Operation: Desert Horn

by Royal Radiance

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Length: 3514

Tensions are rising between Saddle Arabia and Equestria with suspicion of terrorists taking over Arabian war equipment. The Arabian attacks, destroying boarder towns, result in a summit being scheduled with the newly crowned Twilight missing.

Twilight has gone missing and it's up to the rest of the Mane Six and Spike to recover her from whomever had taken their friend in such a worrying time.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-24 22:46:08 UTC

Intro

    Spike's eyes swayed like the pendulum of the grandfather clock as the meeting had come closer to starting. Last night, Twilight told him that she was going to leave extremely early, allowing her plenty of time to browse the royal library and assured he didn't need to go with her when she left for the palace. He fumbled with the first-class express ticket she gave to him and once more glared at the clock.

This can't be right, he thought, She's never late to meetings.

      The royal sisters had entered the meeting room and sat near Spike as a couple guards followed in and sternly stood by the entrance. Unlike most sections of the palace, the board room was modest with a short table made of oak with a granite top that sat in front of a fire place with carvings of mythical creatures and displayed symbols of a language long lost. For some time the room had been stale with the constant chiming of the clock only breaking the silence.

"Where is Twilight," asked Luna, "we were expecting her here twenty minutes ago."

"Probably in the library," stated Spike huffing, "for a large, expensive palace the least you could do is put a coloring book or something on the table."

"This room isn't a fun house, Spike," Celestia explained, "and it hasn't had any action since the Lunar war. We used this room to discuss war strategy in secret."

Spike argued, "well if what you're discussing so secret why am I allowed here?"

"We were meeting on the topic of troop deployment and whether we should station some by the border of Saddle Arabia," Luna replied and continued, "We are concerned that misguided warheads from there continue to pelt the cities on the border, though our sources have concluded that the Saddle goverment had no part. The last thing we need is the Arabians misinterpreting our intentions and have them prepare for war. The only reason our debate is 'secret' is that our subjects need not to fear any of these actions." She glanced at the clock noticing thirty minutes had passed since the meeting was intended to commence and sighed adding, "surely she should've been here by now."

"Well you know her, always gazing at a book," Spike guessed, shrugging.

"Was there anything out of place at Golden Oaks when you woke," questioned Celestia.

"No, not really," assured Spike.

"Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary last night," Luna inquired.

"No, I was asleep." Spike rocked in his chair, sipping his tea. "Isn't it your job to patrol the night?"

"Why would I ask if I hadn't noticed anything on my rounds," Luna reasoned.

"Your highness, have I permission to speak," one of the guards requested.

"Yes, you may speak," Celestia agreed, motioning to a nearby servent for a drink.

"One of our guards returned recently from the library and reported no sign of Princess Twilight and the captin of the watchponies said he never saw her enter the city." With a horrified look he added, "I have no more evidence of her whereabouts or lack of, but I think she may have been ponynaped!"

"Ponynaped," exclaimed Spike.

"Now, Spike let's not jump -" Celestia reasoned.

"Then what do you think she's doing insted of being here? You know she wouldn't skip a test or lesson." The room grew silent as the guards gawked at the baby dragon yelling at their princess in such a fashion. "We need to investigate! She can't leave like this! Not like -" Spike's creeks radiated a deep scarlet as salty liquid tricked down his face, words progressing into mumbles with each vowel.

"silence," Luna's Caunterlot voice resonated throughout the halls and added in a more soothing tone, "We would love to help you, unfortunately crime has peaked ever since the attacks and a large portion of our investigative team is comissioned by the border, with the remaining currently investigating an alleged Arabian lead crime ring whose actions jeopardize our national security."

"I believe I know of a pony who can point out what has happened," Celestia smiled as she motioned to her servent to ready her carriage for Ponyville.

Last night

    The sun had long since reposed beneath the horizon; the moon luminated as it danced on the zenith of the heavens as the clouds observed it waltzing amongst the stars. The only life in Ponyville was the few leaving the taverns who bothered to stay open and the occasional flyby from Luna.

    Three ponies approached the library: two stallions and a mare, both stallions clad in dark turbins, the mare a unicorn in a grey burqa. The mare unsheathed a grappling hook from her saddlebags, hooking the balcony as the three ascended. Nearing the window, the beige stallion equipped a knife and carefully carved it, perfectly detaching it from its frame and proceeded towards Twilight's chamber. The mare levitated a scarab necklace from her bag and put it on Twilight's neck as the grey stallion gaged her and sealed her weary frame in a burlap sack. They exited through the window and one stallion sealed the window back in position.

    Twilight, collecting what was happening, struggled as a dark aura grasped her like a boa constrictor with each futile attempt. She gasped for breath and slowly drifted out of consciousness.

The current day in Ponyville

"Who'd you have in mind to investigate, Celestia," questioned Spike as the duo trotted toward the Carousel Boutique.

"Let's just say she has a niche for the finer details," She alluded as the door bell jingled.

    Rarity dashed about the shop, levitating multiple fabrics and dyes while balancing other sewing supplies. Having heard the bell she halted and for a few moments panted, staring at the two as she regained her breath.

"Welcome, Princess Celestia and Spike " - she bowed in courtesy - " what brings you here your majesty?"

Celestia replied," Earlier today, Twilight was supposed to meet with Luna and I at the palace and my guards never saw her enter the castle. I'm afraid that Twilight might of gone missing and I require your help to investigate."

"Oh my stars! I do hope wherever she is, she's alright," stated Rarity,"but of course, I'll help, darlings; although I have a large request for my summer line in Manehattan, I cannot simply abandon my friend."

    The three set out for the library; as they neared Golden Oak they noticed a familiar yellow pegasus pearching on a branch as she lulled a baby bird to sleep.

"Hey, Fluttershy," Spike greeted as the unsuspecting pegasus leaped from her pearch, hitting her head on a higher branch.

"Ohh," she moaned hovering down, "hello, Spike, if you could, might you try to greet me in a lower tone when I'm tending to the animals, please?"

"Sorry about that, Shy, I didn't think I would have startled you that much," Spike apologized.

"Oh, it's alright," Fluttershy accepted,"so... what's going on everypony?"

Celestia replied,"we have suspicion of Twight being ponynaped and we're investigating her dissappance."

"Oh no! I hope she's fine, might I tag along," asked Fluttershy.

"Why not," Spike agreed, "the more, the merrier!"

Finally the group reached their destination, Rarity's horn begun to illuminate to library when,

Crash!

"Rainbow," Rarity cried, "hasn't Twilight told you that you're supposed to use the door enough? It's bad enough that you're tampering with a crime scene."

"How was I supposed to know this was a -" Rainbow paused to process what Rarity said, "wait did you say 'crime scene'?"

"I haven't explained to you, my bad," she apologized and added," we suspect that Twilight was ponynaped and I'm investigating her dissappance."

    Rarity then continued to scan the tree as she hovered over a section of the floor.

"Ouch," she cried,"when I scanned the floor, my spell detected a very special gem and it seemes that it was enchanted," Rarity explained, "whomever had this gem clearly doesn't want anypony to discover the residue of it with a spell."

"What type of gem might this be," inquired Celestia.

"It seemes to resemble a very rare gem: 'Scarabus', it's only been discovered in one region: 'Wadi Hornifa' , a valley located in central Saddle Arabia." She followed the trail of residue to the window and observed,"the trail leads here and it appeares that somepony dismantled the window and resealed it as well as the trail of residue might be enchanted with dark magic."

"I thought we whooped that Sombra guy. Who else knows dark magic," Rainbow asked.

Celestia explained,"although dark magic is forbidden in Equestria and books on it are banned, there are still a few books left outside of the country and items enchanted."

    Rarity exited Twilight's room and noticed some scratch-marks on the railing and stated," there appears to be some scratches, this might suggest the ponynapper used a grappling hook to avoid detection."

"Hey, Rarity," asked Spike," when Pinkie had her cake eaten, why didn't you help to investigate?"

"Did somepony say my name," asked Pinkie appearing as coming from no where, " how's your search for Twilight going?"

"How did -" asked Rarity.

Rainbow interrupted "Come on, Rarity, you've been here long enough to know it's just Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie explained, " no, silly, the author wrote it that way!"

Rarity stated,"I'm not going to ask about what you just said. The only reason I didn't search for the cake is since my spell only detects material changes, such as a dent in the wall, since the cake was made mostly of natural ingredients such as eggs and milk, I was unable to decipher who did it."

"I'm sorry, but I need to set the sun and must go," stated Celestia, " it seemes like everypony has made good progress on this case. Farewell, My little Ponies!"

"Bye Princess," everypony, excluding Celestia greeted.

"What now," spike asked.

"It seemes like we have all the evidence pointing to the valley, though it's awfully late, I suggest we wait until morning to set out for her."

"Rarity," Rainbow scolded,"Twilight has the newest 'Daring D'- I mean we have our friend missing, we can't abandon her!"

"Wadi Hornifa is miles away and is a huge area," Rarity reasoned," we need all the energy we have if we're traveling."

"Okay, fiiine," Rainbow Dash whined,"it's just that I don't like knowing she might be miles away, extremely injured. When I find out who took her i'll-".

Rarity interjected,"Rainbow, darling, save that for when we find the culprit."

"Alright, I'll bring Applejack here with me tomorrow and I'll fill her in," said Rainbow and she flew off, shouting her goodbyes.

Into the storm

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.