The sky was clear overhead. The sun shone brilliantly in the sea of blue above. There was a strong, but fairly gentle, wind blowing, propelling the airship forward. Twilight wandered on the deck as crewmen went about doing their jobs as they normally would. Princess Celestia had chartered this ship, the Sun's Blessing, to take her and her friends to Hellas. The fastest way to get there was to fly, apparently. She was actually pretty excited. She had never been on a full-fledged airship before. Neither had most of the others, save for Rarity and Flash, the latter of whom had once been assigned to help guard a shipment of goods from Saddle Arabia.
She leaned on the railing of the left side of the ship – she couldn't remember whether that was starboard or port – and watched as mountains in the distance moved by. They had been sailing for two days now. Equestria and Hellas were further apart than she had first thought. She had noticed that the terrain had become gradually more mountainous and rocky. Most of the ground didn't look very fertile from where she observed.
"Admiring the view, lass?" a gruff tone spoke, making the young mare jump. An older unicorn stallion wearing a ship captain's uniform had joined her at the railing. His coat was light blue, a few shades darker than Rainbow Dash, and he had a graying mane that still had a few spots of yellow in it. His old green eyes betrayed a kind of elder adventurousness, like he knew what he was doing and could get it done with little to no help.
"Oh, hello, Captain Portside," Twilight greeted the elder pony. "Yes, I'm enjoying the sights. This is incredible. I've never been so high up in the sky before."
The captain chuckled lightly at that. "Well, it's a pleasure to know that my ship will be your first to explore the skies with. Well, disregarding the fact that we have a set destination, of course."
"Yeah," Twilight replied. "Um, would you mind if I took a look at your map for a moment?"
"Not at all, my dear." Portside's horn glowed a bluish hue as a map levitated out of his jacket pocket. Twilight took hold of it with her own magic and unfolded it. The map detailed a large image of the land of Hellas, including major cities and seven locations for them to dock, one of which being Hellas' capital city of Aegis.
Twilight observed the map for a few moments before identifying their current location. "So… I believe we're in the Ares Mountain Range, right?" The captain nodded his confirmation. "All right… It doesn't look like we have very far to go now. By the scaled measurements on the map, and the distance between these mountains and Aegis, we should be there by… sometime tomorrow morning, I suppose."
The captain gave another chuckle. "You're becoming a regular sailor already, Miss Sparkle. Keep it up, and I might have to put in a request with the princess to have you join my crew."
"Um… thanks. Anyway, we shouldn't have trouble docking. The princess said that she had sent a message via magic to alert the minotaur High Lord Bravehoof about our arrival." The captain nodded his acknowledgement, and Twilight gave the captain his map back, and began to explore the ship again. The crew was nice enough, though a hoofful of them seemed to be rather wary of her. Whether it was because they weren't fond of newcomers or if they had heard about… her, she couldn't be sure.
She wandered on the deck, occasionally bumping into her friends as she did. Rainbow Dash was helping the crew keep up the ship's speed and status by helping the pegasi crewmen maintain a stable wind current, while Applejack helped the non-pegasi keep up maintenance on the deck. Fluttershy and Rarity were mostly trying to keep to themselves – Fluttershy for obvious reasons and Rarity because she found most of the sailors to be rather… unclean, to say the least – but some of the sailors had decided to shirk work to try and woo them, much to the mares' chagrin. Pinkie Pie just bounced around as usual, getting laughs out of the crew wherever she went. Spike was doing cleaning around the ship, whistling a little tune as he did so.
Eventually, she found Flash Sentry at the foredeck, looking over the rail with his head on his forelegs. She went over to him and stood by his side. "Hey, Flash," she greeted him. He didn't respond. Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. "Um, Flash?" Still no reply. "Flash? Hello?"
Suddenly, the pegasus vomited over the rail, catching Twilight completely off guard. She cringed at the gargled sounds that he made as the contents of his stomach poured out of his throat. When he finished, he wiped his mouth and turned to Twilight. "Oh, hey," he said with an awkward smile, his face a sickly green hue. "Sorry about that. I get airsick. Very easily."
Twilight stared at him in silence for a few moment, then began giggling. "A pegasus who gets airsick? Really?"
Flash snickered as well. "Yeah, it is kind of stupid. I'm fine when I'm flying on my own, though, thank goodness. It's just when I'm on ships like this one. The rocking motion, you know?"
"Yeah, I think I get it. It's just strange." She leaned over the rail again as Flash lowered his head back on top of his forelegs. They both watched the skyline, watching the mountainous, yet elegant, terrain trail away. The mare sighed in some admiration. The creatures of Hellas certainly had a beautiful home. "I wonder what the people of Hellas are like."
"From what I've heard," Flash answered, "they're sort of rough. Their culture is predominantly based around battle, and they're not too fond of outsiders unless they're minotaurs or pegasi, who they welcome openly."
The unicorn looked at her friend with a slightly surprised expression. "Wow, Flash. You really seem to know a lot about Hellas."
"Why wouldn't I? It's the ancestral home of all pegasi. This is actually pretty exciting for me, visiting the homeland of my ancestors. I'm sure Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy might feel the same-!" Suddenly, he cheeks bloated, and he opened his mouth to throw up over the railing again, to which Twilight actually giggled this time.
"You have a serious problem, you know that?" she said teasingly.
"Oh, ha, ha, very funny." Flash's reply only made Twilight giggle again, which, in turn, made Flash start to laugh a little.
From across the deck, Captain Portside smiled at the two younger ponies and shook his head with small laugh of his own. He made his way to his personal cabin, giving one last look to the two youths before he went inside. "Young love," he said to himself as he entered the cabin.
-o-
The darkness surrounded her completely in its infinity. She trotted through the void, unsure of where she was going. Where was she to begin with? What was this dark place? She asked herself the same questions over and over as she walked, trying to find some sort of answer. But there was nothing. Just cold, dark emptiness as far as the eye could see.
She could suddenly here a deep growl far behind her. She turned at the sound to see a blazing red light drawing closer to her. She took a step back at the sight as the light drew nearer and nearer. Eventually, the light split into two burning eyes flooded with hate and ill intent. She immediately turned and began galloping as fast as she could. Where to, she didn't know. All she knew was that she had to get away from those eyes.
She ran the fastest she had ever run before, but the eyes just kept coming closer and closer. She looked back once, and her eyes went wide when she saw that the red eyes chasing her now had a body of black flame. It drew ever closer until she tripped over seemingly nothing. She struggled to get back onto her hooves and faced the immense inferno again, fear obvious in her expression.
The blaze towered over her, its eyes narrowing. "Such delicious irony," it spoke in a deep, powerful, booming tone. "That irony will be the downfall of the Light. Bringer of both Light and Darkness. You will join with me." With that said, before she could say anything at all, the massive bonfire swirled around her, searing her coat, charring her flesh. Those crimson eyes only glared with the tiniest hint of amusement.
Twilight shot up screaming from her cot, waking up everypony in the same cabin as her. She was drenched in a cold sweat, gasping in terror as she shook wordlessly. Her friends had quickly gathered around her, trying to calm her down. She pushed them away every time they tried to talk to her, only telling them to go away, to leave her alone. Soon, somepony placed a hoof on her shoulder, and she turned with wide, fear-filled eyes to see a calm look in the blue eyes of Flash Sentry.
"Twilight," he said in as gentle a tone as he could manage. He didn't say anything else. Everypony fell silent. The unicorn slowly began to calm down, and soon wrapped her forelegs around Flash, who flinched in surprise at the contact. He could hear Twilight sniffling on his shoulder. With no other real choice at the moment, he returned the hug, hoping it would help her calm down a bit.
Soon enough, she stopped crying, though her eyes were still watery. She released Flash and wiped her eyes. "Th-thank you," she muttered. "I'm sorry. I… I had a really bad dream."
"One of those nightmares again?" Spike asked worriedly. Twilight nodded somberly. "Well, don't worry, Twilight! We're here for you!"
"That's right!" Applejack confirmed with a hard nod. "We've stuck together since day one. We ain't gonna let anything happen to ya, sugar cube."
Twilight gave a small smile and nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, everyone. I… thank you."
"So… what was dream about?" Rainbow Dash asked curiously.
"Dashie," Fluttershy said in quiet-but-firm tone.
"Come on! It was legitimate question!"
"That still doesn't excuse asking about it!" Rarity chastised the pegasus.
"It's okay," Twilight intervened. The others looked at her as she took a deep breath. "It was the same as usual. I was in a dark void, and I found the same pair of red eyes, like always. The Accursed One, I guess. But every dream I always hear some voice say something different. This time, the voice said something about irony, and it called me a 'bringer of both Light and Darkness.' I don't have any idea what that means, though."
"Maybe it thought you were a nightlight?" Pinkie Pie suggested.
Twilight shook her head. "Somehow, I really doubt that, Pinkie."
Just then, somepony on the upper deck called out, "Aegis, in sight!" That got everyone's attention. They all hurried up to the upper deck and made their way to front end of the ship, where Captain Portside awaited them.
"There it is, lads and lasses," the captain said with grin. "Behold, the city of Aegis!"
They all stared in awe at the city ahead of them. It was twice the size of Canterlot, with countless pegasi and minotaurs walking into, out of, and around the city. Its walls were a pristine white marble, roofs held up by beautifully carved pillars. They all were stunned by the grand city's scope and architecture. In the center of the city was a huge, temple-like castle where the Elements of Harmony and company could assume they would be meeting with High Lord Bravehoof. Rarity was practically salivating at the mere sight of the city, and even legitimately fainted, being caught by Spike before she hit the floor.
"This is…" Twilight struggled to find the words.
"Awesome," Rainbow stated quietly.
"Yeah… that."
The captain chuckled to himself. "All of you better get ready. We'll be docking soon." The younger ponies and baby dragon all nodded and headed off to prepare, all of them excited for different reasons.
-o-
On a balcony on the wall of the castle in the center of Aegis, a lone minotaur wearing a suit of bronze armor and long red cape stood with his hands behind his back, taking notice of the airship from Equestria. He snorted slightly. He was actually looking forward to finding out what these ponies were here for. Celestia's letter had been somewhat vague, save for the mention of a possibility of a threat to the entire world. Nothing was ever that simple with Equestrian, for whatever reason.
"Sire," said a pegasus wearing full armor. "The party from Equestria will dock soon. Shall we escort them to the palace?"
The minotaur thought on it for a moment and turned, walking past the pegasus. "No. A team of guards and I will meet them personally. I want to know what Celestia wants."
"Of course, High Lord," the pegasus replied respectfully.
The minotaur made his way down the halls of the palace, ordering a small group of guards, consisting of both pegasi and minotaurs, to follow him. He had a feeling that something very… interesting was going to happen.