Unfortunately for the unicorn, Killikle denied her the chance to experiment on the dead. Instead, they were all thrown overboard, much to her dismay. As the days went on, she aided the on-board doctors as best she could and instructed them on what she did to prevent things like gangrene. Even if it required unicorn magic, or any kind of magic as Twilight surmised, it didn't change that the magicless couldn't use her talents. So, much like the earth pony medics in the Crystal Empire, these griffins would be left with potentially valuable but ultimately useless information they could not make any use of.
The days rolled by without incident since the pirate attack, and while Twilight believed that it was planned due to the speed of the execution, Killikle brushed it off and told Twilight to keep the letter with her until she was safely in Saddle Arabia. Knowing Silvery, the unicorn supposed that he somehow knew the attack was going to happen, but Jam said she could take any ship heading to Saddle Arabia. Her head started to spin when she thought about the contents of the letter and the paradoxes it held, but she kept her curiosity at bay and left the letter unread by her. She didn't want to know what had been written about her or her trip nor how Killikle and his crew were going to be paid.
As the days continued to go by, the air went from freezing to temperate, to salty when floating over the sea. The ship could not avoid a few light storms, and with Twilight's help, the damages were kept to a minimum while Spike stayed below. An undead could not fight nature despite its mere existence being an affront to such a thing. Unfortunately, Twilight ended up getting air sickness thanks to the violent rocking caused by the storms and often spent time above deck expelling her insides overboard.
With the travel distance came clearer skies as the heat of the planet pushed away the clouds and cold air of the ocean. Despite being above the mass of water below, the air was starting to get drier and hotter. Being so used to the cold, Twilight couldn't help but start sweating extensively from the minor heat surrounding her. She was stuck in her cabin, doing her best to hide from the heat, but metal couldn't be a better oven material. If it wasn't for the wood interior, everyone inside the vessel would have likely roasted alive.
Needing fresh air, the mare headed back topside and slouched against the sides of the deck, panting with great fatigue. She was brought out of her torment by a familiar laugh.
"Having issues dealing with a beat of heat, necromancer?" the griffin teased. "Well, if you can't handle this while we're still above the sea, you'll probably cook alive in Saddle Arabia."
"I...didn't think...it would be...so hot..." Twilight whined.
Killikle picked her up and put her back onto her hooves. "The Saddle Arabians have solutions for that, you know, but it's just to make sure you survive," he explained. "Why not look overboard and see where we're going to land?"
Twilight took a deep breath and turned around, looking to starboard, when her eyes widened in amazement. The sea was filled to the brim with boats of varying sizes and origins. She recognized the smaller Equestrian vessels mixed in with the massive, bulky ships used by the minotaurs. They looked like floating fortresses of wood and cannons dwarfing everything around them. There were some kirin ships as well, many being quite long compared to their fellows. Where most of the other ships used regular cloth sails, the kirin vessels used stiff, rigid sails that possessed support beams going horizontally through their bodies. It made it easy to recognize them from afar, especially as the hulls curved upwards in the back and front into thin points like a fruit bowl. The wood also sported a different finish, but the unicorn could only make out sections of dark brown wood contrasting with tan from where she was.
One group of ships looked like eggs floating horizontally along the sea. While they were still made of wood, Twilight could see a chimney coming out of the covered hull belching out black smoke into the air. It was a design she didn't recognize at all.
Following the direction of most of the ships, her gaze came upon the coast that was engulfed in buildings as far as Twilight could see. There was a plethora of off-white buildings coating the beach that made way for far bigger ones further away. Even though they reflected a lot of sunlight, the inhabitants decorated their homes with tons of colorful cloths and rugs either on the roofs or dangling off the sides of the wall. Some buildings even held up shared banners and flags together. It was like a festival wherever Twilight looked. She couldn't help but feel giddy when looking at it all, and she wasn't sure why.
She noticed that the buildings bordering the sea were simplistic in design: Being mostly cubical without much else as decoration. However, the further into the city one went, the more ornate the buildings became. Arches and pillars started becoming more common, followed by increasingly large gardens with surprisingly green grass and colorful flowers filling them out. The buildings started rounding out more and more and the roofs started taking on more ornate, dome-like designs. She could see one dome carved with geometric shapes and inlaid with gold leaf that reflected the sunlight in seemingly random directions. Twilight realized that the reflections were consistent. The further away she got, the more another group of shapes began to shimmer brightly. Sitting atop the roof was a red gem that glowed dimly in the afternoon sun. Other buildings had similar gemstones atop them, but the mare wasn't exactly sure what they were for. One of the roofs sported five of them: Four yellow stones acting as the tip of four thin pyramidal spikes surrounding a single, much shorter and fatter one tipped with a blue gem.
A few of the larger buildings had strange shapes, looking like domes overlaid into one another while another looked like a blooming flower covered in a plethora of thick grass blades and a lot of flowers and trees. In the center of it all was a gigantic palace that gave Canterlot Castle a run for its money: It looked like it was at least twelve stories tall and was surrounded by thirty monoliths tipped with sparkling, white stones. So massive was the palace that Twilight couldn't accurately count how many buildings' length it was. She just knew that size surpassed her expectations. The roof was decorated with multiple smaller 'spears' of white stone, more geometrical shapes that seemed to swirl around each other like a water show, and a central 'temple' that shimmered in the heat. She furrowed her brows when she looked at the temple. It was so engulfed by the haze that she couldn't make out its details at all, like it was buried underwater. The one detail she could tell was that it seemed to let flow an infinite amount of water from its interior along small canals built into the roof that flowed in every direction. She hadn't noticed at first, but Saddle Arabia had tiny canals of water running underneath the city that the inhabitants would access by opening metal grates on the floor.
Armored ponies would grab anypony polluting that water and drag them off to who knew where. Some were just clonked on the head and thrown into an alleyway, however. Whatever decided the penance was beyond Twilight's understanding. The ship lowered further and further until it finally locked onto an airship tower that was but one among dozens at the port.
"We've docked!" Killickle declared. "Prepare the merchandise and get the dockmaster!" He looked at Twilight with a smile. "As for you, this is where you get off."
"Ah, yes! Of course!" Twilight realized. Spike passed her her saddlebags that she dug the letter out of and handed to Killickle. "Thanks for the trip," the mare said.
"And thank you for helping us out during the trip." The griffin clacked his beak several times. "I wouldn't mind taking you on as a passenger again if you're this helpful...but bring money next time." He wagged the letter in front of the unicorn's face. "I don't think your friends will give you a freebie like this again." Killikle chuckled as he hid the letter in his coat. "Passenger services are quite expensive nowadays." He turned to his crew on deck. "Today we've received our pay, and everyone is getting a hefty bonus for their hard work!" he yelled.
The crew cheered. Well, most of the crew.
"What about the pirates?" Twilight asked.
"They're going to be delivered to the port authorities," the captain explained. "The Saddle Arabians of Tasaniyy take extreme offense to the existence of those that would disrupt trade." Twilight gulped when she noticed Killikle becoming dark and foreboding. "No need to worry about yourself, though," the griffin said.
"Why?"
"Time to leave," Killikle said.
Twilight was pushed off the ship with Spike and left on the dock covered in crates being loaded and unloaded from the airships. She didn't get her answer and went towards the center where stairs waited. The workers used large elevators on the sides of the dock to lower and raise merchandise, but Twilight couldn't use it.
Exhausted after taking so many stairs, the unicorn rested in the warm shade of the tower and looked at all the Saddle Arabians around. While they looked like Equestrians and were a close cousin, they didn't share many of the Equestrian traits. They were all taller and leaner compared to the short, squat form of Twilight's kind. Additionally, where ponies came in a rainbow of colors and patterns, these equines only came in shades of black, brown, white, and tan, and a lot of them were either a single color or covered in splotches of said colors. To make up for this, it seemed, was a large assortment of clothing sporting a plethora of different colors. Some just wore as many colors as they could while others tried to make everything match and compliment each other. Coats, sheets, covers, hoods, multilayered dresses, a wide variety of turbans. There were so many layers of clothing that Twilight wondered how they didn't die from heat stroke. One thing that struck her as odd with these equines: Despite being close cousins to the Equestrians, those she could see the flanks of possessed no cutie marks. That brought the question of what those marks really were to the mare's mind.
Lost in thought, Twilight smacked her lips drying in the heat, only to be taken out by a sudden flood of water out of nowhere. The locals saw the scene and a few laughed before carrying on with their tasks.
Spitting out the water, Twilight wiped herself off as best as she could and tried to find the culprit. "Who did that?!" she asked angrily. "Why would you even waste water in the desert?"
"Because we make the water."
The unicorn thought she was still underwater when she heard the voice. Wiping her eyes of excess water, the mare saw that what was standing before her was a creature made of deep blue water with red, glowing pearls swirling about within it. Two bright lights glowed from above staring at Twilight. Spike remained motionless through the whole affair, letting the mare realize that she wasn't in any immediate danger.
"What are you?" the mare asked.
"A yakilak," the creature said. "We make the water around here to prevent anyone from dying of thirst."
The yakilak's body started to compress itself, taking on the vague shape of an equine, but closer to Princess Celestia's body type. The red pearls settled themselves in what could be considered the joints on a living being. Its 'mane' became a flowing river of white water that dripped on the ground and evaporated almost instantly. While it had no tail, its hind legs seemed to stretch abnormally further back to seemingly compensate for the lack of a balancing limb. Its eyes were the most remarkable to Twilight: Two red pearls served as the pupils, but the surrounding eye was completely black. Every time the yakilak looked elsewhere, four sections engulfed the pearl before parting to reveal it had moved elsewhere. It was like a camera shutter, and the unicorn was certain she could hear the distinctive shuffling noise of said shutters every time it 'blinked' or looked around.
"I've...never heard of that."
Twilight shifted uncomfortably when the entity's body shifted next to her, stretching like an amorphous goo. "Water in Tasaniyy is free, but food isn't. Better find a job quickly or get your money out," it suggested.
The mare watched it shift away and moved toward a group of locals holding up a large amount of ceramic jars that the yakilak was more than happy to fill up. Twilight was further disturbed by many of the locals looking at Spike with intrigue and amazement. A few pulled something out from beneath their layers of colored clothing and whispered to them.
This was a land and culture she was going to take a long time to get used to, especially if she was drowned every time she became thirsty.
Shining and his soldiers looked around the land, still trying to find where it was that Twilight could be hiding in. In their month of searching, they hadn't gotten any closer to finding her hiding spot and had set up camp next to the mountain for the night.
"Your Highness, are you sure she's even around here?" one of the soldiers asked as she set up a tent. "We haven't found any sign of her and you need to go back to the Empire and help Empress Cadance rule."
The stallion watched the bonfire grow in brightness as he continued to feed it wood, His expression dour. "I know we're getting closer to her home. She wouldn't travel that far for no reason," he grumbled.
Wind blew and pushed out some foliage from a cave a few dozen feet away from the crystal ponies, and a few animals escaped the entrails, but the soldiers didn't notice it yet.