Twilight glided beside Fluttershy down to the level of the bog. Her companion didn’t touch the ground, so she didn’t either, spreading her wings wide and staying above the mud and skeletal trees. She could practically feel the branches reaching up to try and grab her, though so far they hadn’t moved.
“Stay with me!” Fluttershy called from up ahead, speeding up a little. “We don’t have far to go!” Fluttershy tucked her wings and sped up, forcing Twilight to flap desperately to keep up. Fluttershy might not be a strong flyer, but Twilight’s wings were scarcely days old.
She started to droop in the air, and her legs smacked against the trees, shattering fragile branches. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake as before and draw blood, so this time Twilight blasted them out of the way, shattering the old wood with flashes from her horn. “I’m not very good at this!” Twilight shouted, some of her desperation and fear finding its way into her voice. “Could you slow down a little, Fluttershy? I’m not… I haven’t learned how to fly yet!”
Fluttershy did slow, quickly enough that Twilight almost smacked into her. She pushed sideways near Twilight, then lifted her up from below. “It’s not wise to seem in distress,” Fluttershy said, her voice flat. “Not around me, and especially not Sideways. There are creatures who thrive on weakness, and they’re always hungry.”
“Great,” Twilight said, exasperated. “I’m sorry I didn’t master my abilities perfectly after a few days of pure insanity. I didn’t really have time to go flying with Rainbow Dash when I was hunting vampires and getting lost in the Underworld.”
Fluttershy didn’t say anything to that—just helped her down over the edge of the swamp to the first patch of dry ground they’d seen so far. Twilight landed eagerly, practically embracing the soil as she got close to it. But then she saw the dull white lumps sticking out from underneath, and she thought better of it. “Lots of, uhh… lots of death here. You sure this isn’t the same as the Underworld?”
“Sure,” Fluttershy said. “I, uh… I’ve never been there. I don’t think Death would be very happy with a pony like me. And we wouldn’t have much to say to each other, so I probably never will.”
Twilight’s ears perked at a sound from further along. It sounded like distant footsteps, except that each one shook the ground through her hooves. “How many other worlds are there, anyway? Equestria is hard enough to understand with just itself. But now there’s Sideways, and the Underworld, and…”
“Uh…” Fluttershy looked deep in thought for a moment. “Only other one I know about is Faewyld? And… you probably shouldn’t ever go there. You’d probably get tricked into making promises there you couldn’t escape from. Fairies aren’t very nice.”
“Right.” Twilight filed that one away, turning in the direction of the hoof steps. It was coming not from the bog behind them, but the sparse forest ahead. Still the trees were dead, though these had retained a few thin gray leaves and long spines, enough to make passing between them extremely painful to anyone who happened to come this way. “Is that…”
“Oriax,” Fluttershy whispered.
Far away, something roared, loud enough that skeletal birds took flight from the dead trees, shedding rotting feathers in the air behind them as they flew.
“And it knows we’re here. You, uh… kinda stand out. Not really the place for an Alicorn.”
“Of course,” Twilight muttered. “Just like the Underworld. The instant I walk in everything wants to kill me. I’m sure by next week I’ll be in that Faewyld place for no discernible reason, and everything there will be trying to murder me too.”
“We’re here to do the murdering,” Fluttershy said, voice wistful and sad. “But if Oriax makes it to Equestria, many ponies will die. Celestia will… probably figure out a way to stop it eventually. But how many lives are you willing to trade?”
“None,” Twilight answered. “I get it. We have to hunt, so let’s hunt.”
Fluttershy spread her wings. “We’ll… probably have to fly.” The massive, thumping footsteps were getting closer. Bits of canopy sticks and leaves broke away from the nearby trees, and Twilight found it difficult to even stay standing. “It’s big.”
“I got that impression.” Twilight spread her wings again, though she wasn’t sure how much luck she would have using them. She felt the sword at her belt, and drew that too, holding it close in her magic and keeping the blade as far away as possible. “How many spirits like Oriax have you fought before, Fluttershy?”
“Uh…” She hesitated. “One. And we lost.”
“Oh. Perfect.”
Oriax took another step, and suddenly it came into view.
It looked a little like a camel, if a camel had been created by a mad god who had only had the creatures described. It had at least eight limbs, with spines and ridges down its back. A cloud of thick smoke seemed to emerge from behind it, and when it opened its mouth to roar, greenish flames crackled and sizzled out.
It was still so far away, but as tall as a castle, that wouldn’t last long. “That wants to come to Equestria?” Twilight asked, staring up in horror. “It… why?”
“Food,” Fluttershy said. “There’s life there. None here.”
“How do we…” It seemed like a stupid question, but at this point Twilight already felt like an idiot. It wasn’t as though she could seem more ignorant. “So how do we kill this thing if it isn’t alive in the first place?”
“Same way you kill a vampire,” Fluttershy answered. At least she didn’t laugh at Twilight for her dumb question. “Cut off the head.”
A fifty-foot head higher off the ground than the Golden Oaks, constantly spewing deadly flames. Perfect.
Twilight ran forward as far as she dared, then took off, using the speed of her run to help lift her into the air. Flying alone was incredibly hard for her, she certainly wasn’t advanced enough to take off from a stop.
She flew past Fluttershy, angling upward with some difficulty. But without the burst of downward momentum from a huge jump, she was doing better this time. Or maybe it was just desperation fueling her flight.
“Follow my lead!” Fluttershy called, flying past her and lifting up.
Twilight winced, watching Fluttershy retreat higher and higher into the air. It looked like she was going to come down on Oriax from above—which might be hard for her, since she could barely gain as much elevation as a modest ramp. Twilight whimpered, then angled her horn down and lifted herself up into the air with a sudden burst of force. It was like throwing a rock, except for the rush of air past her wings, fast enough that they smacked against her side and she nearly lost control of the sword in her magic. Twilight held on desperately, squealing in surprise with the effectiveness of the push.
Why didn’t Rainbow suggest practicing this way? The answer was as obvious as the question was stupid. Because pegasus ponies don’t have horns. They couldn’t fly this way if they wanted to.
Pushing herself seemed to work well enough, and probably would so long as she didn’t try to land again. But it hadn’t made her any harder for Oriax to notice.
The massive creature didn’t move terribly fast—each one of his huge limbs lifted only once every twenty seconds or so, moving it forward in a painfully slow stomp. But its head was tilting up, as though following a delayed version of where Twilight had gone through the air. It pulled back rotting lips, revealing black crystal teeth underneath.
Twilight stopped pushing abruptly, and started to fall. Her stomach dropped out from beneath her, but the green flames continued over her head, to where she would’ve gone if she knew what she was doing.
And in those flames, Twilight heard a voice. It spoke incredibly slowly, like she’d suddenly learned whale song, yet she found she could understand it perfectly. It even used a lower district Canterlot accent, like she’d grown up hearing in her own house.
“The attacker does not dissuade,” the voice called. “The harvest is ripe. I will feast.”
Fluttershy was no Rainbow Dash, but compared to Oriax she was practically a blur, passing along its neck with her sword extended in her mouth. The creature didn’t bleed exactly, though its flesh split along the blade and smoky flame emerged from within.
It roared, turning slowly towards where Fluttershy had been as one of its limbs lifted. Though it had walked like a leg before, now it twisted upward like a tentacle, without any suggestion of bones to restrict the path it took through the air. It flew straight for Fluttershy, lighting fast compared to how it had moved so far.
Twilight didn’t think, she just acted. Pressure built from her horn as she focused on the hardest spell she routinely practiced—a teleport. The magic wasn’t commonly a weapon, but maybe…
Twilight focused on the joint, and a patch of empty air she could clearly see. There was a flash, and the monster roared again, the upper half of its leg soaring in an arc from the exact angle it had been while still attached—well over Fluttershy’s head.
She was still accelerating downward. Twilight spread her wings, catching herself in a glide and pushing out behind her this time. She sped up suddenly, flying straight at Oriax. She squealed in surprise, tried to change direction, but a little tilt just adjusted her path so that it curved upward, eating most of her forward velocity in the process.
“Not that close!” Fluttershy screamed, but her voice was so tiny and far away.
“I don’t want to!” Twilight screamed. She had already stopped pushing, but she couldn’t just use her magic the other way. That was likely to make her lose control altogether, plunging end-over-end into oblivion.
Oriax’s head turned on her, still trailing fog from the little line along its neck. “Child of evening thinks she belongs with elders,” it rumbled. “The champions of old are all ashes now. Their proud kingdoms lie in ruin. Their triunes are covered by mountains of reef beneath the sea. You think you rule the sky, yet only one has ever seen the footprints. Join them, child. The first meal in so long…” The jaws spread wide above her, each tooth longer than her legs and razor-sharp.
Could I…
Inspiration flashed into Twilight’s mind—possibly the stupidest idea she’d ever had.
She had no time to second-guess. She could either try, or die.
Twilight shoved herself forward with all her might, tucking her wings close and holding the sword in her magic. Not away from Oriax, not to either side—but straight ahead. Its jaw was open so wide that she got nowhere near its teeth or the shriveled flesh within.
Shriveled and meaty, not armored.
From below, green sparks roiled and surged. Flames that, if they rose, would surely do something worse than kill her. But she didn’t have to wait.
The sword was basically moving on its own. Her magic might not help her fly, but she could hold herself in place, and levitated the sword at the same time. She slashed along the neck in a circle from within, digging deep with each stroke. The sword moved so fast she could barely even follow its path, let alone direct it.
Flames rose up from beneath her, like the eruption of a volcano. Oriax’s terrible voice thundered, so deep that from here Twilight couldn’t have said what it was trying to yell at her.
It didn’t matter. The flames drew close, and Twilight vanished with a teleport, reappearing in open air as far away from it as she could.
Flames erupted from the creature’s mouth, yet many of them surged through the new openings she’d made, devouring its flesh. Oriax’s head burned away from its body, flopping to one side.
The trunk wobbled for a few more seconds, green flames spewing up into the air through the opening. Then it fell, shaking the forest beneath her as it did.
“You… you did it,” Fluttershy said from beside her, voice awed. “You fought like her.”
Twilight wasn’t struggling to hold herself in the air anymore. Granted, she was holding still, her wings flapping constantly instead of the occasional twitch an expert pegasus like Rainbow might’ve needed. But it was something.
“Fought like…” Twilight shook the sword in her magic, clearing away Oriax’s disgusting black blood.
“Of course you would,” Fluttershy went on, unhelpfully. “It’s been so long, I… I forget that there wouldn’t be an Equestria without the Alicorns. You’re new, but you’re still one of them. I thought I’d be protecting you…” Fluttershy seemed to droop in the air as she stared down at the body. Already bits of it were crumbling away, burned by flames spreading through the corpse. “We should head back. No long trips through Sideways for a pony as important as you.”
Twilight nodded, watching black blood steam away from the blade. It faded in a few more puffs of smoke, leaving the metal polished and clean. She sheathed it a moment later. “Alright. Let’s… let’s get back. Before I drop. I’m not sure how much more magic I’ve got left in me right now.”
Twilight’s hooves were dragging as she finally returned to the Golden Oaks. Several hours had passed since her early start, but the “closed” sign was still turned in the window. Spike must still be off with Rarity. I hope he’s not too upset that I went somewhere else without him.
Twilight still wasn’t sure how much of what had happened Sideways she wanted to share with anypony. Fluttershy had even offered to let her keep the sword with her—but Twilight had refused. If she never saw that world ever again, it would still be too soon.
But somepony had evidently visited today, somepony who had left a delivery on her doorstep. The box was heavy wood, and nearly half as tall as she was, with no return address. Curiously, her own address wasn’t on the front of the box either, just her first name.
She brought the crate in with her magic, leaving the “closed” sign facing out. Ponyville would go without its library today, and it was possible she’d get reprimanded over that. If Mayor Mare complained to her, Twilight would tell her a little of what she’d been doing. That thing would’ve appeared in Ponyville. Oriax might’ve killed everypony before help got here.
And she’d been part of saving them. Maybe that was what being an Alicorn was about. She was making a difference.
Twilight dragged the crate into her foyer, then angled her horn down at the nails holding it closed. She was still drained of magic, but a simple force spell she could’ve done in her sleep. They came out, and the walls fell away on two sides.
She barely had a second’s warning before the spell worked into the inside of the container triggered in a flash of bright red light. The sides of the box crumbled away, and a fifth-order Spatial Tesseract unfolded before her eyes, causing the compressed space inside to expand to full size.
Twilight leapt to one side with a scream of shock and surprise, covering herself in one of Shining Armor’s bubbles. But her defenses were unnecessary. After a few seconds the magic from behind her faded completely, leaving the room dark again except for the glow from the shield. Twilight released it, turning back to see what piece of Star Swirl level spellwork had been mailed to her.
It was a mannequin, almost a perfect match for her size and proportions, though it was made of linen-covered metal like any other. And on its back… was the dress.
There was the dress her whole savings had bought, without any of the stains and tears her night of vampire hunting had given it. Yet it seemed the dress had been adjusted to the size of the mannequin, as it now hugged perfectly to the wider hips, accentuating longer legs. Not just that, the mannequin had been given jewelry as well—a necklace of red gemstones, and white gold horseshoes with a tiny dusting of amethyst that matched her coat perfectly.
There was a letter tucked into the breast of the dress. Twilight didn’t even need to look at the seal to guess what it would be.
There was the tree, stamped into blood red wax.
Twilight,
You left this in one of the mortal establishments above my vault. A terrible shame, considering the quality of the work. I’ve taken the liberty of correcting its imperfections for you. In return for the information I’ve included, I expect you to wear it to our next meeting.
There is no reason we immortals cannot be cordial with each other. This planet is ours, and all others are merely the butterflies that inhabit it. Beautiful, clever, and transient. You will soon learn not to grow too attached. When you do, think of me. I’ll be waiting.
Regolith.
There were no threats, no veiled suggestions of what would happen if she didn’t keep to a deal she’d never agreed to. But what did he mean by…
There was writing on the back, along with a thin strip of tape. A sliver-sized length of metal glittered in the late afternoon sun through her window, deep red. Orichalcum.
Beside the sliver was a map, drawn in Regolith’s precise penmanship. The map depicted Equestria’s western coast, with a spot many miles from the nearest island marked along with the undersea topography. All you want me to do is wear a dress? Small price to pay. Twilight knew where she would be going next. This one doesn’t even lead to any other worlds!
This would be her easiest mission yet.