A group of building stood strong in the middle of the desert, while sixty mile a hour winds wreaked havoc on the surrounding landscape. Waves of heat radiated off of the sand in the one-hundred and twenty five degree weather on that hot summer day.
The surrounding area was bare of all life as as the sun started falling over the horizon. That is, bare with the exception for two curious teenage girls...or so they thought.
“Would you take that off already?”
“No way!” Rainbow Dash yelled, reaching up and holding her hat tighter to her head.
Sunset Shimmer sighed before looking forward through her binoculars at the large group of buildings. “You look ridiculous.” Sunset laid on her stomach, in a long sleeve white shirt, brown shorts, matching brown ankle boots, and a tan boonie hat. Rainbow kneeled next to her in a dark blue tank top, black shorts, blue sneakers, along with a baseball cap made out of aluminum foil.
“Everyone knows that aliens are attracted to foil.”
“There are no aliens in Area 51!” Sunset snapped, not taking her eyes off their target..
Smirking, Rainbow poked Sunset in the side. “Then why did we come all the way here?”
“I came because I was curious. You came because you wouldn’t stop bugging me to let you come with me.”
“Fair enough. Although next time you could have warned me about how hot it is. I’m getting cooked here.”
“Because you didn’t listen to me about what to wear, and you turned your head into an oven.” Sunset smirked before feeling something cold just above her left boot. Quickly turning around, Sunset noticed a black puppy with a white belly.
Sitting up, Sunset carefully rubbed her hand down his back, before slowly picking him up and holding him securely to her chest. “Where did you come from? Look at you, you’re burning up! Let’s get you some water…” Sunset reached into her bag and pulled out her thermos. Feeling the cap up with cool water, she held it up to the dog who drank it graciously.
“Ok, you have been spending way too much time with Fluttershy. Where did he come from though?” Rainbow asked, petting the dog herself. The dog turned his head towards her and Rainbow noticed a collar and around his neck.
“Hayate. Belongs to Riza Hawkeye. What kind of name is Riza?” Rainbow rolled her eyes, before taking a sip of Sunset’s water for herself.
“Hayate? Is that your name?” Sunset asked, only to get licked in the face as a response. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“You see him?” A voice called from a distance.
“No! You?””
“If I saw him, I wouldn’t have asked you!”
Hayate surprised Sunset slightly, as he jumped out of her arms and started running the opposite way.
“Hey! Come back!” Sunset yelled, running after him without hesitation. Turning back towards the voices, Rainbow groaned before running after Sunset and Hayate.
The chase had continued for almost ten minutes before all three of them collapsed in the sand. After catching her breath, Sunset took off her belt and hooked it onto Hayate's’ collar for a makeshift leash.
“There. Now you can’t run away again.”
Rainbow stood up after a minute of resting, and picked Hayate up. “We need to get back to our stuff.”
Nodding in agreement, Sunset forced herself to stand up, before removing her hat and putting it on Rainbow. “This will help keep you two cool.”
“Thanks. Now which way?” Rainbow asked, looking around. Due to the high winds, visibility had been practically non existent.
“This way, I think.” Sunset pointed northwest, where she could just barely make out their footprints. Holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, they started off again.
It had been around twenty minutes later when the wind finally died down enough to let them see. After looking around Rainbow fell onto the sand with a grunt.
“Great, there’s nothing here but sand! Were totally lost!”
“Hayate!”
Both girls turned around to where they heard the voice, and saw two black figures in the distance.
“Maybe they can help…” Sunset suggested as she started to stand up, only to find herself being pulled back down by Rainbow.
“Are you crazy? They work for Area 51. They aren’t going to help us, they’re going to kill us!” Rainbow whispered, as the men moved a little further away.
Without warning, Hayate jumped out of Rainbows arms and started barking. Thinking quickly, Sunset quickly picked him up, and started rubbing his belly in an attempt to keep him quiet. It worked, just a little too late. Looking up, they noticed the two men started running towards them, and went to run themselves.
“Wait, we aren’t going to hurt you!” A tall black haired man with glasses called out. Smiling, both of them stopped running and just slowly started walking towards them. Not sensing any danger, Sunset decided not to run and instead see what the men were going to do.
“You found Hayate. Thank you so much. I’m Mass Hughes, but you can just call me Hughes. What are you two doing out here in this heat?” He asked, taking Hayate in his arms.
“What’s it to ya?” Rainbow whispered, taking a small step back
“You can quickly die from heat stroke out here, if you’re not careful. Let’s get you guys out of here. “ The other guys said, with a cigarette in his mouth. “The names Havoc by the way. Who are you two?”
“I’d prefer not to tell you my name.” Sunset cautiously eyed them up and down, taking notice of their unique royal blue uniforms. Their uniforms had the shoulder chain hanging off the chest pocket, rather than off the shoulder, with a flap crossing the chest. Lastly the back of their jackets ran down to their knees, with a slit down the middle.
“Hayate, what has gotten into you?” Havoc asked, picking him up and holding him eye level. “You never act like that.”
“I’m sorry, but I need to call in what happened. I need to know your name for the reports. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble, It’s just protocol.” Hughes explained gently, kneeling down so he was eye level with them.
“I’m Sunset Shimmer and this is Rainbow Dash.” Sunset sighed.
“Thank you. Those are beautiful names by the way.” Hughes took out his phone, and walked a little bit away so he could talk without anyone eavesdropping.
Everyone remained silent during the duration of the phone call. A minute later, Hughes hung up his phone and walked back over. “Someone will be here in a minute to pick us up. We’re going to a side hanger near the edge of the base, where you can get some food and water. You can find your gear there also. We stumbled upon it while looking for him, so his owner Riza Hawkeye offered to stay there to watch for you two and for him.”
“Wait, let me get this straight. You aren’t going to shoot us?” Rainbow asked confused, looking down at Hughes slug hanging from his waist.
“No, we aren’t. Looking is perfectly fine. However if you tried sneaking onto the base, that’s another story.”
“She’s here!” Havoc called, waving with his free hand at the camoflauge jeep driving up to them.
“Hayate!” A blond haired women called out. She had her hair tied up with a clip in the back, and wore the same blue pants as Havoc and Hughes, but instead of the jacket she wore a brown t-shirt. Jumping out of the jeep, Riza ran over and took Hayate from Havoc before turning to Sunset and Rainbow.
“Thank you so much for finding him. Now let’s get you inside. This isn’t the place that you want to be out in the middle of the day.” Riza explained, hearing the four of them to the jeep.
Nodding in understanding, Rainbow climbed into the back seat of the jeep first, with Sunset following behind her. Hughes climbed into the front passenger side and held Hayate, while Havoc climbed onto the back, and remained standing, holding onto the plastic rails on top for support.
It hadn’t taken them very long to get to the base, and they were quickly taken into a side hanger where they sighed in relief in the air condition building. It had been fairly small, with a couple small tables and chairs throughout the room.
“Remind me to NEVER come here again, Rainbow groaned, sitting in one of the chairs and laying her head against the cool wooden table.
“I’m just a little confused about all of this. I wasn’t authorized or had a background check or anything. Yet you just let me onto the base?”
“That’s because I said it was alright.”
Sunset jumped at the familiar voice coming from the entrance. Turning around, she saw a purple girl with blue hair walking towards them with water.
“Twilight? What are you doing here?”
“Good to see you too. As for all of this well you see, huh how do I explain this? Ok, so you know how the mirror portal connects our two worlds?”
“Um, yeah.”
“We had another portal that connected Equestria to their country Amestris. However after my fight with Tirek, the portal had been destroyed. So your president had kindly offered to let us use his portal that connects to Amestris temporarily, until we are able to fix ours. That’s what is guarded here.”
“I have so many questions, but I’m too tired to think straight.” Sunset groaned, laying her head on the table in a similar position to Rainbow.
“I’ll answer all of them, after we get you too cooled off. You’re burning up. What were you thinking going out there in this heat!”
Before Twilight could get an answer, she realized that both of them had passed out from heat exhaustion.
“I’ll watch these two, just go get the medical wing ready.” Nodding, Twilight ran out while Havoc just shook his head. “This is going to be a long night.”
