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"
******