//------------------------------//
// S3 Episode 25: The Pronounced Dead 
// Story: JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming 
// by Lighttone GryphonStar 
//------------------------------//

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.

******