Thirty minutes had passed since Flash Sentry left to get some armor and a weapon from the barracks and Spike was growing impatient. He had been pacing in circles for the last ten minutes before he stopped and groaned.
“What’s taking him so long? It’s been half an hour!” He turned to Twilight, who was going through the few books that weren’t destroyed. “What do you think Twilight?”
Twilight turned to him. “Spike, chill out. He said to wait an hour at the most before we go on our own and it’s only been half. Just be patient.” With that, she went back to her books.
Spike groaned. “The world’s ending all around us and this is what you’re doing? How and what can you be reading at a time like this Twilight?”
“I’m researching, Spike,” Twilight said, as she continued to read. “I want to see if I can find anything regarding this “Xen dimension”, I’ve never heard of anything like it before and any information I find might be instrumental in our work.”
Spike sighed, “Have you found anything that’s even, like, close to relevant.”
It was Twilight’s turn to sigh, “No, none of these books have anything we can use. The closest I got to anything relevant was a book whose author who speculated and theorized about the existence of alternate universes and dimensions where boundless worlds and wide varieties of life could exist, but he said that their existences weren’t confirmed and it was just all “theoretical.”"
Spike chuckled, “I guess it’s more than just theoretical, huh?”
“There’s just one thing that’s been bugging me since Flash Sentry left.” Twilight said, putting the book back into its shelf.
“What’s that?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know, I just feel like I’m forgetting someth-” Twilight’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Owlowiscious! She forgot about her owl companion in all the confusion. She looked around hastily and her suspicions were confirmed. He was no where to be found.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike asked.
“Spike, where’s Owlowiscious?!” What happened to him?!” Twilight asked frantically.
“Owlowiscious?” Spike said, scratching his head. “I don’t know. The last time I saw him was before you cast the spell. He must of flown out the window during the confusion.”
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, this is bad,” Twilight muttered, shaking her head. “He couldn’t have lasted long out there, he probably injured or de-”
“Twilight,” Spike interrupted, looking her in the eyes. “Relax, Owlowiscious is probably fine. He might be an owl, but he’s not a stupid owl. He’s probably hiding in the Everfree forest, waiting for all of this to die down.”
“I hope you’re right Spike, but if anything happened-”
Before she could finish, Twilight was interrupted by a loud banging at her door. Her ears pricked up. Flash Sentry!
“Flash!” Twilight exclaimed, turning to the door. “He's back!”
“About time.” Spike mumbled.
Twilight ran over to the door and opened it, thrilled that Flash Sentry had made it back. To be frank, she was starting to get worried about Flash Sentry herself, afraid that he wouldn’t make it back and that she would have to embark on her own.
“Flash! I’m so glad you’re back. I was starting to get worried that yo-”
But before she could finish, Flash pushed Twilight out of his way and onto the floor knocking the wind out of her. When Twilight regained composure, she was shocked by what she saw. Flash Sentry as covered in cuts and bruises from head to hoof, with a nasty gash in his left shoulder. in his mouth he was holding a large burlap sack that was on his back. The most prominent feature, however, was his eyes. His eyes were wide and fiery, filled a raging fury Twilight had never seen before. He released the sack from his mouth, letting it fall to the floor, and gritted his teeth.
“EAT THIS, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” He screamed as he unsheathed a dagger that he had concealed under his armor. With a swift throw, he flung the dagger at whatever he was fighting and slammed the door shut.
Flash Sentry took a few deep breathes before turning to Twilight, who was trembling in fear by what she saw.
Flash smiled, his eyes taking on a more favorable tone. “Sorry I took so long.”
Spike rushed up to Flash, getting right up into his face, anxious to learn what happened while he was gone.
“Woah!" He started. "Damn, Flash, you look like crap. What happened to you out there? ”
Flash smiled. “Easy there, Spike. Settle down. It’s nothing; I just ran into a little trouble getting back from the barracks.”
“Wh-what kind of trouble?” Twilight asked as she got up, brushing herself off..
“Oh, it’s nothing.” He responded. “You don’t need to worry, Twilight, and sorry for knocking you to the ground like that. Was kind of in a hurry.”
“Flash, don’t you think it’s necessary for me to know what happened to you so I know what I’m up against?” Twilight asked impatiently.
Flash sighed, “True, you’ve got a point.”
“So what happened?” Spike interjected. “Was it one of those squid things or those face bugs or something? Come on, come on, tell us!”
Twilight got a little tense hearing him go on like that. He seemed so excited to find out what happened to Flash, to find out what was going on outside, but why? Twilight never imagined Spike to be the one to seek out action like this, especially one the situation was so severe and grim, but he seemed so ready to get out there and tackle it head on. Twilight shook her head. Maybe it was nothing to get too worried about. Spike was a dragon after all, maybe it was inherent for him to get excited like this despite his other “undragon-like” qualities.
“Alright, here goes.” Flash sentry voice took on a pensive tone and he became stone-faced. “While I was making my way across town to the barracks, I got ambushed by a couple of bullsquids and just barely managed to fight them off. He motioned to his right shoulder where his shoulder pad was missing and a nasty gash was in its place. “One of the little bastards gave me this.” Twilight took a better look at the laceration. The laceration was thick and crimson red running across the length of Flash’s shoulder. Fortunately, the wound had stopped bleeding and appeared to have dried out, although heavy bleeding was evident with all dried blood around it.
“That cut looks pretty nasty.” Twilight said worryingly. “ We’ll need to patch it up.”
Flash nodded . “Good idea. You got anything?”
“There should be a bottle of tonic that can clean that cut and some bandages upstairs.” Twilight turned to Spike. “Can you go and get it Spike?”
“Sure.” He replied. “Just hold on.” With that, he headed upstairs to find the potion and bandages.
Twilight turned back to Flash Sentry. “What else happened out there?”
“Well after that… um...” Flash stopped. His lips started to quiver before he pursed them. He looked left and right nervously before he looked at Twilight. His demeanor changed from one of credence and relaxation to one of nervousness and desolation.
“Flash? Is everything alright?” Twilighted queried. She didn’t like the look of Flash. It appeared that something out there had really shaken him up, even more than the monsters and aliens did.
“Ye-yeah, everything’s alright.” Flash Sentry stammered, trying his best to make it look like nothing was wrong. “So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah after I fought off those bullsquids, I continued to make my way to the barracks. In between, I had to fight off some other aliens, a couple of houndeyes, a few headcrabs. Had to wrestle one of those little bastards off a fellow guard's head.”
“Oh no.” Twilight interrupted, putting her hoof to her mouth. “Is he alright"
Hearing Flash say that brought back memories of the earth pony guard she saw getting attacked by one of those headcrabs. The memories of the blood, his screams of agony, and the monster that took his place came rushing back to her.
“Don’t worry, he’s fine. I managed to pull it off before it could gain any hold on his head.”
Twilight exhaled a sigh of relief. “That’s good.” Funny, it felt really good to finally hear some good news, despite all the bad.
“Anyway,” Flash Sentry continued. “After that I finally got to the barracks. A couple soldiers and I tore the whole place up looking for armor that would work for you when I finally found a set hidden under a staircase. With that, I made my way back as fast as I could.”
“Terrific.” Twilight smiled. “Let’s see it.”
Flash Sentry nodded and turned the sack over with his good foreleg, emptying it of its content. A set of armor fell out of the bag. Twilight was puzzled by the pile in front of her. The armor appeared to be your typical set except that it was…
“Orange?” She looked at the armor, a bit perplexed. She knew that standard issue armor was almost always a golden brass, except for certain exceptions like her brother’s. She had never seen orange armor before. She took a closer look and noticed by the texture that the armor wasn’t made to be orange, but was painted by somepony.
“Um, yeah.” Flash Sentry scratched the back and smiled. “This set just happens to be the one that a certain pink party pony decided to “decorate”
“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight groaned. While she thought that the hyperactive party pony should know better than to vandalize property, at the same time it didn’t surprise her that she would do this.
“A couple of us caught her in the act earlier yesterday,” Flash Sentry continued. “But by that time it was too late. When we deman- er, asked why she did it, she just smiled and said her “Pinkie Sense” told her that it was necessary. She didn’t say what it was necessary for or what the heck a "Pinkie sense" is but that it just was. We decided that there was no point in punishing her for a somewhat minor offense and that we could let her go but not before warning her that if we caught her doing anything else like that, there would be consequences.”
Twilight shook her head and sighed. “That’s just… that just sounds like Pinkie Pie.” She looked back down at the armor and front of her and noticed something was amiss.
“Where’s the helmet?” Twilight inquired, looking up at Flash Sentry, whose mind was somewhere else.
“The what?” Flash asked, looking back at Twilight.
“The helmet.” Twilight repeated, a bit irritated. “There should be a helmet here, but I don’t see one. Where is it?”
“W-wha-” Flash Sentry stuttered before looking at the pile. He groaned. “Crap, I was in such a rush to get back here after I found it that I didn’t even bother to check to see if everything was there.” He slammed his hoof into the ground. “Shit! Damn it, I feel so stupid!”
Twilight grimaced. "Flash, it's okay. It's just one piece of armor. We can improvise." She sighed. The truth was that it was not okay. She wondered how could he have forgotten something as necessary as a helmet but decided not to say much about it. "Well," she thought. "He said he was in a rush and there are monsters everywhere and at least he got most of this armor anyway "
Flash sentry shook his head. "No, no, no. It's not okay. Damn it, how could I forget the most important part of any set of armor."
"Flash, really, it's alright. We can find another helmet off one of the guards."
"Yeah I guess, but anything we find will probably be dirty, covered in alien guts or something."
Twilight smiled. "That'll be fine. Besides, getting covered in enemy blood is better than my own."
Flash chuckled. "Not even out that door yet and you're already talking like a soldier."
"Twilight!" The two looked up to see Spike at the top of the staircase with a purple vial and bandages in his hands. "Is this it?"
"Yeah, that's it. Bring it down."
"Spike walked down the stairs and handed them to Twilight, who picked them up with her magic.
"Now listen Flash." Twilight said, turning to Flash Sentry. "This stuff is gonna sting and I mean, it's gonna sting. But it'll clean up the wound quickly and take care of everything."
"Um, okay." Flash sentry said, a bit daunted. "Whatever it takes I guess.”
With that, Twilight used her magic to unscrew the cap off the bottle and poured a bit of the tonic, a bright purple liquid that glimmered in the light, onto the bandage.
“Alright, here goes…” Twilight said, levitating the moistened bandage, and with all the speed she could muster, she wrapped the bandage around Flash Sentry’s wound and tied it up.
Flash Sentry’s eyes widened, “AH SHIT!!!” He toppled over, landing on his wounded shoulder.
"Flash, please" Twilight said pleadingly, helping Flash back up on his hooves. "I know it hurts a lot, but the pain will pass."
Flash stood up staggering a bit and breathing heavily. "Y-yeah, I feel better now." He looked at Twilight. "Thanks."
“You’re lucky. If you had squirmed around too much, you might have messed up the bandage and I would’ve had to apply again.”
“Now you tell me…” Flash grunted.
"You guys alright?" Spike asked, a bit uneasy.
"Yeah Spike, we're fine." Twilight responded. "And I think we're ready to head out now just after I put on the armor. Right Flash?"
"Yeah" Flash answered. "Let's not waste anymore time."
A few minutes later and Twilight was putting on the last glove. With a bit of trouble and help to go along. Twilight managed to get all the armor on. She shivered. The armor felt frigid and uncomfortable on her body and she felt naked without a helmet. Like Flash said, each piece of the armor was slathered with a bright orange coat of paint. The only spot that deviated from this norm was the breastplate. On it was a peculiar looking circle painted with jet black ink and surrounded by a circle. Twilight was familiar with many symbols from Equestria’s history and contemporary life, she she had never seen this one before? It looked an X that was missing one of its top legs missing. The remaining top leg was shorter than the bottom ones, and it, along with the leg it was connected to, was bent at the ends.
She continued to gaze at the symbol, pondering its meaning or purpose? “Where did Pinkie see this symbol?” She thought to herself. “Better question is, why did she bother putting on this armor or paint the entire thing orange for that matter?” She shook her head. No time for those kinds of questions now.
“Well, how does it look?” She turned to Flash and Spike, looking for their opinions.
Flash smirked. “Not bad.” He began to circle Twilight, his head bobbing up and down to get a better look, his smirk stretching into a childish looking smile. “Not bad at all.”
Twilight nodded, paying no attention to Flash Sentry’s gawking. Spike noticed Flash, chuckled, and walked over to him to nudge him. Flash snapped out of his gaze and looked down at Spike.
“Save it for later, tough guy” he said, smirking.
“Right…” Flash said, face red with embarrassment.
He walked over to the door and put his hoof on the door knob when he looked back to Twilight and Spike. "Now listen you two." He said sternly. "I have no idea what's on the other side of that door but whatever it is, it’s probably big, scary, slimey and it wants to kill us, so get ready."
Twilight and Spike tensed up, readying themselves for the worst. Twilight took a fighting stance, prepared for whatever could attack. Spike raised his knife and starting growling.
Flash took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing..." With that, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open as fast as he could.
The three of them looked upon the carnage and ruin that law before them. The battered corpses, the ravaged and demolished buildings, and the general turmoil the town was suffering. From the distance they heard the shouts of the guards communicating with each other and occasionally, the wail of someone or something dying. Twilight's stomach churned. From up close, the destruction looked much worse. Spike stopped growling and lowered his knife; his fighting spirit dissipated and the look of rage in his eyes turned to one of fear.
Out of the darkness they heard a deep throaty growl. Each one of them focused their to the area it originated from.
"Did you hear that?" Flash sentry whispered to Twilight and Spike. Both of them nodded in unison.
"Good." He muttered. "I'm not going crazy."
The source of the sound revealed itself as a bullsquid as it stepped out from the shadows into their line of sight. Twilight took a step back. From her window in the library, the creature resembled a grotesque amalgam of lizard and squid, but from up close it really was a sight to behold. Its sickly green skin looked slimy yet coarse with its back sowed with black spots of various sizes that ran from from head to tail. It’s legs were bulbous, masses of flesh and muscle that ended with two ebony claws on each leg. It’s eyes pale white globes stuck on the sides of its head. They looked almost lifeless, devoid of any energy or vitality that the creature had. The part of the creature that Twilight paid the most attention to was its tentacles. A series of them were arranged around what Twilight assumed was the creature’s mouth. They swayed around haphazardly as the creature observed its surroundings.
“No one make a sound.” Flash Sentry whispered to Spike and Twilight. “It doesn’t seem to know we’re here so maybe we can sneak attack it.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. It was better to sneak attack these things than outright fighting them as the sounds of a fight might attract the attention of more of these things, a scenario Twilight would much rather avoid.
With that, it immediately turned its attention to the party and eyed of them for a few seconds. It continued to growl as drooled some of the same green liquid Twilight saw earlier.
“Just my damn luck.” Flash sighed.
Twilight tensed up, trying to anticipate the creature next move. Would it strike? Would it run away? Maybe it would get distracted and leave? Twilight gritted her teeth as sweat dripped from her brow. She had studied and read up on many of the countless species of flora and fauna that lived in Equestria, but none of that knowledge did her any good now. She had no idea what to expect from a creature of the likes of this. As far as she knows, it’s capable of anything. But from what she had seen earlier, it was safe to assume the worse.
“Let me handle this one for now. I have a pretty good idea on how they act and fight. They’re at their most dangerous up close, but all you have to do is keep your distance. What you need to look out for is its slime-”
The creature must have known what Flash was thinking in advance for at that moment, It shot a putrid ball of its slime at them.
“MOVE!” Flash yelled in command, shoving Twilight to the ground to avoid the slime. Spike rolled out the way. diving behind some bushes to evade the the monster.
Flash Sentry got off of Twilight and looked at the thing with the disgust. He lowered his head to Twilight who was sheltering her head with her hooves.
“I got this one.” he whispered before unsheathing his sword and walking slowly towards the monster. The monster stood in place as it drooled slime and squealed. Flash Sentry tightened his grip on the sword in his mouth and eyed the beast as he approached it. Spike peeked out from behind the bushes to watch the confrontation.
The beast didn’t wait for Flash to get to it before it lunged at him. It spread its tentacles out to reveal the interior of its mouth, a grotesque tunnel of teeth and slime. It wailed with a sound that was foreign to this world . Flash was ready however. With lightning fast reflexes he jerked his head to his right, swinging the blade of the sword towards the monster. He struck at the perfect time, slicing off two of the creature’s tentacles. It toppled over onto its back, withering and flailing in pain. The stumps where its tentacles were once attached were gushing a neon green blood. Flash Sentry approached the monstrosity as it struggled to gain its footing. He wasted no time in plunging the sword right into the monster’s head right between the eyes. It screamed even
louder before it went limp. Flash gritted his teeth.
“Good riddance, you piece of shit.”
He returned his sword to his sheath and returned to Twilight Sparkle who had gotten up during the scuffle. She gazed upon the corpse of the creature, paying special attention to its severed tentacles and the hole Flash made in its head. She shuddered. The fear she felt towards her situation was more powerful than ever.
“Miss Sparkle, are you alright?” He inquired. “You’re not hurt, are you?
“I’m fine, Flash.” She lied. She wish she could have meant that but the reality of what was happening hit her like a runaway cart. Just an hour ago she never even acknowledged that what the princess was asking her to do could kill her. She never realized that her failure might result in death. But seeing the dead monster opened her eyes. She might not get out of this alive. There was the very real possibility that she will not survive to fulfil what is asked of her. There were past events where the possibility of her death was real, like the Changeling invasion and Sombra’s return, but during those times she always had at least a good amount of help on her side, whether it be her friends and the elements of harmony or the royal guards. Besides there was never really any guarantee that any past villains would have tried to kill her. They might have tried to imprison her or such but killing seemed beyond their scope of evil. The odds never felt like they were too stacked against her. This was different. She was dealing with a threat she could scantily understand that was actively trying to kill her. She was cut off from any outside help and the help she did have was slowly being overwhelmed. She only knew that to stop the incursions she would need to close a portal that she only knew was in the vicinity of the Everfree forest. But before she could do that, she would need to stop whoever or whatever was keeping the portal open and isolating the town. The odds of success looked non existent to her.
“Nice kill, Flash.” Spike said stepping out from behind the bush, knife still in hand.
“Thanks Spike, but it was nothing. Just doing my job.” He answered back. He looked to Twilight now. “But now we need to figure out our game plan. The only entrance to the Everfree forest is near you friend Fluttershy’s cottage, right Twilight?”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, that’s correct.”
“Alright, so that’s where we’ll enter. Do any of you have a map of the forest that we can take with us?”
“We do, but I don’t it’s still intact.” Spike interrupted. “Even if it’s still in one piece, it would take too long to find it.”
“Dammit.” Flash grunted. “Well, I know that my commander has some maps of the area with him, He set up camp on the other side of town. We should head there first before we go in.
“Good idea.” Twilight responded. The Everfree forest is huge and is very easy to get lost in. A map would let them mark off areas that they’ve investigated so their search doesn’t take longer than it needs to.
Just as the three finished conversing about their plans, some of the bushes near the one Spike hid behind were rustling. The three turned their attention to the bush, anxious of what could be hiding.
“Not again.” Flash Sentry muttered, taking out his sword. Spike raised his knife to eye level baring his teeth as he eyed the bush, preparing for whatever came. Twilight tensed up, her eyes locked on the bush. What was it this time? Another bullsquid? One of those houndeyes? a pony zombie?
A second bullsquid revealed itself by jumping out from the bushes. Each one of them took a step back. This one was even bigger than the last one, its tentacles were longer and from the glimpses that Twilight could get of its mouth, its teeth were even longer. Flash and Spike both began to take slow small steps towards the creature. The creature growled and shook in place splattering its drool around.
“You take it from the left, I’ll take it from the right. It can’t fight both of us at the same time.” Flash whispered through his teeth to Spike who nodded in response.
It seems however, that the creature heard their little plan of attack because at that instant, it lept at Spike with agility that none of them thought was possible for an animal as bulky as it was.
“OH NO!” Spike yelled, dropping his knife and raising his hands to shield his face.
“SPIKE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!” Flash screamed. He turned to run to Spike, but by then it was too late. The bullsquid had already leaped into the air to pounce on Spike.
But in that instant, a bright pulse of purple light, zipping right past Flash Sentry’s head, struck the beast in its stomach before it could touch down on Spike. The blast was of such power that it tore apart the bullsquid, making it explode and rain its blood on Spike and Flash. Spike uncovered his eyes and saw the mess around him. He looked to Flash Sentry who was staring at someone behind him. He had a look of surprise in his eyes, mixed with awe. He turned to where Flash was looking and saw Twilight who had taken a defensive posture. Her horn was glowing a dim purple and she was panting and sweating heavily.
“Eat… that…. you… son.. of a… BITCH!”