In the distance past.
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."
******