JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming

by Lighttone GryphonStar

S4 Episode 35: Then From Three To Mine

Rex and Clover came to their next room. It was a place Rex never thought he would see again. He was glad to be far from those previous memories, but he was in greater inner conflict upon seeing this room. Clover was utter confused by his reactions at the sight of it all. For her, this was so peaceful.

The scene was a small umbrum child playing with his siblings. It was a simple game of rolling the ball for the youngest of minds. It made sense for a colt that could barely talk. He had three siblings with him but it felt like he was the center and point of the scene above all else as the faces of the siblings were barely visible.

Another thing that caught Clover's sight was the blue horn on his head. She stepped closer to Rex and wrapped her hand in his, leaning her head over the figures as they played. "I never thought... You were such a cute child."

Rex gave no answer in words, instead, nodding in confirmation as his mouth fell agape in shock.

"So, we're back in the umbrum capital, I assume." Clover sat down and twirled the mane of the younger Rex. She admired the hope in his eyes. "I've never noticed it until now, but Twilight has the same amount of hope that you once had." She turned back to his eyes; the years had dulled them so much in comparison. "What pushed you so far away from this hope?"

"We... need to leave--"

Clover pulled him down to sit with her. "Can't we stay, in this place of hope and grace?" Clover wrapped his hand over the ball as it rolled by. "This moment is the happiest I have ever seen you." She scooted closer to Rex, urging him to enjoy this memory. Yet it filled his face with more fear than ever before.

"Please..." He begged. "Let us leave--" He was stopped once more as Clover took his lips in her mouth. Without any more waiting, she kissed him deeply and refused to let go.

Clover hoped the love and tenderness she had for him would replace this memory's fears. At this moment she accepted the reality she had been denying for the last two weeks. The image of Twilight played in her mind, making her want this to last forever. She would love Rex and even love her possible future... daughter.

******

Twilight and Cold Blue exited another room. This time they were covered in dust and dodging arrows. Jumping out of the way as a massive crystal shard flew by before vanishing in the shadows of the new path.

"Wow, that was a close one." Twilight slapped out the fire on her shoulder.

"Indeed," Cold Blue tapped on the massive axe in his back.

"Oh, damn. How did that happen?" She laughed and pulled the axe out. The images of the axe and the wound quickly vanished. "Well, that confirms we can't die in these memories."

"But we certainly feel the pain of it," he commented on the aches in his back. "So much time has passed. If we don't find the exit soon enough, these wounds will be real."

"I suspect the same," she concluded. "Maybe even death will claim us if we don't hurry."

"And yet you are smiling?" Cold Blue raised an eyebrow at her joy.

"I'm smiling because I'm seeing history." Twilight jumped up and down. "Sure, it's through your eyes but it's still history to me."

"Sounds like something you've wanted for a while!" He gave a small chuckle in return.

"Yeah, like ever since I arrived in this timeline." Twilight turned back to the door and pointed knowingly. "That last scene we were in. It's one thing being told about the Voss Grand incident, but witnessing it with my own eyes. The defeat of the centaurs happened all around me."

"Not true, we witness the final battle. Not the death of Ixion's wife which sparked the fighting."

"Right!"

Cold Blue raised his hand to his chin as the thoughts became more clear. "History is a questionable way of putting it. You witnessed them, I lived through them."

"Hey, you've seen some of my past too!" She popped back.

"True, seeing you take on Tirek, the last of the centaur, completely on your own and win. Now that was incredible!"

Twilight blushed at his comment but quickly corrected him, "Well, I wasn't alone in that fight. My friends were there. And I had the power of three other alicorns at the time. I doubt I could win a fight like that now!"

"Really?" Cold Blue laughed in an almost insulting tone. "You doubt yourself that much."

"No... I mean, not all the time," Twilight felt the sting of the insult but kept a big smile. "Sounds like you are doubting me!"

Cold Blue placed his hand on her shoulder and brought her closer. "No, not at all. You truly are one of the most powerful dark magic users I have ever seen. Besides, my battles weren't easy either. I would have died in that last battle without Rex."

"Wait, what?" Twilight stared wide eyed at the door. "He was there too?!"

"Yes, you didn't hear him getting stabbed through by King Emerald in the sky." Cold Blue pointed upward as if they were still in the memory. "If it hadn't been for the dark alicorn amulet and both our quick thinking, Rex would be half the power he is now... literally, and I would not be standing here!"

"Really, I guess I should thank you both for that." She laughed harder. "Rex saved you and you saved my--" She quickly stopped herself from revealing her connections to Rex. It was at this point Twilight realized despite spending fourteen hundred years in this mindscape with Cold Blue she had yet to tell him a thing about her biological past.

Luckily, he was too distracted by other details to notice she stopped herself. The siren had his eyes upward, noting things in his mind. Twilight found it nice that she wasn't the only one in this timeline that took mental notes, though she preferred more physical notes.

With her own thoughts, she poofed a notepad into his hands. "Care to explain. I love a good... nerd talk."

"Nerd talk?" Cold Blue raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, Rainbow Dash's words." She waved the confusion off.

"Either way." He gave in a noted his thoughts on the paper. "That's the third memory involving me and Rex." Cold Blue turned back to the door, "There were also three memories of somepony I don't even recognize that well."

"I think those were Clover's memories," Twilight commented.

"Clover? Oh, right? Rex's current mistress," Cold Blue confirmed.

"What?!" Twilight's face went pale at Cold Blue's words. "You take that back about my--" She stopped herself again.

"..." Cold Blue smiled at her reaction. "You think Clover is a good match?"

"No... I don't know. Why would I know?" Twilight stammered back.

"Okay, if those memories of Clover and Rex, then who's the final pair?"

"There's also the mystery of who's connecting us all." Twilight poofed her own words on the notepad. "The mysterious light alicorn bending the mindscape. Once we find him, we can finally end this."

"That settles it." Cold Blue closed the notepad. "Let's figure out where we are now."

Twilight scanned over the place. It was a small hallway with a darkening path. She quickly realized something was wrong here. "This doesn't look familiar at all."

"Nor does it look familiar to me." Cold Blue leaned down and picked up a strange dark blue feather on the ground. "And I don't think the ones we are looking for are fully developed alicorns."

"Wait," Twilight took the feather and compared it to her own. "Impossible, mine doesn't match." She noted the feather was twice as long as hers. Twilight found it to be just as strange as the feather was so cold that it had ice forming at the end of it.

"Exactly, that feather is of an alicorn at least twenty thousand years old."

"What do you mean?"

"Every twenty thousand years alicorns go through a growth spurt that doubles their previous height as well as their wings and the length of their mane." Cold Blue took the feather back and pointed out to more ahead.

The two followed the path for what seemed like hours. Though the hallway was small, the length seemed unending. The two felt as if they had been walking for several miles. The entire time a faint light traced their path, yet no source could be spotted.

After six days of traveling, what must have been mere seconds outside the mindscape, the two reached their destination. They had followed millions of feathers, every few hundred were bigger than the previous ones. With the last ones covering the entire path. This prevented them from seeing the obvious until they were right on top of it.

Twilight was stopped at the sight of the floor changing dramatically. Entering the room, it went from feathers to skulls. It was a shocking see, to say the least. Even Cold Blue was caught off guard by the scope of it all. The room was several meters wide and the entire floor was covered in skulls.

No single species made up most of the mass. Instead, it was as if the heads were chosen at random, yet each one fit so perfectly into place. She didn't know how to react to such a scene. The only thing that told her to move forward was Cold Blue's own resolve to see this mission through.

Stepping forward she found her assumptions true. The layout was so perfect she never once felt a dip or rise in the surface. Closer inspection revealed no lacquer or solvent. Nothing was smooth or ever sharpened. All the skulls were setup in random order with so styles of them or the pattern at all yet each piece fit so perfectly that even jumping on them didn't mess with the arrangement.

The alicorn was so struck by the design that she barely noticed the darkness covering the rest of the room and the remaining details above it. She was curious but this floor alone raised plenty of questions like who made it and why? Most of all, the source; donations or she dreaded... trophies.

Cold Blue gave no comments to the floor and searched for the light source. Finally, after lighting some lamps pictures were revealed. "I think this is our destination."

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight gasped in shock and slowly approached the pictures.

"Just look at the first one for example." He pointed out the first one.

The image showed the silhouette of a princess and her dragon. They were surrounded by crescent moons and jewels. And had dogs bowing to their feet.

"That makes sense now nearly every memory involving me also involved Spike and Rarity. Mira must have been lurking here since shortly after losing the war."

"For what purpose?"

"Exactly, Aitym brought us here during her battle with Blood Diamond so there was no way they could have been in contact with each other."

"Remember, for us that was over that was several centuries ago."

"But for the real world, it was only a few days ago."

Cold Blue turn the lamp to another picture that only puzzled them even more. "This one looks almost like you only--" Cold Blue is quickly pushed out of the way as Twilight search the picture as if seeing it for the first time but wanting it more than anything.

"This isn't me!" Twilight pointed to two figures in the background. She smiled at the curved horn of the stallion and hoped the mare was Clover, but that shadow was even vaguer. "This is TwiLily."

"Who?" Cold Blue questioned.

"Well, its part of my theory of reincarnation." She pointed back to the previous picture. "I suspect that Mira and Dimitri are the pre incarnation of Rarity and Spike, just as I believe TwiLily is... well... me." Twilight twirled her foot in place. She knew how crazy it sounded but Cold Blue had no doubt in his eyes so she continued. "History books say that she was a powerful unicorn on par with the alicorns." She purposely left out the part of being Rex's daughter as she believed that might be harder to accept.

"Did you learn anything else about her?" Cold Blue stepped closer, earnest to know the truth.

"She adored books, could learn any spell, admired Celestia and Luna!" Twilight was stopped by having the siren this close.

"And?"

"She... had a..." Her eyes widened at this fact, "She... had a preference toward knights... in furry cloak..." She quickly stopped herself at that factor and tried not to stare at his uniform.

"Hmm, anything... I don't know." This time, Cold Blue seemed shy. "Anything monster related."

"What?" Twilight was caught off guard by the question but stopped at the sight of another figure in the picture. "Wait, is that?" She pointed out another person in the background with chains flowing around her.

"Who?"

"There was her greatest rival Selena Moondie..." Twilight drifted into thought, wanting to question Selena's appearance. Her hands drifted to her kopises, "She's also the one who gave me these. Me and Starlight encountered her multiple times through our travels."

"These pictures represent the ones inside the mindscape, then?" Cold Blue questioned the sight of the third picture. "Well, maybe this has something to do with Rex." He pointed to an image of a shadowy figure consumed in black flame. The Dark Alicorn Amulet was right below him only this time lit up with a blue gem as if the source of the fire. Behind him, the shape of the Crystal Empire could be seen.

"Huh, that might be Rex's future or something. Though I have no idea what the Crystal Empire is doing behind him." Twilight was intrigued but the image of fear in the shadow troubled her greatly. "Are there any other pictures around here?"

"Yeah, this one."

"Huh... Rainbow Dash!" She rushed over to an image of three silhouettes. Each of them looked exactly like Rainbow Dash to a T. Behind them was the giant hourglass that held the Batpony Canyons and the Pegasus Isles. The final detail was two gravestones at the bottom of the image.

"The jock pony!"

"What?" Twilight laughed at his comment remembering all too well she said it herself a few times. She slowly backstepped a little bit to try and get a better look at the picture but she couldn't figure out why her friend would be here too. 'Friend' Twilight turned her sight to the picture of Princess Platinum. "Wait, could that be it..." She turned her attention back to the image of the three Rainbow Dashes. "Rainbow Dartz..." Her eyes widened at two of them being stallions. "Yes, it is."

"One of your allies from that old village?"

"Yes, it has to be him, but why is he here--" The alicorn stopped as she finally felt the wall behind her. She turned around and came to the sight of the fifth picture. This picture was far scarier than the others and it made lesser sense by the minute.

The fifth image was of a pale, deformed alicorn down on all fours like some sort of wild animal. It was massive in size with dark blue wings covered in ice and a mane that slick down like ink, preventing Twilight from seeing its face fully. Despite the hidden details, Twilight felt as if she knew this alicorn. At her feet was possible the most frightening of all, the shattered remains of the elements of harmony.

"No, no, no, no!!" Twilight shouted at the image. "That makes no sense at all... just who are you?!" She demanded a response, backing away from the picture and in utter confusion. "Who?! Who are you?!?!" she screamed at it.

Cold Blue was at a loss to Twilight's actions. He didn't have the guts to tell her this was the same figure they saw in the strange possible future. The mere existence of the picture brought a deathly sickness to Twilight's mind as she could barely stand in the sight of it. The siren was forced to pull her away before she fell unconscious.

"No," Twilight argued. "There's writing here below it." She fought through the agony of her fear to read it. "Behold the killer of Harmony and Chaos, the last alicorn, Elisus Lunea Lumen." Twilight's eyes fell too heavy and Cold Blue pulled her away completely.

The siren finished the description. "She lies at the end of time itself and no one can escape her wrath, malice, and hatred. All are consumed forever and ever and her endless circle!"

"Elisus," Twilight repeated. "Why does that name sound so familiar?" She could feel her heart skip a beat out of fear by merely hearing the name. "Do I know you?" She gave her final comment before turning away.

"We need to leave." Cold Blue picked her up.

"Agreed..." She stopped, "There is a final picture."

Cold Blue faced it only to find the same kind of fear Twilight was feeling. "I know this one." The siren stepped closer to the final picture.

"What do you mean?"

"Rather, this simply confirms a mystery that has haunted me for so long." The description underneath was a single name, "C. C. Frost." The image showed two figures clashing with a bloody frozen mare in the background and an infant in her hands. One of the figures was unmistakable, from the horns to the shape of the skull, it was indeed Indigo Frost. But who was he fighting? The other figure was a complete unknown to Twilight, and yet, Cold Blue stared at him with the most fear.

The alicorn stopped at the sight of fins on the figure's cheeks, "The opponent was a siren. Just like you."

"I thought," he stopped looking over the picture and traced his fingers over Indigo Frost's image, and then the siren. Both of them seemed to bring hatred to his eyes. "I thought it was just a legend. A war between sirens and wendigos only ending with the death of the wendigo king... By the hand of the king of sirens."

"The king of siren?"

"His name was Crisis Claudius Blue."

"Blue?" Twilight questioned, "As in your ancestor, Crisis Blue was the one who killed Indigo Frost!!"

"That solves the final mystery." With that Hollow Prince appeared behind them.

"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned only to stop when Hollow Prince vanished only to reappear in another place.

"Please question your own thoughts on this mystery." Hollow Prince vanished and reappeared somewhere else. "I'm a bit busy."

"What?!" Twilight attempted to grab him in her magic.

"I thought connecting my magic with the dreamscape would make things easier on you." He flashed through the room faster. "Though, Cassandra isn't happy with the draining."

"Cassandra Eveningstar!" Twilight growled at his confirmation. "Battling Nightmare Moon is never a good idea. Trust me, I've fought her in three different hosts, including an alternate timeline version of myself!"

"I can see that," Hollow Prince tried to not sound mocking. "Find the connections, through them you will see the anomaly!"

"Connections, anomaly?!" Both Cold Blue and Twilight were stopped in their questioning as the room shook violently. Hollow Prince stopped reappearing leaving them in the unknown of how to stop all of this and save themselves.

******

Outside of the mindscape, above all the hellish corpses and burning cities was the center of the hourglass. Starswirl was waiting quietly for everypony else to be finished down below. Boredom had taken its course long ago as he spun the alathar in his hand.

He sat in the quiet white room with his eyes on the elevator. He noted that somepony had activated it hours ago but nopony had arrived. This meant that either the elevator was busted, or movement was being halted for some reason, either through something blocking the doors or over capacity. His attention was also on a checkerboard in front of him. A simple game compared to the kind the alicorn played but something he always enjoyed.

There was nopony on the other side but the pieces moved, regardless. Once the opponent made their move, he made one in quick succession. Though the game was fast for him, his opponent was taking his sweet time. "Do you really plan for me to wait all day?" He took an enemy piece.

There was no reply, simply the absolute peak of silence. The opponent was one he fought often but he never knew who was on the other side. Though that was only half true, Starswirl knew their likes and dislikes, taste, and even manners, but never a face and especially not a name.

"Come on, be a little chaotic. I know you love that, you old serpent." Starswirl mocked his opponent over and over as time passed. "By the time we are done, my milk is going to turn into cheese." He sipped his chocolate milk, smirking at the next move. "Ha, make this a challenge." He took three pieces this time. "Looks like this will be my third win in a row."

"Hmm, then I better win."

The movement was quick to take four of Starswirl's pieces. The old wizard was so shocked by the move he barely noticed the answer. "You only talk when you're claiming victory!"

"Yes, I'm about to." The opponent moved another piece.

"Really? because king me!!" Starswirl cheered louder by taking five pieces and putting one of his pieces at the very end.

"That's your third king already. Usually, you beat me with just two."

"Hey, I'm the one that does the mocking."

Another piece moved with no answers. The old wizard feared he scared him off so he passed a cup of chocolate milk to the opponent. "Drink up."

"How can I?" The voice commented, tapping his next piece in place. "I am you after all."

"No, you are something more, you old serpent!" Starswirl readied his finger on his own piece as if challenging him to take it.

"Old serpent... can't we ever think of a better name." With that, the piece moved to take out not only Starswirl's piece but also his two kings.

Starswirl was shocked to see his new king was now his only good piece left. "I see, then what should I name you."

"I think we should keep it to fate." The opponent moved his pieces to block Starswirl in.

"Fate, or the future?!"

"Oh, yes, what did that unicorn call us? Dis..." This time things were different. The opponent picked up the piece and flipped it over. Accepting defeat much to Starswirl shock a hand became visible over the piece.

Despite the preference to call his opponent a serpent, the hand was that of a bird. The other hand followed being that of a lion and soon the body slowly appeared. The image was faint but clearly still that of a serpent.

"So what is our name?" Starswirl took this final note as the elevator beeped loudly. The machine was finally moving.

"One final game. A very short time limit." A grin shined proudly with it's single outward sharp tooth.

"Agreed. A guessing game."

******

Author's Note:

Yeah, I've been wanting to do more foreshadowing with Starswirl, but I kept getting sidetracked. Sorry, this one felt a little rushed.

As for everything else? The picture room is something I've been planning since the start of this story and I'm glad we are finally here. Plus, the more of Rex's backstory the better right? I'm having so much fun exploring him.

We will have more fun next time. The season finale will be dropping in two weeks and its going to be another big season finale. I hope you enjoy both of these chapters.