Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

See Where It Takes You

Twilight looked at the feather, held at the end of a steel cable coming down from the ceiling. For the sake of actually confirming what they were dealing with, she'd had a thorough look at all the test results and readings, but they hadn't revealed anything she hadn't already known after a glance. It was all exactly the same as a scale.

On a surface level, there was no reason for her not to simply accept that it was indeed the same. Accept that scales could come in shapes different from the one they were used to, and that scales was even worse of a name than they already thought. It would at least give them a reason to change that. Logically, it all made sense.

And yet, it didn't sit right with her. And not just because of the circumstances in which she'd acquired the feather. Mostly because of those, yes, but not only. If feathers were possible, why hadn't they found any before? Why was it relevant for it to be a feather and not just another scale? Did the Behemoth even have feathers? No one had checked that last one. No one would be able to, no one wanted to.

Someone had the answers she was looking for. Twilight eyed the letter sitting on the table. She'd tried writing in it again, but after a lack of replies she'd stopped. It would still be a while before whoever had left it would supposedly show up again, and that meant all they had to work with was the feather. They had tried to trace back the spell on the letter to see where it was communicating with, but the results had come out as literally nowhere. Twilight had a hunch it was somehow sending things past a portal, not entirely unlike her correspondence with Sunset, and she would tear down the letter to its last cell if it meant finding out exactly how it managed to do that with scale portals. Once she no longer needed it, of course.

And so, that left them with their only option being exactly what the intruder had suggested. Twilight didn't like it. It felt too much like walking into a trap. But as with every trap she'd willfully walked into, she knew it was what she wanted to do. It was a good trap, because there wasn't really a choice. And besides, she was curious.

She readied her horn. This time, she'd been extra careful. Protection glyphs all around the platform, and a second set around the laboratory. If it blew up, the damage would be contained to a minimum. But she doubted it would blow up. There would have been easier ways to blow up the castle for someone who could sneak into her study undetected. It wasn't a particularly reassuring thought, but it was something, at least.

Twilight cast the spell, and held her breath. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly at all, it went off exactly as it was intended, and a moment later a portal stood there in front of her. She breathed again, and looked around. It was time, after all. She cast the usual set of protective spells, and stepped forward.

It was time to see where, exactly, it would take her.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Did the Behemoth even have feathers?

There's never one of anything in nature. This Behemoth may not have feathers, but...

In any case, this will definitely prove interesting.