Operation: Desert Horn

Somewhere in Wadi Hornifa Valley

Twilight woke to a dark, musty room, the only source of light being a lamp, pounded her face with great intensity. She looked to her hooves, which were bound to the chair and came to the realization of being held captive. In desperation, she concentrated her magic onto her restraints, but sighed at the defeat of her futile attempt. Her ears perked up when a faint pitter patter of hoofsteps crescendoed in her direction followed by conversation in an unrecognizable language.The metal blast door creaked open and in walked three stallions: two of them adorned a bullet-proof vest and semi-automatic rifle and the other glasses and a book. One of the armed stallions uttered a foreign phrase to the book holder and he repeated it in Equestrian.

“You are Princess Twilight Sparkle, correct,”  the translator asked and added,” it’s not often that you see alicorns prancing about this country, you know.”

“Yes, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle and as such I demand to know why you have ponnynapped and imprisoned me here!”

“It’s quite simple, princess,” answered the translator, “Equestria has been supporting the Saddle government for too long now. Since they’ve been supplying our enemies with equipment, we are holding you at ransom, you may only return to Equestria alive if they agree to cease supplement of the government and instead supply us.”

“I’ll never agree to this! Release me at once!”

“Or what, princess, her majesty will make a royal decree,” the translator sarcastically countered and continued, “You have no power here. It’s a shame that I’m going to have to put a bullet in your beautiful face; I’m going to make a bunch of the troops sad, they get real riotous without any mares to give them a good time.”

“You’re sick and deranged, if you think I’m some kind of Whore! If I weren’t bound to this chair, I’d already blasted you all the way to Canterlot by now!”

“Only you can’t. I’ve got to go,” stated the translator and he added as he walked out the door,”these guys will keep you company.” The translator nodded to the guards as he put on a turban.

Back in Equestria

        Throughout Ponyville, the townsponies were fast asleep. The symphony of crickets filled the cold, dense air with the final notes of their nightly concert. A rainbow trail rocketed in the sky like a multi-colored meteor. Rainbow arrived at the town’s orchard and spotted the familiar orange farm pony tending to her harvest. Deep in her work, she was oblivious to Rainbow’s presence and paused to wipe her brow of sweat. When Rainbow greeted her she tipped her hat in curtsy and unharnessed herself from the plow. Rainbow Dash explained the dilemma to her.

“That’s horrible!” exclaimed Applejack, “ We nedda go now. Fer all we know she could be dead or worse!”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash set for the town square where they met up with the remaining three ponies and Spike.  Once they had arranged the travel plans, the set out for Los Pegasus in order to sail to Saddle Arabia. The group left Ponyville on train and thus started their adventure to Sin City and ultimately, Twilight.

“Hey Rarity”- Spike glanced at some armed stallions with military gear -“ why are there royal guards on the train if Twilight isn’t here?”

Rarity brushed her mane and twisted her hoof while fabricating,” Well you see, my darling, it’s very dangerous over in Saddle Arabia right now so we might not receive a warm welcome when we enter.”

“Ahhh come on,” Rainbow protested , “ we all know that I can take those freaks without any lousy guard.”

Rainbow Dash’s look of pride was swept off her face when across from them sat her childhood heroes: Spitfire and Soarin. Their faces contorted when they heard the rainbow mare’s boastful claim and proceeded towards her booth. Spitfire then took her sunglasses and pulled them over her mussel, her face was of disapproval. Rainbow conjured a weak, fake smile which formed as she realized the extent of her situation.

“Oh you, heh heh, you guys aren’t lousy guards,” she weakly explained much to her chagrin. Rainbow’s lips pursed over in Rarity’s direction and anxiously whispered to her,”What are the Wonderbolts doing here?”

“Didn’t you learn that the Wonderbolts take tours in times of war, shouldn’t a mare of your caliber of Wonderbolts knowledge be aware of that?”

“Maybe she cheated on the reserves test,” Spitfire falsely claimed, she was already aware of Rainbow’s perfect score, the academies’ record.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa- ” Rainbow exclaimed and explained”- I forgot that you guys fly in combat  and do shows but that doesn't mean that I cheated.”

“Calm down, Rainbow,” Soarin requested, “ you need to loosen up, Spitfire is only pulling your leg and by the looks of it it seems that she might of done it too hard.”

The group chuckled at Soarin’s remark and Spitfire told of how a large portion of Arabians were recently flocking to Cloudsdale to see their performances. Rainbow and Fluttershy gazed intently at the fire-maned mare as how she accounted an amazing Arabian flyer who unknowingly flew into the middle of their show. The others, excluding Spike dozed off uninterested, pretending to be listening.

“So there we were, near our finale, the maneuver required us to climb to an extremely high altitude. The crowd’s cheers exploded with the might of a hurricane, all those new fans filled the stadium. We had almost a quarter of the distance to travel, when out the corner of my eye, a yellowish-red streak whizzed past our group and threw us off balance which caused us to stall.Seeming as if it were part of the act, this Arabian mare centers in our form and we finish with inches between us and the ground.”

“I thought you guys have an army of security guards preventing pegasi from flying in the performance area. How could some foreign, amature flyer slip past those guys?”Rainbow was perplexed by Spitfire’s account of the daring mare.

“That performance was to commemorate the annual Guards Day celebration, most security guards are recently retired guard members and were at bars or with their families,” Soarin explained, “I guess sneaking into one of our shows gets you jailed and doing it when most our security is not present is less impressive, but it took skill to do what stupid thing she did.”

        Applejack snorted as she woke from her nap. She was confused when two extra ponies joined their group. Rarity woke as a response due to her snoring and complained to her and stressed the importance of nasal strips. Everyone besides Spitfire laughed at the absurdity of her rant of “how annoying snoring is without prevention”. Soarin acted as if he didn’t know why Spitfire didn’t find her rant about how annoying a snoaring sleeping partner is.

“Hey, you here to gamble too,” asked Soarin.

“Nah”- Applejack took a plate from one of the train’s stewardess-” 'ur friend, Twilight was captured an’ we’re goin’ ta Los Pegasus ta catch a boat fer Saddle Arabia so we can get ‘er.”

“Didn’t you remember our briefing, Soarin?” Spitfire was flustered after constantly reminding Soarin of his orders.”We are under direct order by the princesses to provide an escort for Twilight’s friends reconnaissance mission. We can hit the slots when Princess Twilight Sparkle sets hoof in Equestria.”

“Awww”- Soarin bowed his head in disappointment-”you’re no fun, Spitfire!”

Within a few hours, the group finally arrived in sin city. Being that it was late, the party of eight looked for a place to sleep. Despite the late hour, there was no shortage of light in the city. All of the city was like one massive Hearth’s Warming tree display. Wherever they went, billboards lit the night sky and blanketed it in neon advertising. After walking for a mile or so, they came upon a decent place to stay the night.

Dawn finally came and with it a new day to recover the princess. The group was preparing to leave to their boat, when all of a sudden they noticed that one of them were missing. Spitfire had noticed that her comrade had left a poorly-written note in her luggage. She had asked the group if they had seen him around when much to their fortune, the secondary elevator had opened, revealing a highly intoxicated Soarin. He was wearing part of a stripper’s outfit and underneath that his tattered guard uniform. He smelled of sweat and various perfumes and his badge was served from his uniform, on his face he wore various make up products and scraps of buffet items. His mane was tossed about in a mess and his pants were unzipped.

“Wow, Soarin, there must of been one crazy party last night,” Pinkie cheered,” too bad I couldn’t be there. It must have been super duper, absolutely, spectacular!”

“Oh my,” gasped Fluttershy, “ you don’t look all that good. Are you alright?”

Soarin replied to them in a slurred and tired tone that he was alright and told of his crazy night. He wanted to hit the slots and so he waited for Spitfire, Rainbow and Spike to fall asleep. Once they had, he slipped Spitfire a note in her luggage, should he have a crazy night and snook out the room. After a compilation of losing at slot machines, he gave one last go playing poker. He won a few games and quite a large amount of winnings. A bar mare was sent in by the casino to convince him into drinking his earnings away. She wooed Soarin and the two partied in the nightclub and he fell drunk in the midst of the celebration losing both his winnings and his Royal Airforce badge.

After getting back most of Soarin’s possessions, the group arrived at Los Pegasus National Wharf. Their ferry was docked besides two battle cruisers and Royal Guard were dotted about the Wharf. There were security checkpoints by the entrance and exit and they were inhabited by more guard and metal detectors. Cameras were positioned all about the compound. They didn’t want anypony leave or enter Equestria without being screened and tested. Exhausted, the group finally boarded their convoyed ferry to Saddle Arabia and located their cabins to rest for the long journey ahead.