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!!"
******