“I really hate these guys…”.

“Tell me ‘bout it”.

Rainbow Dash bitterly side-eyed the blue-maned stallion and frowned. Her lower lip stung, but not enough to bother her, still, the metallic flavour provided by her own blood was much easier to ignore than the other bruises she portrayed, such as her brand new – and very much sore – stab wound she just got on her barrel.

Courtesy of her favourite Bandit, of course.

Not only that, but the poor treatment she received from said Bandit was not that great either – She supposed she should be grateful for them not letting her die, Shalab did say she was worth more alive than dead anyways, whatever that meant –, the rubbing alcohol stung like hell and the bandages kept just enough pressure on her wound to deem it safe to move around, but the thing was even moving hurt. Still, since none of them bothered to stitch her up (or even give her the bloody needle and thread to do it herself) there was no doubt that she would have a permanent souvenir engraved on her body if she survived the night, that is. At this rate she didn't want to doubted it.

Indar wasn’t looking so fresh either, he received a good beating as well – also given to him by their sponsor of the day. He got a black eye on his right socket, and Rainbow was pretty sure he got a bruised rib or two from being used as a punch bag (again. She reminded him to add ‘practice dummy’ to his resumé, since it seemed to bring him more clientele than cartography), also his previous wound on the leg had reopened after one of those Bandits had the brilliant idea to stab him in the very same place (or at least close enough to open the wound once more).

She had woken up probably an hour ago, when night had already fallen over the Sahida Desert, and one of the bandits – an earth pony with a mane the colour of carrots and light, blue eyes – came to check up on them. They changed her bandages and even took the time to see if there were any other wounds they might've missed before. Rainbow Dash also recognised them as the pony that nearly choked her to death when she met the Bandits for the first time, and it both amazed and terrorised her; the way this earth pony was so gentle with her wounds, yet they easily could (and already have) overpower her with their bare hooves.

Apparently, this Bandit went by the name of Driza – since she heard somepony else call them before they left the wagon. They weren't much of a talker, but they were deeply observant, and that was something else she will have to be weary of.

Clingy screeched, catching her attention as she watched the bird try to open his wings as far as they could reach, but failing miserably due to the constrictive cage he found himself in – hanging from a wooden beam inside the wagon.

The rainbow-maned mare nodded. “You’re right, Clingy, this is Indar’s fault”.

“How is it my fault?!” The aforementioned huffed, rolling around to face her despite his rope restraints tightening as he did so. “If it weren’t for you, we’d be arrivin’ in Nabia right ‘bout now!”.

“My way was faster!” Rainbow exclaimed. “We were going in circles!”.

“I’ve mapped these deserts more times than you can think of, I knew exactly where we were goin’” Indar defended himself. “I thought you’d have half a brain to just shut up and follow me”.

“Well excuse me for trying to do something useful! All the time you act like you know better--!”.

“Because I do know better!”.

“But we end up either being followed by crazy Minotaurs or crazy Bandits or crazy oversized Cats that have a martyr complex and it never ends well!”. The pegasus uttered thunderously, raising her head to glare at him better, as if her piercing gaze could drill a hole into his head – preferably a hole that would crack his otherwise apparently empty skull open and just make him realise what a prick he is –. “And the worst part is that you don’t even care! You just do your own thing and expect everypony to agree with you, and when we do things my way you’re acting like a whining arsehole the entire time!”.

“Well you were the one who begged me to come with you!”.

“I never begged you! We are going the same way so I thought it would be nice to go together!” She objected. “Obviously I was wrong, you’re the worst pony I’ve ever met”.

The stallion hardened his glare, and with a rumbling voice he said, "You can say all you want, but your perception of reality is so fucked up that you'd die without me in this desert--".

"Not this again" Rainbow huffed, rolling her eyes. “I managed just fine without you, and If anything I’ve saved you all this time”.

"Not everything can be solved with bad jokes and delusions of a stupid, magical land that doesn't even exist!".

"Equestria is real!".

"For fuck’s sake-- Wake up!" He screamed, louder than either of them expected and sufficiently boisterous to be heard on the other side of the caravan, where Shalab and his bandits were eating besides a fire. "It's not real, it's never been real, and it never will be! I don't know, and at this point I don't care where you come from, but you've got some serious mental damage! This is reality! We're in a fucked up desert trapped in a fucked up caravan to be sold to some fucked up asshole and all of it could have been prevented if it weren't for you!".

Rainbow was about to object to that with something that would surely hurt him, because as of right now she wanted to hurt him like he was hurting her, but her mind drifted to twists and turns, and she couldn't help but think that maybe, in some parallel universe where she might admit it out loud, he was right... It all could have been prevented if she didn't take off that day, if only she was strong enough to resist his mind games, ~~if only she had stood in front of her friends then maybe somepony else would be trapped in here, in~~ her place ~~right now~~... But soon after, the rainbow-maned mare had to lay back from the sharp pain on her barrel. Rainbow looked down at the bandages, red spots already forming again from the sudden movement. "At least I do something" She sighed.

Unbeknownst to her, Indar watched as the wound reopened with a grimace, knowing all too well the throbbing pain she must be in right now. "Look I--" He started, his voice surprisingly soft.

"Don't" Rainbow gazed up towards the ceiling of the wagon. The wooden beams that held the cover kept her from seeing the sky welcoming the moon and stars. “Let’s just… figure out a way to get out of here”.

As she stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts drifted to how they ended up in this situation.

Earlier that day, they had been running (or in her’s and Clingy’s case; flying) for hours to no end, they barely even stopped a few times to rest or eat the remaining leftovers they had, which wasn’t much to begin with. Still, no matter how fast they went or how far they reached, the desert seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction, making their goal feel all the more elusive.

The Sahida Desert went out as far as the eye could see, although something had changed as they advanced. Sparse vegetation stubbornly clung to life, defying the harsh conditions in which it lived on. From time to time, Rainbow would see cacti standing tall as she flew over them, even if their spiky exterior seemed… uninviting… – she certainly wouldn’t like to land on any of those.

Another thing that had changed throughout the course of the hours was those towering steep-sided, flat-topped hills – she didn’t really know what they were called, but she liked the change in scenery –, which rose from the sandy terrain like sentinels as their weathered cliffs casted long shadows on the sand, the dunes, the occasional lone scorpion and the cacti. Said hills eventually gave way to a wide canyon that expanded for miles. The floor of which was, from what Rainbow could see from above the precipice, like a labyrinth of jagged rocks and long dry riverbeds.

The way she saw it, they had two options; either carry on for the whole day in utter silence until they got to Nabia well past midnight, or they could just pass over the canyon and cut that time in half. She liked those odds. Indar, however, did not.

Indar argued that it would be pointless to drift apart from their route now, and that they would be in Nabia that very night either way. Not a very strong argument in Rainbow’s opinion. The pegasus countered his logic with his own logic, claiming that if it didn’t matter which way they went, why shouldn’t they go through the canyon?

Still, it didn’t matter how much she may have been right, neither of them was willing to give in to the other’s arguments. Indar was too stubborn to yield and Rainbow Dash was too angry to listen, so naturally, they found themselves in the midst of one of their infamous quarrels.

Their bickering echoed across the arid landscape, and neither noticed the group of Bandits (better known as the current pain on their asses) closing in on them.

As the argument escalated, Shalab and his Bandits sprang their ambush, emerging from the shifting sands with agility that betrayed their years of desert living. Their leader, cloaked in sandy coloured robes that protected his frame from the scorching heat of the sun, smirked beneath his turban as he saw his chance.

"With how many times we’ve met," Shalab growled. "I’d say we’re like a big, happy family, reunited at last". It seemed like the unicorn did not waste any time in Hellburn; he sported a shining new weapon glowing in the grasps of his magic – a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade.

The battle (if it could even be called that) didn’t take much time. Rainbow Dash, Indar and Clingy were tired, no, exhausted from the long trip, lack of rations and water to sustain themselves, and, on top of that, neither of them were in the mood to cooperate with the other, so it was surprise to no creature when the Bandits managed to subdue them.

With a sudden, fluid motion, Shalab lunged at Rainbow, his blade gleaming in the harsh desert light. Her wings carried her aloft, and she manoeuvred with the expertise that preceded her in the air, narrowly avoiding the slashing attack. Yet Shalab, undeterred, lunged once more, his blade slicing through the air with deadly precision. With a swift, unexpected strike, Shalab's scimitar cut a deep gash across Rainbow’s barrel, causing her to cry out in pain.

Indar, witnessing the pegasu’s injury, abandoned his methodical approach and charged at Shalab, recklessly wielding a makeshift weapon – a broken branch. Though obstinate and dealing with his own half of the Bandits, Indar fought with a fiery determination, distracting Shalab long enough for Rainbow to regain her composure.

But it was too late. Shalab, his patience waning, swiftly incapacitated Indar and captured both of them in weighted chains.

Breathing heavily, Shalab stood triumphant, his bandits regaining their breaths. He sneered at the captured duo, talking to his crew without taking his eyes off of the Pegasus. “Patch them up, they’re more worth to us alive than dead”. The unicorn then pressed his hoof onto Rainbow’s barrel, making her scream in pain. "You may have put up a fight, but in the end, Sahida ain’t kind to no creature".

That’s when Rainbow lost consciousness. She’d wake up later to find herself tied up and poorly treated, her wings pressed hard against her back to prevent her from escaping once more, and the element she had kept guarded on her neck all this time gone.

Now, however, she could only assume Shalab had it... That didn't make it any better, though.

Both ponies heard a boisterous chorus of laughter from outside the caravan, which made Rainbow's thoughts come back to the present.

Clingy screeched again, fluttering on his restrictive cage to try and find a more comfortable way to be other than stand still for Celestia knows how long.

The pegasus closed her eyes, as she strained against the ropes that bound her. Rainbow Dash knew that she had to escape these Bandits. Not just for her own sake, but for the promise she had unspokenly made to her friends. They were waiting for her, somewhere in the world, and it was only up to Rainbow to save them this time. They had believed in her, and she couldn't let them down, not this early, not when she hasn't even started to look for them.

Rainbow sighed, she was tired.

"Why were you even going to Nabia?".

Her magenta eyes opened once more, turning her head towards the stallion. "I thought you 'didn't care at this point'" She cited.

The stallion huffed. “Whatever" Indar shook slightly his head, and from what little Rainbow could notice – given the obscurity of the caravan, neither of them could really see the other neatly, but the moonlight gave enough clarity for them to not be completely covered in darkness –, he seemed to be trying to change the topic.

"I’m not going to Nabia" Rainbow confessed. "I just need to get out of the desert... Actually, I'm not sure where I have to go, I just know that…". Maybe it was her exhaustion that pushed her to talk or the sharp pain on her barrel that made her delusional, but, even if she already knew her friends were lost someplace she couldn't reach, saying it out loud (or partially saying it) made her feel as if some weight was lifted off of her shoulders. if only for a moment. “That my friends are lost”.

"Lost?". The stallion asked, his tone of voice changed for the first time during this whole exchange, and he sounded genuinely interested.

"We... got separated" Rainbow muttered, reliving the memories in her head despite unwillingness to remember. "But I'll find them, I'll get them home".

Indar glanced away from her, thinking that if they got separated, and if these 'friends' of Rainbow Dash were just like her, they might as well be... "Where’d you get separated?" He asked in a soft whisper.

Rainbow Dash became silent. She saw no point in telling him that everything started in Equestria, of all places. He already thought she was crazy, so why bother insisting?

"Look" He started. "If anything, Nabia is a good place to start looking for them".

A moment of silence surrounded them as Rainbow thought of his words. Nabia was a big City, or at least that was what the map said; it was a Capital City, and if the cities here were anything like Equestria, then it was almost imposible nopony knew nothing about the Elements, or her friends for that matter.

She still remembered what Princess Celestia had told her before pretty much vanishing Rainbow Dash from existence. ‘Don’t loose sight of the Elements’, she said. But the princess never said it would be easy.

The Pegasus closed her eyes with a grimace, not so much from the physical pain she was in, but from the realisation that not only did already she loose sight of her friend’s elements, but her own element was in the hooves of some stubborn, blue-balled unicorn that would most likely profit off of it if she didn’t escape right now.

"I think I can get us out of here" She heard Indar talk again, noticing the particular wiggling sound that was coming from him. "But...".

"What?" Rainbow hissed.

"You'll have to turn around".

The pegasus sighed and, instead of turning her back to him, she rolled her body to face the stallion – taking care to not put too much pressure on her barrel. She frowned the moment she finally saw Indar in all of his stupid, arsehole-y glory. Due to her waking up just an hour ago, the bags and crates surrounding them, and the lack of light, all she could see was (barely) his form covered in casting shadows, plus the cloak he seemed to favour so much lazily draped on him, as if somepony tossed it and it so happened to land atop the stallion. "Why?" She asked with a tired frown on her face.

"I'll try to bite off your ropes, obviously" Indar rolled his eyes.

The rainbow-maned mare took a deep breath, but eventually found his reasoning sound, and sighed for what seemed to be the upteenth time that hour. "Fine, but be quick. I don't know how long these bunch of blockheads are going to be out there before one of them comes to check up on us again". Rainbow Dash rolled over to turn her back on Indar, and hoped he knew what he was doing this time.

Author's Note

Apologies for the delay, I've been too depressed to do anything really. But that's just life for you I guess.