JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming

by Lighttone GryphonStar

S6 Episode 46: Encased Wasteland

Deep within the Titan airship, a loud bang brought the earth pony pirate to attention. He opened his eyes slowly as he was still very groggy. Stumbling to his feet he finally noticed the strangeness around him.

Looking around he found the lights and strobes at his feet. Lifting his head upward revealed the chair of the cockpit of the airship and the other seats on the ceiling. This meant only one thing, the Titan Airship was upside down.

This made no sense as the balance system, while not able to stop leaning and tipping, would have prevented a complete flip of the airship. This meant either most systems had been shut down or severely damaged.

Fredricson huffed in annoyance, hoping it wasn't the ladder, and rolled around until he could stand. Quickly, he found Lady Cat laying beside him waking up just as slowly. He gave her a hand and helped her up. "Here, stand with me."

"I'm fine," she grumbled back. "Just great, I take one nap and you break the ship."

"Hey, this is my airship and I doubt it's broken." He barked back at her. "If anything, this is a prank by Starswirl."

"With the rest of the crew still searching for Twilight? Highly unlikely!" She tripped but caught herself on a wall.

"Just fly, you batpony!" Fredricson moved aside. "We need to reach the engine room." He held his hand up for her to grab.

Annoyed, Lady Cat lifted Fredricson to the controls. The two reached it and the pirate looped his arm around a hole in the chair. Pressing a few buttons he noticed that the airship's defense system had been turned off. "Odd, why would somepony do that?"

"Don't know," Lady Cat flapped her wings over to the window. "At least we can see outside now--" She stopped and slapped the captain on the back of the head.

"What was that for?!"

"Proving myself right!" She grabbed him and yanked him to the window. They both grimaced at the sight of the ground. "We crashed!"

"How did we crash?!" The earth pony questioned.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Lady Cat screamed back at him. "We were both unconscious."

"Well, there has to be a reason." He checked the system logs. "The engines are dead! Though, there was clearly a shutdown before the crashing."

"That means someone else was in here, making sure we had a soft landing." Lady Cat made her way to the door. "Can you fix it?"

"Give me some time, sure..." Fredricson's face twisted into a scowl. "But that isn't our biggest problem." He pulled up scans from outside. It showed the weather to be twenty below zero. "With the engine dead soon the heating will fail."

"Then we'll freeze to death," Lady Cat dreaded.

"Not if I can help it," the captain declared as he grabbed out some wrenches and headed to the engine room. "Either way, check on the children."

"Why do I have to?"

"Because they are you too much!" Fredricson yelled back as he rushed down the hallway. "Now go!"

Lady Cat stomped off in the other direction. She didn't know what was more concerning, the position they were in, or the safety of the children. In fact, her mind was quite blurry on the whole thing. The batpony couldn't remember much before waking up.

Soon enough she found the children's room, they were huddled together, shaking but still asleep. She felt a strange chill of fear upon seeing them and her ear inched uncontrollably. She entered the room quietly and wrapped the two in thick blankets. Tightening it until they were barely visible underneath.

After which she sat beside them and hummed over them. She brushed their manes lightly and shushed their fears. As she sang she felt a strange warmth wash over her. The children started to match her hums in their sleeping daze and filled her with more vigor and strength.

At the same time, Fredricson reached the engine room. He became perplexed by the strange fact that despite the scans telling him the engine was dead, he found the opposite. The power of the Titan airship was indeed still going but rather slow.

He smiled at this as this was a much easier fix. Though he wondered why the system checking was so wrong. Could power be drawing elsewhere? The source in question could be severely drained, hence why it gave the appearance of being dead. "No, that wouldn't make any sense. This airship is meant to only drive power from this engine." He shook his head. "Still, I'll look into it later."

He opened the side panel and began to work on the engine itself. After a bit of tinkering, he was able to get the machine running smoothly again. He sighed in relief. "Thank goodness." Yet, as always, he never noticed the brown spider watching them.

******

Hours passed by like seconds as King Grover's armies charged to the Giant Blue Hourglass. He had a simple goal before nightfall and that was to tame this land. He gave no care at all to the giant centaur rising from its ruins. This land that once belonged to his species would be theirs again.

He cheered and crowed like the mighty griffin he was and held up his sword. The Giant Blue Hourglass's walls began to glow in a bright, azure light as if recognizing his light magic blue. "We shall bring it all back under our command. Maybe then the umbrums, our dark halves can return! Maybe when every single pegasus lay dead under my foot..." His teeth gritted and his jaw shook. "Father, your will be done!!"

The ground below quaked with the sound of his voice. And yet, his forces refused to yield. They marched forward until their blades were touching the very walls of the Giant Blue Hourglass itself. They all crowded with their king and struck the wall, making the glass scream with scrap metals.

"I'll make them pay for this!" Grover roared, aiming for the sky as they climbed up the walls. Wings would leave them wide open so they tucked in their defenses and charged ahead. They knew that Carnival Carnage's allies had ensured the forces of Pegasus Isle would be crippled but they didn't want to give them an ounce of an advantage.

They continued until they were at the boundary between the top of the Giant Blue Hourglass and the bottom. They moved over the Crooked Wing without a care and pushed into the pegasi border.

The two ifrits just stood there as the forces passed by them. Sage and Vanity barely watched each griffin arriving and fighting through the pegasus. They were both focused on their own survival. The two knew why they were there and thus had no fear left at all.

Carnival Carnage rolled up on his unicycle and laughed at their faces. Their broken will reminded him of his victims. He moved closer and stroked their faces. "I see, both of you have accepted fate!" They two only nodded at him and kept watching the world of hellish war around them.

"So these are the two witnesses." Grover's golden armor shined out from the blood and fighting around his soldiers. "Will they be useful to us?"

"No, they are here to simply watch..." Carnival Carnage leaned over and licked Sage's face. The ifrit didn't even flinch even as the earth pony flipped over and did the same to Vanity. "Leave them where they stand!" He rolled over to the shattered remains of the vase that once held Annity. "The dead and the pegasi are your only targets."

"Good..." Grover's eyes turned away from them and even the giant centaur. They all meant nothing to him. He instead turned to his soldiers and cheered them on louder. "Diomedes will lead the charge!! Agamemnon will flank the guard towers! Meneleus claim every city in the north. Teucer will claim every city in the south. Ajax will stay back and claim every city in the east. Nestor, secure and protect Carnival Carnage for gracing us with this victory. As for me!" The king gave his final proclamation. "I shall kill every descendant of Crucian Gale!!"

The armies separated into several large forces. Ajax's forces stayed back as commanded and pushed her forces around the walls. She did not want to take any chances of losing her spot. She wasn't the best general, but she served her king faithfully like the rest. Yet she had no idea what awaited them.

As the forces grew too far apart, a bright yellow light shined out from behind them. It was the same light from before, but this time instead of ignoring them as they rose to the edge of their victory, it chose to charge in at full force. Ajax jumped in front of her armies and stood proud as the light beam crashed right into her.

Blood splattered out of her mouth as the hand of a pegasus tore off her arm so easily. Ajax screamed in agony at the sight of the unknown pegasus crushing the bones and shredding the flesh before throwing it at her feet. "What the fuck are you--" She was stopped as the light faded to reveal Private Pansy. "Impossible..." It was true, though her body was very different from the reports.

Standing in front of Ajax matched some of the details of Private Pansy. But the mane was longer, the muscles were so refined and her glare was like a mad monster akin to the wendigoes of legends. Her armor wasn't like the raggedness of the original reports, still similar but polished to shine as if crafted by a master smith.

Ajax couldn't get words out of her mouth quick enough as the soldier stepped closer to enemy. "You can't be the lapdog..." She coughed up more blood. "You can't be that Gale's stupid fat bitch--" She was stopped as Private Pansy ripped off her other arm.

"That is Commander Hurricane!!" Private Pansy roared out loud and grabbed Ajax's head, squeezing it tightly. She giggled and shivered with joy as the griffin screamed back, only to be stopped as her weeps were cut short by the girffin's head shattering under her strength.

"That was gruesome..." Lord Red's voice echoed in Private Pansy's brain.

"It's not enough..." Tears dripped from her eyes. "I want more blood..." Her hands shook the blood off as fast as possible. "I... I... wanted them all to suffer... Suffer!!" She pulled out her massive wings and rushed through Ajax's forces and onto the next army. Her rage left a river of blood and agony in her wake.

Beyond her sight, two creatures watch on in horror. Not the ifrits, who had long given into the madness. Instead, Hermes Mercury and Red Steel climbed up at the edge of the Giant Blue Hourglass. They didn't know how to react to the sight of her rage. They only knew one thing, she wanted the blood of griffins. And poor Hermes might just be next in the line of fire.

******

Deep in the rubble of the collapsing peaks, Starlight woke up with a shock and thud. Her head throbbed loudly and her limbs shook violently in all directions, trying to get a grasp on reality. The previous scene was still flashing firmly in her head.

The ground shook, the Giant Blue Hourglass being ripped apart by an unknown force. Her eyes widened at the sight of Clovis standing over her. A massive shard of permafrost tore through his chest. She was knocked away as everything went black.

Realizing what happened, she rushed out from under the table. Unsure what to do she screamed out for him. "Clovis! You fucking coward!!" She hit the walls and screamed louder. "Don't you dare die saving me!!" She shoved her body into the wall, punched, and even kicked it, yet it wouldn't budge.

"That won't help..." Silver Pear tried to stand.

She screamed again, punching until her fist tore and bled. "You asshole!!" Lifting up her hand she forced out what magic she could but only fizzle echoed out. "No, no, no, no!!"

"Please, Starlight stop!" Silver Pear coughed and wheezed.

"I will not!!" She forced her magic out only for it to bounce off the walls and tear through her leg. Blood flowed down her skin before her body collapsed back onto the floor. The unicorn winced and shivered at her rage backfiring.

Silver Pear tried to move toward her, but his legs were barely holding him up. He had taken the full brunt of the rubble to protect her. Yet she was more concerned about the corpse that threw her into his safety. "Please, Starlight. We need to find a way out of here." He looked around the room before looking back. She refused to face him, so he repeated much louder. "Starlight!!"

"I don't know!!" She screamed at him. "But we have to save him--"

"Clovis is dead." Silver Pear didn't scream or yell. He stated the bluntness of reality that finally broke her.

Starlight's eyes filled with tears, yet it took a solid minute before she answered him. "Why?"

"What?"

"Why would he save me?" Starlight's voice hitched. "He didn't respect me! He clearly hated having me around!!" Her voice screeched with a dry throat. "Why would he make such a heartless move? Why save me?!"

"I... I don't know." Silver Pear forced his legs to move. Much to the obvious, he got about a few steps before crashing down near Starlight. "I don't know at all why he would do such a thing."

"Would you ever be so selfish?" Her eyes tilted toward him.

"I don't think he was being selfish." Silver Pear turned away. "I think he just reacted. To save his Lord's ward."

Starlight stopped and thought about it for a moment. "He... did it for Lord Red."

"Possibly. He adored him, after all." Silver Pear didn't know how to word it, so he used a comparison. "It's like Clover and Rex."

"I don't think Clovis was in love with Lord Red." Starlight laughed at the thought.

"No, but he would do anything for Lord Red, just as Clover would do anything for Rex." Silver Pear laughed back, realizing how that sounded. "Yeah, I guess the family of CC siblings is pretty selfish, after all."

"I guess, you're right." Starlight's tears finally stopped. She didn't know what to do next. After witnessing one friend die, knowing more friends were in danger, she was at least happy to know that Silver Pear was right beside her in this. The unicorn would need all the help she could get in order to get out of this problem.

******

Once finished with their work, the two pilots managed to pry the Titan airship's door open. Fredricson and Lady Cat stepped outside of the Titan airship, only to be caught off guard by the intense chill. The wind howled cold and freezing rain at them, knocking them to the ground.

"I'm freezing!" Lady Cat shouted as she covered her mouth with a sleeve. "The wind is too strong! I can't even see where we're going!"

"We need to clean out the outer walls..." Fredricson shouted back over the gale. "Or else the airship will never get back into the sky."

"Okay, lead the way!" Lady answered. "The quicker we get done, the faster we get back inside for warmth."

Fredricson looked over the sides to measure the damage. "The wings are frozen solid and buried under all this snow and ice. We'll have to dig for quite a while." He gave her a shovel.

"Great... Where did we even crash?!" Lady Cat replied, looking up at the swirling storm. She could barely make out the outlines of the buildings around them through the thickness. "This is insane..."

"No idea..." He gritted his teeth and moved some snow out of the way. "What did the scans say?"

"Nothing but static! That's why I'm asking you!" Lady Cat growled back. She grabbed a scoop of snow and threw it in the direction they came from, making her point clear.

"I don't know where we are?!" He yelled back.

"Oh, I know where we are..." A new voice echoed behind them. The two froze colder than the icy air at the unfamiliar. The horrible smell finally reached them, making them twist and gag as they faced the source of the voice.

Both of them back away to a massive shadow with the fog of icy cold rain. A pair of eyes shone through the thick fog above the two as it made its move. It slowly rose up from the stormy clouds until it was hovering over the two pilots. Slithering out in sight with thousands of tentacles was the twisted and shredded remains of a rotting corpse, holding tightly to a weakened Starswirl the Bearded.

"Sir?!" Fredricson called out to the old wizard, but he was too beaten and broken to respond to him at first.

Instead, Starswirl's eyes traced over his rotting capture. His attempts to fire chaos magic at it did little to hinder it as it slimed closer to the two pilots. He knew enough about the legends of this beast, and knowing what he wanted, he turned his magic to his pilots. His pulse of powers did little to scare them back.

The two wanted to free him, not knowing what the tentacle monstrosity wanted. They held up their shovels as weapons and ready themselves to save the old wizard. Neither knew the greater danger lay in fighting this tentacle lich of a wraith. The monster pulled itself over the edge of the Titan airship and moved quickly over the two. With its numerous tentacles, it wrapped around both of them and squeezed tight.

"Get us out of here!" Starswirl shouted at them as he kicked the slime-covered creature.

The two put on brave faces, willing to do anything to save their friend. The pilots wrestled with the beast, trying to free themselves from its grasp. But the tentacles would not relent, squeezing tighter and tighter.

"So..." The monster's voice echoed from within the corpse barely hanging together jaw. "Since the wizard gave me such a fight..." The head swung close to each one of them. "Which one of you will make a fine host?!"

Fredricson stabbed his shove into several tentacles allowing them to breathe. Lady Cat threw her whip out and sliced the tentacles around Starswirl. Both quickly saw the pointless of fighting as each wound regenerated as fast as it happened. "Sir?! Fight him!!" The captain urged his ally.

Starswirl's head fell in defeat. "I can't even lift my arms. I am powerless against this thing..." His chaos magic faded away and he grimaced at his helplessness to save them despite their own desires to save him. "You don't understand... It is pointless to fight him... this is Thule, the progenitor... of all monsters..."

******

Author's Note:

So we get some more details of who Thule is while showing off everything falling apart. This was a fun chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Season 6 is here.