Transmission 1: Taken from the answering machine in the Carousel Boutique.

The sound of the phone ringing is heard for a few moments before going to voicemail, and Rarity's voice can be heard.

"Hello Darling, you have reached the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville. I'm terribly sorry, but I can't come to the phone right now, I must be very busy. Please leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank You." the message said before playing the familiar sound of the beep signaling the beginning of the message, this time a higher pitched voice can be heard leaving the message.

"Hey Rarity, it's Sweetie Bell! I'm just calling to say that Scootaloo, Applebloom and myself have made it to the airport, and the Zeppelin boards in about 2 hours. Scootaloo is so excited, she can barley contain it. Again, thank you so much for planning this with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. We'll see you next week, I love you! Bye." Sweetie said in the message before hanging up.

Twilight Sparkle shuffled in her seat, readjusting the headphones on her head to a more comfortable position as she took out the first out of 4 tapes she had received, thinking about what had happened that led up to this.

Several weeks ago, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had finally graduated from school, and they were excited as ever. To celebrate this milestone in their young lives, their older sisters had planned a special graduation trip for them to take afterwards. They decided on a Zeppelin cruise that would take them outside Equestria before coming back, taking them over many spectacular places.

Once the girls graduated at the beginning of summer, everything was all set, and when their sisters told them about the trip, their screams of delight could nearly be heard all the way across Equestria. Not only was this a celebratory trip for them, it was also one that they would take on their own. Obviously, their sisters were a little concerned about them going without them, especially Applejack, but after some debating, they decided to just go for it.

Unfortunately, 3 days after the Zeppelin departed from the Canterlot airport, the princesses received dire news from the craft.

While flying over a region outside Equestria known as Kashmir Valley, the Zeppelin was shot down.

Twilight slipped the second tape into the player, this one was labeled as a transmission between the crew on the Zeppelin and whoever shot them down.

Transmission 2: Radio Communication between Zeppelin and Kashmir Valley Occupants.

The transmission starts with static before an aggressive voice comes through.

"Attention aircraft. You are flying in airspace occupied by the Order of the Iron, Identify yourselves. Over." the male voice commanded. This was followed by the female voice of Cloudy Skies, the Captain of the Zeppelin.

"This is the E.Q.S Lead, we are a commercial aircraft from Equestria, we have civilians on board, we mean you no harm. Over." Cloudy explained. After a moment of silence, the voice returned.

"You are not authorized to fly in this space, divert now, or we will use force. Over." the voice said more aggressive than before. Then Cloudy's voice spoke again.

"That will not be necessary, we are not hostile, we are carrying civilians, we are a commercial vessel just passing through. Over." Cloudy argued. The voice responded almost immediately.

"Negative, this is your last warning, divert now!" The voice shouted.

Unfortunately, the tape ended before the Twilight could listen any further. She didn't know exactly why this transmission ended, but she had an idea based on what had happened. She then took out the tape and put another in.

Besides the CMC, there were also 28 other pony passengers on that ship, along with 13 crew, so in total, 44 citizens of Equestria were on that ship.

The third transmission was of Cloudy Skies contacting Canterlot after presumably being hit and going down.

Transmission 3: Radio Communication between Zeppelin and Canterlot.

As soon as Twilight pressed the play button on the device, she immediately heard the voice of Cloudy Skies.

"Canterlot, do you copy? This is the E.Q.S Lead, we have been attacked and we are going down!" Cloudy said shakily, as several screams and chatter could be heard in the background.

"We hear you loud and clear Lead, state your location and number of souls aboard." A voice asked, presumably one from the Canterlot Air Control tower.

"We are over Kashmir Valley, the southern region of it, we have 44 souls on board, 31 passengers and 13 crew including myself. We have already prepared the necessary procedures for a crash." Cloudy explained.

"Okay, we have logged your position and we will go to help. May the odds be in your favor." The Air Control operator responded. After that, the transmission ended.

Twilight took out the tape and grabbed the final one. Normally, things would have been more simple. If the Zeppelin crashed, a team would've been dispatched to find the wreckage and save any survivors. However, according to the previous 2 transmissions, this wasn't any technical mishap or accident, this was an aggressive attack, one that was practically confirmed by the final transmission, that was received by Canterlot from the Occupants of Kashmir Valley.

Transmission 4: Received from an unknown location in Kashmir Valley.

The tape started off with static before a few grunts were heard, and a voice was heard.

"We're on." the voice said, then another voice quickly responded.

"Good, good." the voice said before a period of silence followed. This voice sounded husky, and was definitely male. After the silence, it spoke again.

"Greetings, Celestia. If you are hearing this, then you are most likely aware that one of your "Commercial Zeppelins" was caught flying over our airspace. Now, they were given warning to divert course, but chose not to. Showing that your subjects are just as stubborn as you."

Twilight frowned at this voice, the way he talked with condescension and contempt. He continued.

"Now, my forces immediately rushed to the wreckage after it crashed. And we found some ponies in it. After counting, we pulled precisely 42 Ponies from that wreck. Now, I gotta say, at least your safety measures have improved to minimize casualties. In fact, I applaud you." The voice said, applauding like he said.

"And, I pride myself as a very social pony, and I'm willing to negotiate with some of your top ponies for the remaining ponies from the Zeppelin. All I request is that you send them in passively, no Zeppelins, and no weapons. I want these to be peaceful negotiations, understand?" There was a moment of silence after he finished the sentence.

"Great! Send them to the compound in the center of Kashmir Valley. We will be waiting." With that, the tape ended.

"Twilight?" a voice suddenly asked, jolting Twilight out of her little world from the transmissions. She looked up and saw Starlight Glimmer kneeling next to her.

"Huh?" Twilight asked as she took the headphones off her head and ears.

"We're almost there." Starlight said as Twilight shakily stood up in the cramped Hot Air Balloon basket.

Twilight looked around, also in the basket were the rest of her friends, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. As well as her number one assistant, Spike.

After receiving the final transmission from whoever was in control of Kashmir Valley, Princess Celestia requested that Twilight and her friends quickly head to Kashmir Valley to solve this whole situation, supplying them with a substantial amount of bits for negotiations.

Of course, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash practically volunteered the minute they heard of what happened to the Zeppelin. Hearing that their sisters were at stake was enough. The others also quickly agreed to help.

Twilight looked over the edge of the Balloon, and saw that they were quickly descending over the compound that the voice in the transmission spoke of. Twilight then turned to her friends and cleared her throat.

"Okay everypony, lets go over the plan once more. We go in there, we listen to what they have to say, then we negotiate for the ponies. Celestia said that we need to be exclusively passive, or else we might endanger the ponies. We don't want to start a war." Twilight explained. each occupant in the balloon nodded before Twilight turned back to see that the balloon was close to landing. And she could see other ponies near the landing zone.

"You ready guys?" Twilight asked.

"Yup" Applejack said

"Show me the money." Rarity said.

"Yeptastic!" Pinkie Pie said.

"mmhmm" Fluttershy said.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Starlight Glimmer said.

Ready if you are Twilight." Spike said.

"Let's do this." Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight then took a deep breath before the balloon finally landed.

Author's Note

Let me know what you guys think so far. This is an idea I've had for a while now, and I just couldn't wait any longer.
Also, enjoy!