JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming

by Lighttone GryphonStar

S3 Episode 24: Behold The Dark City

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."

******

Author's Note:

Sorry, this came out a day late. Yesterday was a very bad day. I'm glad to finally have this out. This chapter might seem a little sidetracked but will have massive ramifications down the line for both this season, this book as a whole, and even the very universe I have designed.