The sound of trees cracking, and a thunderous boom that would make a strategic missile proud, rang throughout the everfree.

Accompanying it is the sound of a hellfire hydra screeching in pain and rage.

"Yeah bitch! That's what'cha get for interrupting my afternoon with Ender!"

I quickly trot up to the throat of the last remaining head and glare it down.

It glares right back with its red eyes, its volcanic texture dulled from the long battle, but still white hot with rage.

It opens its maw, a threatening red glow emanating from its mouth, and fires a wave of red fire.

I counter it with my own wave of magenta flames.

We stay in a stalemate for who knows how long until...

"Hey Vida!" Ender's voice calls out.

I grunt a bit, and look down to see Ender standing at the base of the hydras foot, staring straight at me.

"Yeah!?" I shout down, straining a bit to keep my flames flowing.

Damn. This spell gets really hot after a while.

"Do you think you could finish this a little quicker? There's a royal guard down here with a message for you!" he shouts up at me.

I groan, and add that extra little bit of punch to my spell.

A moment t later the sound of a hydra's head popping like a balloon reaches my ears and I cut off the spell.

I look up at my work.

Where there once was a raging hydras face, is now a glowing, smoldering stump.

I allow myself a small smile of triumph, then hop down onto its belly, and from there to its knees to the ground.

"A royal guard with a message you say?" I say, as I trot to where Ender is standing.

He had a bubble up it seems. The ground around him is perfectly in tact, opposed to the scorched ground surrounding the ring.

"Yeah." Ender turns to look behind a nearby tree.

"Sir. This is Vida".

I look at him, confused as to why his talking to a tree.

Until a 'slightly' shaky guard trots out from behind it into view.

He stares at me with wide eyes, "h-how did you defeat that hydra all by yourself?"

I grin, and say,"because I'm awesome."

We booths stand there a few moments longer. Neither of us saying anything.

Okay...well this is getting weird.

My smile drops, and I ask, "so you got a message for me?"

The guard immediately slips back into the trademark expressionless stare all guards are known for, and pulls out a scroll from his saddle bags.

He hoofs me the scroll and I study if for a moment.

A wax stamp with a golden sun.

That mere image is enough to stew a few emotions in me, but I open it anyway.

Dear Vida Emocionate.

There has appeared a powerful enemy in saddle Arabia and I fear that I cannot confront this threat due to my duties and the safety of my subjects.

Therefore it is with great reluctance that I ask you to travel to saddle Arabia and confront this monster in my stead.

You will be compensated appropriately and supplied with anything you may need.

And please bring Ender along as well. I believe that your collaborative skills will aid you greatly in this scenario.

I await your response.

-Monarch of Equestria.
Princess Celestia.

I stare at it for a few moments longer, before rolling it up and looking to my coltfriend.

"Ender?" I say.

A suggestive undertone to my voice.

"Vida." he replies in an equally suggestive tone.

We stare at each other for a few more moments...

Then we break into laughs.

"Haha, oh boy. So you wanna go slay another world ending monster?" I ask.

It's days like this that make me a little less annoyed by life.

"Totally. Lets do this!"

He raises his hoof in the air.

I meet it with a jovial 'high hoof'

And were on our ways to gather our respective tools and trinkets before we go to canterlot to meet the princess.

All the while we leave a very confused and bewildered guard behind.

He stays there for a few moments longer, then looks up at the dead, smoldering corpse of the hydra I just slew.

Then he takes off back to canterlot.

The heat waves emanating off of the hydra giving him a little extra lift.

The next day we find ourselves at canterlot, in a private meeting room with princess Celestia.

Apparently the princess didn't want any of her precious little ponies knowing that she was throwing us out into a desert to fight an unholy monster.

Pfft. Typical celestia.

We got here about ten minutes ago.

Celestia sent some chariots to pick us up in the morning.

Boy was that a long trip.

I swear that was the longest ten minutes of my entire life.

Anyway. Here we are now.

Listening to Celestia brief us on our mission into the unknown.

-"and so that is why I need the two of you to go in my place.
I am truly sorry for doing this, but you are the only ones I can turn to right now."

I contemplate on this for a mere moment before saying, "so basically what your saying is that you want us to go fight some ancient evil pharaoh queen who used to be one of luna's students some several millennium ago?

And that you can’t go fight her because parliament vetoed any idea you gave them involving putting you in direct danger?"

I stare her, bemused, as she reluctantly nods her head.

We sit there in silence for a seconds before I, with a completely expressionless face, turn to Ender.

"Well...what do you wanna do?" I ask.

I carefully study his face as he answers my question.

"Well, I still say we help out.
I mean, there are ponies out there in saddle Arabia who are being tormented by some evil queen right now. You can’t tell me you don't want to help them at all."

"I don't want to help them at all."

At this, Ender looks at me with a slightly puzzled expression.

"And why is that, Vida?" he asks.

His eyes boring into me with unspoken words.

'Please don't do this right now Vida' his gaze tells me.

I sigh in defeat.

Curse you and your magically handsome charms!

"Okay. I'll help. But I want ten gold bars and a barrel of cyrodilic spadetails, and abecean longfins."

Celestia raises an eyebrow and looks at me like I grew a second horn.

"May I ask why?"

"Because reasons."

This seems to pacify her curiosity, because she knows she's not gonna get an answer out of me.

"Okay so we ready to go?" I quickly ask; completely diverting the conversations previous course.

"I suppose we should be going pretty soon...
You said you would supply us on our journey, princess?" Ender asked.

Celestia smiles and says, "yes, I have some guards stationed outside the doors, they will take you wherever you need to gather supplies. Anything you may need."

Ender smiles as well, but something tells me it's more out of the "Anything you may need" comment more than anything.

"Thank you, your highness." Ender does a little bow, then gets up off the cushion he was sitting on.

I get up to, and follow him to the door.

Just before he opens the door I look back at Celestia and say one last comment, then trot out of the room with Ender.

Unseen by anypony, Celestia shivers after we leave and whispers something under her breathe.

"So, what are we gathering for our heroic adventure to save Equestria, Ender?" I ask, looking over to the stallion in question.

He looks over to me with a huge grin on his face and a gleam in his eyes.

"Well...I was thinking we stop by the armory first, you know, to see what our options are.

Just a something small, maybe a grenade or two."

I look over to him with a raised eyebrow.

"You know they don't have grenades here right?
In fact there's only, like, one pony in all of Equestria who actually makes those things."

I chuckle a little to myself at his shocked expression.

"Oh...yeah. I forgot." he says, hanging his head and looking embarrassed.

I look over at him, a little sympathy slipping into my mirth.

Ender has always taken his facts and assumptions with such reverence; I'm just now noticing how it affects him when he's called out on something he's wrong on.

I purse my lips together as I think whether or not is should I should say something to cheer him up.

I'm shaken out of my thoughts when a I hear the sound of heavy metal door opening.

I look back to see a large, and very Grey room.

Every corner of the room was lined with armor, weapons, and other miscellaneous items that I have never seen.

"This is the armory, I have been instructed to aid you if you may need any help here." the guard says.

He then stations himself right at the entrance of the large, vault-like doors.

I look back over at Ender to see his usual bright smile has returned.

We both trot into the armory, eyes wide with wonder.

So. Many. Weapons!

I rush over to the nearest wall, browsing its wares.

"Hmm...." my excitement dies down a little as I scan the walls.

Gold armor, gold armor, gold armor.

Jeez. How much gold armor do these guys need?

In my search for something non-monotonous I finally spot something different.

I trot over to the slightly smaller set of armor, casting a quick spell to 'read' it.

"Interesting" I say, continuing to stare at the intricate armor.

It was gold, like everything else, but had small silver gilded lines forming intricate patterns and swirls on the armor.

In the center, unlike the stars on guards armor, was a bright rubellite gem.

It also had a pointed visor on the winged helmet, and smooth gold plates running down the forelegs and hind legs.

According to my magic scan, this "Hieratic armor" protects the wearer from the natural elements, while also enhancing reaction time and natural aptitude.

And also augments magic ability by at least ten percent.

It was, all things considered, a very round armor.

I make a mental checklist to come back to this armor if nothing else suffices, then moved on.

Meanwhile, Ender is gazing up at a pair of bulky silver armor.

It's apparently called "paladin armor" and was worn by some heroic knight of Celestia in the days long past.

He hums in approval, and decides to fit it on.

"Hm...a little heavy."

Ender tests his movement in the full body armor.

"But it will do."

Ender then trots out of the vault to talk with the guard about the armors mechanics, and to wait on me.

Fortunately, I just happened to find a very nice pair of armor tucked away in a far, dark corner of the armory.

As I gaze up at the glowing armor I grin devilishly.

"Oh yeah...I think this will do."

"So all I have to do is focus on the engravings and it will activate?" I ask the guard.

He nods, "yes, it is a very complicated spell matrix designed by Miss Magnus herself. It's made to be battle ready no matter what your state is."

I have to admit. I'm already starting to feel quite attached to this armor...figuratively speaking.

I'm interrupted when I hear the heavy thudding sound of metal shod hooves on stone.

I look over to see Vida standing in the doorway, a...very interesting red armor covering her every feature.

The armor, in all honesty, looks absolutely hellish.

It has a large crimson plate armor, jagged at the edges.

Smaller darker plates stack on top of each other lining down her forelegs and hind legs, and a few plates running off the top of her tail.

Large red spikes jut out of the shoulders, and the visor on the helmet looks like hell itself is gazing at me.

"Well, what do you think?" Vida's voice says sweetly from behind the demonic visor.

I purse my lips for a second, taking in the whole look.

I look around me, noting all the guards expressions.

It ranged from the usual stoic faces, to ones of unease and one of pure terror.

I look back to the patiently waiting Vida, staring intently at me through the glowing visor.

"...it looks very nice on you Vida. But I don't think That's quite what we're aiming for.

Remember that we're heading straight into the heart of a desert and, unless the armor has a cooling enchantment, I don't think that would be the best choice." I word carefully.

"Awww!" Vida whines.

The image looking quite disturbing in such an armor.

"Don't worry Vida, we can claim the armor after our mission."

The guard next to me opens his mouth, likely to argue the topic. But a quick, cold stare causes it to die in his throat.

"Okay, but you owe me. This armor would have been so boss in a boss battle!"

Vida huffs and trots off back into the armory, heat waves little rolling off of her as she marches off.

I turn back to the guard next to me, but stop as I see him staring at me with wide eyes.

"She doesn't really mean what she said does she?" he asks.

I contemplate giving him the "because its Vida" explanation, but then again, maybe a setting full of guards isn't the best of places to say that.

So I settle on a gentle smile and say, "of course not. She just likes to collect cool stuff."

This seems to have the pacifying effect I intended, and we both go back to waiting on Vida to finish arming herself.

About five minutes pass and Vida trots back out.

This time wearing the Hieratic armor.(excluding the golden shoes)

"This better?" Vida asks with a bemused smirk.

I smile and nod, "much better."

She nods back.

"So we ready to go yet?" Vida asks, excited to start the journey.

"Not yet Vida," I say, chuckling at her enthusiasm, " we still gotta pack the supplies remember?"

Vida groans, but agrees anyway.

So eager. That's what I like about her though.

I talk to the guard and soon were on our way to the to gather supplies.

A half an hour, and ten minutes of arguing over essentials, later and we are riding on a chariot, again, on our way to the border of Saddle Arabia so we don't have to travel all that distance on hoof.

Though one could argue the former would be better as I tap my hooves with impatient energy.

“How much longer are we gonna be up here Ender? If i wait any longer my hooves are gonna fall off!” I shout for the hundredth time.

Ender, ever the image of patience, just smiles at me and says, “Only a little longer Vida, we're almost there.”

I just groan, and hook my hooves around the side of the chariot to see where we are.

Well at least there's sand now. Finally.

The guard next to me taps me on the shoulder to get me attention.

I look back at him with a slight glare, silently promising pain if he bothers me again. For the hundredth time.

The guard points to the front of the chariot, where our “Flight attendant” is about to make an announcement.

“We are about to arrive at Saddle Arabia’s border, please prepare all of your equipment and be ready to depart”, the guard says. Than he turns back around, staring into the sea of dunes approaching us.

I sigh, “FINALLY.”

“Ya getting itchy hooves Vida?” Ender asks jokingly.

I turn and smile at him, “Yeah, you could say that.”

A few moments later we land on an earthy terrain, just before we reach the sea of sand only a few minutes trot away.

The first thing i notice when i get here: It's HOT.

Now i'm glad i didn't bring that Hellgear with me.

I'd fry out here if i had.

So gathering our saddlebags and large packs, Ender and I both leave the confinement of the chariot and start our journey into the unknown dangers of the desert.

Author's Note

Things stirr up.

P.S. this is ONE of my original works, probably a work in progress, like these note...things.