight. The two of them were far enough above the action, Not close enough to hear the words between the two dark magic users swinging around the colossal beast. They were both too strong to even notice their presence. It was almost like they were watching a clash of gods against devils and they were merely ants, unable to do anything to influence the outcome.
"Soon my Lord Frost, your will shall be complete." Carnival Carnage leered over to the blizzard around the country. "Phase 3 shall be completed on this night. I know it. I can feel it." He held his hands out in praise. "I can feel his glory coursing through the skies."
Nestor rolled his eyes and kept his hand on his weapons. "Fine, since you won't answer my questions, do what you wish. I am simply here to serve the rest of my griffin kin--" He was stopped by the sounds of screams behind him. Turning around revealed blood and sparks tearing through his forces.
"Oh, it seems the pegasi are far from broken!" Carnival could smell the carnage that he so adored from the beginning and never said anything until his guard could hear it. He spun around on his unicycle at the bloodshed. "Yes, more pain and agony for all."
"Hey!" Nestor complained. "Those are my soldiers falling!!" He aimed his arrows at the center of the attack.
Carnival snarled and rolled downward. "Time to preach..."
"What are you doing?" Nestor shouted down at the crazy pony. "I'm supposed to keep you safe! You're our only connection to that wendigo! We can't let anything happen to you!!"
"Oh, do you really believe that, Nestor?" Carnival laughed with a deep smile on his face. "Don't be silly. You griffins are purely my entertainment." He jumped off the pillar and fell down into the chaos below. "It's time for me to have some fun. Now, now, my children, it's time for me to spread the word of Lord Frost."
"No!!" The griffin stopped his defense and followed after the earth pony. Nestor flew through his forces. One of his griffins landed on his back, bringing him down. He shook free only to back away at the sight of their chest ripped open. Flipping upward, he aimed several arrows toward the source of the throw.
However, another griffin's body was rushed out of the bloodbath, being used as a shield by the attacker. Nestor lowered his weapon at the sight of the corpse and dodged to the side as the pegasus using it landed between him and Carnival Carnage.
The pegasus coughed blood, but smiled at the sight of Nestor. "Finally another commander to kill!" Her bloodstained glare popped out at him, making his guard break.
"What... You..." He pointed out to her, his spear shivering at the sight of an all too familiar face through the gore and muscles. "Private Pansy--" He was stopped as she rushed forward with several punches.
She didn't fly but pushed him across the ground, upward along the permafrost pillar. "You going to call me weak as well!!" Her voice was more of a growl as she leaped onto him and held down her blade against his throat.
"Enough of these endless confusions!" He gritted his teeth, kicking her off, and attempted to take back command. The griffin rushed forward with the blunt end of his bow, hitting her face and shoulder, before pushing the middle into her throat.
Another loud boom above them broke the griffin's concentration. His eyes flicker upward to see the giant centaur being sent falling toward them by the clashing powers of the two dark magic users. Seeing her chance, Pansy stopped the bow with her new muscles, pushing him back. Taking each end of the bow, she snapped it in two and bashed both ends into his shoulders.
Nestor was taken aback by her newfound power. He could barely block any of her attacks and she continued with using the ends to rip open his armor. He stopped her hands from tearing into his chest. "How are you so strong?!"
Pansy growled, bashing her head into his face, twisting his hands until his arms broke, squeezing down and snapping each finger. She laughed and growled louder into a full scream of joy. Leaning back, she kicked her legs into his chest and beat her wings so hard that they created a booming sound.
"What?!" The griffin's eyes widened as he was pushed toward the edge of the pillar. "Stop!!" He shrieked out in agony as her incredible wing strength ripped his arms off with ease and threw him into the crashing leg of the giant beast.
Carnival cheered and laughed at the agony of his own ally. "Such a beautiful sight...Yes, give in to the true sanity of the end. This is the will of darkness, my children." He was standing at the very edge of the pillar, spinning his unicycle around in a circle as the blood splattered over him. "The end is where we belong. Far from time's cruel grip of the light, we shall be free soon enough. All of us, this is what Lord Frost promised us!!" His applauses were cut short at the sight of another figure approaching through the shadows beside him. His eyes widened as a large buffalo fist tore through the forces around him, aiming at his face. He threw out his arms to block the attack and rolled back until he was knocked off his unicycle.
A strong arm stopped him from falling off the permafrost pillar. A large buffalo revealed himself, pressing his hand into the earth pony's throat and holding him up. "Your time has come to an end!!" Red Steel spoke out loud. Hermes was so shocked upon hearing it that he stopped in place too.
"It's been decades hasn't it, you old buffalo." Carnival choked, laughing at his attacker. "Tell me, where have you been all this time? Your wife and children are dead... Only your brother remains." He licked his lips. "So sad that he chose another over your honor, didn't he."
"Shut up you freak of nature!" Red Steel tightened his grip. His anger was so intense, yet it shattered at Hermes's hands around his arm.
"Wait..." the griffin barely spoke a word.
Above, on the leg of the giant centaur, Pansy crashed her feet through the chest of the griffin, crushing his heart on the oozy flesh of the massive beast. "Yes..." Her body finally shivered back as if reacting only now to the carnage she unleashed. "Just a few more... to kill..." She flicked her wings out and screamed out. "And then I'll rip off that griffin's king's head!!"
"Private Pansy?" A voice behind her stopped her cold in her tracks. Turning around revealing her leader, Commander Hurricane, who had just witnessed the scene's gruesome ending.
******
Back inside the mindscape, the memory bubble shattered and two mares were sent flying outward from the massive power and might. Twilight used her mind to summon another memory bubble for her and Clover to land in, only for chains to swarm out of the previous one and shatter the new ones the second they formed. The chain wrapped around the two mares' legs and yanked them out of the sky, crashing down to the ground. Clover winced and called out a memory of her own, landing them in a vast valley of cloud candy clouds. Twilight was caught off guard and couldn't grab an edge to catch onto.
"Mom!!" the alicorn screamed out to the unicorn.
Clover barely grabbed her by the fingers. "I got you."
"Thanks..." Twilight looked around to the pink clouds. "The Discordian realm?"
"What?" Clover pulled her up. "This is the Student's Playground." She gave a soft chuckle at the stuff sticking to Twilight's feathers.
"Oh..." Twilight gave a sheepish smile and cleaned herself off. "Dis--Starswirl gives it a different name in my time." The alicorn held up her hands up to her horn to condense the magic and attempted to contact Hollow Prince again. "We need to get out of here before that memory of Selena Moondie finds us." Nothing but sparks, just like before. As if he couldn't hear them at all. "He must be weakened beyond reach by Aitym's power on his mindscape."
"Selena Moondie." Clover tried to sound out the strange last name.
"It's more a title." Twilight stopped her. "I never knew her true name."
"That makes no sense?!" Clover argued. "What kind of name is that?"
"And so says Clover the Clever." Twilight mocked while attempting to summon another memory bubble for them to escape in just in case. "It's prophecy, spoken in both the present and the past that one day she lay waste to the Moon itself, ripping it from the sky and casting it to the ground."
"And what about Princess Luna?" Clover's eyes widened.
"Don't worry," Twilight placed her hand on her shoulder. "I've encountered her in many timelines. Never once has she succeeded even when it was a sole goal." Her eyes winced as chains ripped through the clouds. "However, two things are always clear, her hatred for Luna and the lust for my blood."
"What--" Clover was kicked back as the spearhead ends of the chains smashed down between the two mares.
"And that long after Rex's own life fades from this world, I will stand as the last true umbrum!!" Selena rushed forward with swings and slashes. "Come on, dear Twilily. Let's soak the world in endless alicorn blood!"
"It's Twilight to you!" Twilight sliced away the chains coming for her, Clover dodged the other chains. The alicorn attempted to take the offensive, filling her kopises with dark magic, and swung out a classic move. "Twin Cresent Moon!!"
Selena jumped back, twirling her chains around her. "No, you are the enemy!!" She hopped from one cloud to another, punching her claws into the edges of Twilight's weapons.
Twilight gritted her teeth. "No, I'm not! We're just on opposite sides!" She filled more magic into the kopises. "Quad Full Moon!!" Summoning a moon-shaped blast to bounce Selena back. Aiming her weapons forward, she demanded, "How can this be? You're not in the past. Nor mine or Rex?!" Twilight's eyes widened. "What summoned you here?!"
"Your friend brought me back." Selena leaped back from the blast and swung her chains down upon Twilight, grabbing her by the gut and throat. Smashing her feet into Twilight's chest, the umbrum turned her eyes to Clover.
"What?" Twilight coughed up blood. She looked at her mother. "She has no connection to you at all."
Selena cackled and pulled the chains harder. "You know nothing of... the future!! And truly nothing about me!!" She was stopped as Clover hit her in the face with her bow staff.
"Stay away from her?!" Clover called magic from her horn and wrote a symbol above Twilight. The grip of the chains broke away and retreated to the umbrum.
"Well, that confirms she uses magic similar to Rex." Twilight proper herself up with Clover's help.
"It is quite incredible..." Clover examined her spell. "Usually a basic spell is needed to break copycats." Sweat dripped down Clover's face as she held up her bow staff to fight alongside her daughter. "Rex taught me a few ways to break his chains in case they were ever turned against me, but that took the strongest form to stop her chains."
"So she's just a strong as Rex," Twilight agreed. "Which means we can't afford to hold back."
"An umbrum on the same level as Rex and wield the same weapons as him," Clover demanded. "Just who are you?!"
Selena tilted her head at them. "What? Shouldn't you be asking the reverse about her?" The umbrum pointed hatefully at Twilight. "Twilily, you lie to her at every turn. I thought you'd be smarter than that. What's the point of hiding the truth if it will only come back to haunt you?"
"Enough with the Twilily nickname!" Twilight yelled, flying up to attack her. "I've told her everything I know about you!!"
Clover watched Twilight's magic clash with Selena's magic and felt a strange familiarity. It was not just the way the two mares fought, but their magical presences were so similar. They didn't match on the level of fate much like her with Cold Blue or bound like familial akin to her and Rex. No, there was something more and the unicorn couldn't put together, connected but also shattered at the same time.
"Liar!! You must stop lying to yourself and to her!!" Selena's power roared louder. "Don't you dare turn her against me too!!"
"What?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, looking at Clover. "I turned her against you." The alicorn looked at Clover and then back to the umbrum. "You call me, Twilily now. You even called me that when we first met. You knew who I was long before I did." Twilight turned her full attention back to the memory bubble she was attempting to summon early. "Cursed time traveling, who are you to me and my mother?!"
Selena's eyes widened and backed away in confusion. "Wait, no, no!!" Her face flinched multiple times before turning into utter rage and malice. "You... dare call her... mother!!" Magic flowed out of her even faster and thousands of more chains were summoned around her.
Twilight spotted a cord to press within the umbrum. "What do you know of Clover?!" She trained her eyes at her while choosing a specific memory to go to.
"She is..." Selena stopped as a wicked smile cleaved over her vicious embrace. "No, it's not going that easy for Twilily." She raced forward, wanting to stop them from escaping.
"Clover is what to you?" Twilight gritted her teeth as her questions didn't break the monstrous mare's resolve. "Tell me?!"
"I've said too much. After all, a piece of her future, a future she would gladly deny if she knew the truth." Selena placed her hand upon the same memory bubble. She knew that as a memory she couldn't affect the destination, but she could mess with the one choosing the place. "The ultimate horror that will consume her soul soon enough..." Leaning forward, she whispered in Twilight's ear. "The same insanity that becomes clear in the future, on the day I ripped her guts!!"
******
Back on the frozen island, the rotting corpse of tentacles twisted and distorted back. He could sense the massive amount of chaos magic escaping with each passing second within the cloak of the old wizard. This affected his power over the rotting corpse and hold in reality, much to his annoyance. However, that was far from the craziest part.
Fredriscon and Lady Cat were dropped down to witness the insane transformation and glimpse of Starswirl's true power. Both of them could barely comprehend what they were looking at. They could feel the immense power and pressure from the spell being cast above them. The only thing that snapped them back to reality was the sudden sound of insane laughter.
Starswirl's left arm shrunk and twisted into a talon like that of griffin. His right arm morphed into the shape of a manticore's paw. His spine stretched back like the body of a serpent covered in patches of fur. Two horns grew from his head, that of a deer and goat. A lizard's tail extended from his behind. Lastly, his face mutated from its original shape too. Stopping only halfway as the old wizard slammed his talon down.
Starswirl fought his hardest to contain the chaotic transformation. Using all his magic to morph back his hands back and forth between that of a unicorn and a monster they had never seen before. The beast was unlike any other pony or animal they had come across. Its fur was a mixture of silver, red, and gold.
Turning his attention to Thule, the wizard could barely understand what was going on. However, he knew this massive amount of chaos magic could be useful in this bout. With all the power he could muster, he fired the beam of chaos magic at the rotting corpse. He hoped to drain all this power before the transformation was complete beyond his control.
Thule was hit head-on by the blast and tried to shield himself from it. Yet, it was useless, the combined forces of harmony and chaos flowing around him were too much. It shook him to his core with utter uncontrollable fear. The folds of rotting flesh tore apart, exposing a mere glimpse of his true form underneath to the full blast. A silhouette of tentacles and a beak, roaring with endless distortion of reality. He was forced to flee into his own dimension at the sight of it all. "Damn you, Starswirl...You dare use Chaos's true form against me!! Hateful beast, opposite of all peace... Dis--" His last words echoed the fact that he never noticed the spider once.
The massive orb of magic was released, causing Starswirl's transformation to reverse back to a normal old unicorn wizard. He was left panting in exhaustion as he returned to his old body. He had never before used that much chaos magic at once. "What was that form...?" His questioning left his allies just as confused as they saw more details of the horrible change than what he saw.
With everything going according to plan, the spider closed to two portals. He slowly breathed a sigh of relief as Starswirl stabilized. "I was unsure if that would work, or that I might unleash the beast too early in the timeline." Backing away, he allowed the two pilots to approach their friend.
Fredriscon helped Starswirl up, looking over his friend to ensure he wasn't hurt. "What was all that?"
"I have no idea..." Starswirl's body felt too heavy to stand. "Where did Thule go?"
"He's gone, the creature escaped into his own realm by the look of it." Lady Cat responded, not even looking at where the portal was. Her attention was completely on Starswirl, worried he might faint at any moment.
"He was merciful to us..." Starswirl was lying on the cold ground. "Or afraid of something else, I'm not sure which." He coughed, trying to catch his breath. "What might have scared him I don't know, but we shouldn't be so lucky next time."
"You can worry why later," Fredricson assured him. "For now, rest up. We still have work to do."
The old wizard laughed and slowly closed his eyes. "I'm not sure how much help I can be after this, but I will try."
"Don't be foolish," Lady Cat spoke softly. "If you can't do all the work alone. We're right here by your side, helping you every step of the way."
Fredricson nodded in agreement, giving his classic pirate-like grin. "Aye, matey. Let's just get him back into the airship for now."
"Yeah..." Lady Cat was also at a loss for words. "We'll fix the outside later." With that final comment, the two made their way back. The spider made sure to follow them carefully. Such a stunt had tired him more than he thought it might and he needed the rest of his cage.
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."
