JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming

by Lighttone GryphonStar

S5 Episode 41: Questioning Reality

Years ago at the center of the Pegasus Isles, a group of six pegasi travel over an all too familiar barren cliffside. Up close it was far larger than it appeared at a distance. Nearly two miles in diameter and yet no life in sight at all. This was accompanied by an eerie silence that chilled to the bone.

To make things worse, there was intense pressure, making the distance far harder, heavier and tougher. "Why is it so hot?!" the youngest spoke up; a chubby red filly with a curly silver mane hiding under the wing of the middle child.

"Then maybe Gale shouldn't have brought you along!" The oldest colt complained.

"Don't you dare disrespect my best friend!" Gale stood up and threw her wings out against the high winds. Her friend did her best to hold her up to show just how imposing she could be.

"Please, don't fight right now..." The youngest colt stood between them. "Not when we are so close."

"Yea! Children, we need to stand together!" The father cheered.

"But, Pansy shouldn't even be here?!" the oldest child complained. "She's not family!"

"I told you to drop it, Dartz!!" Gale mocked him.

"Make me!" he barked back.

"Fine, I will." She pulled out her crooked spear with three light blue feathers tied at the hilt. Fueled by rage she swung forward. However, the youngest colt jumped in the way, taking a slash to the face.

"Dumbass!" Dartz mocked the rescue attempt.

"Zword!!" Gale rushed over to catch her brother.

"Gale HD Hurricane!!" their mother barked out the filly's full name. "Do not miss use your great-grandfather's spear so abrasively!"

"I... I'm sorry." Gale's face went pale at the wound she left her younger brother.

"She didn't mean to," the father laughed to ease the mood. "That old Crucian Gale was just as reckless. I remember a story where my grandfather witnessing the old fool throw the weapon at an escaping ship with no care of it's retrieve, understanding that he had to have hit something." He swung his arm as a show in remembering the story, with the added effect of tripping over his own feet for comedic sake.

"I'm... I'm fine." Zword smiled and stood proud, laughing with his father. Before even letting his mother check it out, he ripped a piece of his green shirt off and bound it. "I can see. I'm still standing. Are you two okay?"

The parents wanted to step in but absolutely adored his desire to check on the others. The youngest yet always the strongest in heart, body, and mind. Zword offered, despite his pain, to laugh with him.

Dartz refused and rushed on ahead. He was here for one reason, greater than all the others. He needed to prove he could stand. The eldest brother needed no weaknesses... only strength. He felt this every day of his life.

Dartz always felt like he was never worthy of his bloodline. The victories and honors of his past family members weighed heavier, especially in the sight of that crooked spear. Luck was the only reason Gale had it.

His parents claimed it was destiny. She had inherited our founder's name, and to them, it wasn't because of luck that she found the crooked spear on the shoreside one day. It was a visage, a sign from the gods that Gale was worthy of her name. Far more worthy than him, Dartz.

Soon enough, the family reached their destination. Another circle laid at the center of this mysterious cliffside. It seemed as if all the winds were coming directly from the circle. In fact, the air around the circle was moving so fast that not a single cloud could get in. The pressure was so strong it bent the images and light as even a heat wave swarmed over it.

"There is it, the Chains of Pluto." The father pointed out to a giant chain-covered scythe stabbed into the center of the ending circle. Beside it was the hilt of another weapon buried in the ground. "The master of all azoth daggers."

"Placed there by the founder of the umbrum race. Stolen from Saturn by the titan of darkness and the first son of Sanity." The mother cheered with delight. "Now go!! just as your forefathers have before you!!"

This mission was basic: Touch the handle. This was better said than done as it involved getting past the last circle. Just the winds escaping it were so strong the children could barely stand. They had been training for years and even this far away it felt like an impossible task to touch the final circle's edge, let alone enter it and reach the goal.

Dartz, feeling the doubt from earlier, was the first to step forward. His plan was even greater than their hopes. He didn't just want to reach for the handle; he was going to rip it out of the ground and claim the weapon for himself. He had been told that it had only ever been removed once and that was thousands of years ago. The one who removed it quickly placed it back.

Not knowing if the previous did it out of fear, pride, or doubt. What Dartz knew was that he would not hesitate.

Each child at the ripe age of five years old would need all the wing power they could muster. Little pegasi are trained to fly. For some, it's basic stuff like levitation and crossing from cloud to cloud. For upstarts, it's loops and mini diving. In later years they might return to training to become athletes and even soldiers. These kinds get pushed to greater limits in speed, strength, and of course, style. Soldiers, in fact, are pushed to their personal limits with massive feats of speed and diving off the highest mountains.

However, it was the founder of Pegasus Isles that pushed such training to the highest extreme. And her name was blazoned at the edge of the circle. Rainbowous Julia Dasherton, aka Rainbow Dash the 1st. With the proclamation, "If you are strong, then prove it. If you are fast, then prove it! If you are determined, then prove it!! Step forward and make your mark."

Dartz stared deeply at the name and several marks beyond it, each of a pegasus who succeeded this great founder and each one bringing more and more weight over the colt's brow. With the final name being the founder of their clan, Crucian Gale, at the final edge of the circle. Seeing each them reach the hilt and others falling just short of the prize.

There had been many in the species named after this Rainbow Dash. There would certainly be pegasi after, named Rainbow Dash as well. But the mere fact that he bared even a variety of the name was enough to crush his resolve.

Clenching his fist, the colt pushed forward with all his might. He couldn't show weakness now, especially with his siblings right beside him. Yet his doubts weren't the only things fighting him as soon as he crossed the circle.

Crashing hard into his face was a harsh punch of wind. It felt as if it was going to throw him to the ground and beat him to a bloody pulp and kick him after he was down. Dartz couldn't let this stop him. He called out his name and the names of his siblings. "I am Rainbow Haven Dartz Hurricane, my sister is Gale Heart Damzel Hurricane, and my brother is Zword Herald Dusk Hurricane!!"

On that final word, all four of them charged forward into the swirling circle. Neither knew what horrors awaited them inside or in their unknown future.

******

"Quite an unexpected find in the future."

An adult Rainbow Dartz woke up as if from a dream. His body was far more battered and weak compared to his younger form. He couldn't remember what happened, only that before the mindscape he was in had shaken violently and that a massive roar had echoed out before everything went black.

Now he was awake, but it quickly became clear that he wasn't free at all. However, Princess Platinum was nowhere in sight, nor was the vicious shadow of her mother. Rainbow Dartz grumbled under his breath of being still trapped in this place but smiled nevertheless hoping they were free.

"Oh, now you smile!" the voice echoed again, bringing the pegasus to attention.

"What? Who are you?" Rainbow Dartz called out. He knew the voice wasn't from the mother as this was clearly a male. He searched around the emptiness, hoping for an answer. "Are you trapped here too? Come out? I'm not the enemy."

"Yes... but I am." With that, the clear white area faded into a blood-soaked red. The floor and even the sky twisted and morphed into a mass of limbs and faces.

The details of each were so distorted that the longer he looked, the more the pegasus doubted what he was seeing. All he knew was the endless fear chilling over his flesh as the walls of blood and pieces closed in. "What the fuck?!" Rainbow Dartz threw up his hands. "What are you?"

"Really? is that the question you should ask?!" The hideous scene stopped its advance.

"Get away from me!!" Several limbs ahead of the pegasus trembled in, as if they were about to reach out to him.

"Do not scream!" The limbs stopped before going completely limp. Instead, the faces moved out of the way to reveal a massive sideways eye. "Many have screamed at me over the years." The eye lowered as if in shame. "I wouldn't even be returning to this monstrous form if it hadn't been for that Twilight Sparkle!"

"Twilight? Where is she?" Rainbow Dartz remembered back to the reason he and the group had come to the Batpony Canyons in the first place.

"That mare broke free! All I did for her and she smited me!!" The eye twisted as if roaring in rage. "Leaving with her friends, family, and that siren!! That cursed alicorn!!"

"Alicorn!" Rainbow Dartz questioned.

"Oh, you don't know?" The eye lingered closer. "Oh yes, I can see it."

Rainbow Dartz shivered away as the limbs reached over his body, touching and probing him. He kicked away, shouting and screaming, yet they wouldn't halt their advance.

"Foolish pegasus," the eye laughed a horrific cackle. "There is no escape. You are already in my grasp." With that, the pegasus found himself unable to move. "Here, let me show you the real Twilight Sparkle!"

The eye grabbed hold of Rainbow Dartz's face and pressed down tightly. Images raced through his head as the iris of the eye showed what they both could see. Images of Twilight, her false unicorn form, her true alicorn form, and even the transformations of the Pale Mare.

"Do not be offended!!" The eye narrowed upward as if the voice was frowning. "She lied to you. She lies to all her friends."

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen her memories. She was forged into her current form with a spell that was ancient in her time but hasn't even been written in our." The images showed her unicorn body gaining wings while solving a puzzle left to her. "Starswirl, the thief of Chaos's Words." The image changed again, showing two scrolls with similar writing styles. "Knowledge of these future scrolls are what trapped her in that form and later trapped her and her student in time."

Rainbow Dartz twisted around at the image of Starlight and Twilight's friends, one of which looked remarkably like a member of his family. "And what do you know of them?"

"Only what I can glean from Twilight." The eye shrieked in despair. "However, seeking information out of you seems pointless. While you look like this Rainbow Dash, you are not the preincarnation of her." The eye twitched in place and blinked with the flesh of the limbs. "But what is clear is you were once in contact with this Rainbow Dash's previous form." The eye tightened his grip on the pegasus. "Tell me where she is?!"

"Even if I knew who you are talking about... why would I tell you anything?!" Rainbow Dartz took all his will to turn away from the eye. "You are an alicorn..."

"Yes, just as Twilight is a fake..." the eye stopped as another memory from the pegasus passed by. It was far too quick to get the full details, but what was clear was the image of another alicorn. "I see, Twilight and I are far from the first alicorns you have encountered."

Rainbow Dartz gritted his teeth and conceded. "I trusted Twilight from previous experience. However, I have no reason to trust you."

"She is an alicorn that gained your trust long before you knew the truth..." The eye repeated the thoughts in Rainbow Dartz's head. "I don't have that luxury." It leaned in the closest ever, pressing its sclera right against the pegasus's face. "So for now, you will just be a temporary host... until I find one of those siblings of your memories."

Rainbow Dartz struggled his hardest at those words, but it meant nothing. The limbs of the eyes cracked louder and they twisted and turned tighter around his body, reaching over his chest and neck. Stretching over his face and pressing his cheek, before forcing their way into his mouth, nose, eyelids and ears.

The pegasus twisted and squirmed in utter impossible to describe agony and torment. He was unable to scream, unable to stop any of this and the remaining limbs forced his arms and legs back. There was no protest left as they pushed deeper into all of his facial orifices.

The limbs of the eye lifted him upward. "Do not worry, this is all happening in your mind. I am simply pushing you into a place where no one can disturb us. So I can use your body unheeded until I find a more useful host." With that, the limbs pushed the pegasus into the sclera's walls and deep into the iris of the eye. "Maybe one of those siblings of yours can be more useful than you."

*******

The rumble sounds of the rushing mobs of the undead slowly reached inside a certain hospital room. Though the patient inside didn't know about the evils outside, what was clear was they were very ready. Inside was a random jumble assortment of weapons, in particular; right beside the bed of the patient was a crooked spear with a torn green cloth from a shirt, bound to the hilt, right above the three light blue feathers.

The room shook violently, yet the patient didn't budge an inch from their sleep. However, as single boyish laughter echoed in their head, their eyelids winced. "Damn it, Zword. You always knew the worst time to step in the way." The patient's eyes blinked open.

Her eyes drifted through the room. She saw the weapons, the armor, and then finally the equipment and the IVs. This was an all too familiar scene to her. However, after reliving that memory, she found herself wondering if it should be her standing over the bed, looking at another patient in this stuffy hospital room.

She could see it now as if she was reliving the very moment. Her, standing right beside the bed with her best friend. Both of their face lowered and shamefully looked at the one who would have been laying there. The beeping of her own monitor was replaced by the faint echoes of a long single beep that wouldn't stop.

The patient clenched her covers tightly and forced her frown into a smile. She sneakered until the memories of the old hospital room faded completely. Her chuckle turned into a shaking laugh as she slammed the bed. "No... no, not happening today, little bro!"

She threw off her blankets, only to sneer at the wounds on her back and legs. "I won another good battle!" She laughed while tightening her bandages. Turning her attention to her golden roman style armor and slipping it on with ease. Next her iron-toe boots and her spiked gauntlets.

Jumping out of bed, she cheered at the chaotic sounds outside, She wasn't sure what was going on, only that another battle was ahead of her. She swung her fists in front of her a few times and then an uppercut. Ending preparations with some hair gel, always sitting beside her bed with a note from an all too familiar private.

She winked at the message and used the gel to slick back her jet-black spiked mane. Closing the lid and placing it in her pocket and drying off her hands. She turned her attention to the crooked spear of her family.

At first, she admired the three feathers representing the first three tribes of pegasi to settle inside the Giant Blue Hourglass. However, having that memory again made her attention fall on the green cloth. "Hmp! Come on, stupid fool! We have to go stab some bad guys."

She pulled in the side of the hilt of the crooked spear, pressing it against her gut tightly, and cheered to herself, being most boastful of her rank. "This is Commander Hurricane! Reporting for duty--" The famous warrior of legend was rudely interrupted as the wall behind her exploded.

She didn't hesitate, turning her weapon toward the smoke. "Ha, here to face me, you weak soul!" she mocked the intruder without ever seeing their face at all. "Oh, I'm so ready to kick your feathered ass!!"

"I hope you are ready!" dual voices echoed from the smoke of the explosion. Stepping out, revealed her opponent. It wasn't who she was expecting.

The tight grip of her spear shook as Commander Hurricane came face to face with the corrupted and twisted form that was once her brother. Despite keeping her stance, she couldn't believe her eyes. She knew something was very wrong, but she did not know what horror awaited her.

Aitym forced Rainbow Dartz into a smile and lifted his shattered hand and blue blood claw for her to see. "Well, dear sister. Are you ready?!"

******

Author's Note:

This season just keeps kicking things into higher gears. I told you the spear would be coming back.

I hope you enjoyed this one. Don't forget to comment, like, and favorite. This is the Winter Finale so no more chapters until March. Be ready for the horror and danger to come when we see two siblings duke it out for the soul of Dartz and the land of Pegasus Isle.