The Desert of Equines

Giovanni was shocked: the enemy had captured him... without even entering in the fortress !

He pulled out his pistol out his pocked, and said

“Do you think that I will be captured without resist ? Then you are SO wrong !” then Giovanni pulled the trigger... but nothing happened: the pistol seemed jammed by the sand and the lack of use.

Desperate, Giovanni took the gun from the barrel and tried to use it as a mace over the purple horned equine, but a force stopped him: he watched around him, and saw that was circled by the same purple aura that transported him on the base of the mountain.

Giovanni asked surprised “What the hell is this ? How you could do this? “

“Magic, creature, magic”

“Ppph, propaganda, come on, tell me the truth”, the purple horse seemed annoyed

“I wasn't lying! THAT'S magic !”

“Do not try to fool me: soon my comrades will kill you and free me, look, they are already marching down the mountain”, the purple equine said

“Well then, we will go down in the plain, and we will discuss about some things...” , the purple equine closed its eyes, but then she opened it and screamed of pain and fainted: Giovanni saw that a little stream of blood went down on one of the horse's flank, then, shortly after wards, the entire garrison arrived, and headed to Giovanni, who said :

“Never knew that the enemy could have trained talking horses for war”

“Seems so sir” said one of the privates arrived the day before

“Now, my orders are of taking prisoner this.. equine and interrogate it”

“It will be done sir.”, then the purple horse was taken between the arms of the two strongest soldiers of the garrison for avoid fleeing.

Down the plain, the equines trotted to the fortress: Giovanni ,seeing a perfect opportunity for annihilate the enemy, gave the order of place the cannons all over the fortress's main door, and charge them.

The equine's reaction was laughable by the soldiers : a pink one said “Oooh, what nice cannons, could I borrow one ?” ; an orange one tried to broke the gate with the kicks; a light blue said “Release Twilight, or prepare to be defeated!” ; a white one said “Free your prisoner! You cannot let her in this... outlandish building!”; the yellow one had a scared face.

An order was heard in all the plain: “FIRE!”, an the soldiers did with their rifles.

The ponies fall on the ground, wounded but not dead, thus, the soldiers opened the gates and took the equines in the fortress.

Prisoner's Room

When Twilight woke up, she saw that she wasn't anymore on the base of the mountain: she tried to recognize where she was, but nothing in the room was useful for that purpose : the walls were void and  the only light in the room was a petroleum lap.

Twilight Sparkle scanned the room, and saw her friends lying down all around the room: they seemed wounded, and surely not happy about the situation.

Applejack was the first to notice the Twilight's waking up

“So Twi, do you know something about what's going on? It seems we have been captured”

“Oblivious, but it's understandable : they live to the opposite side of the world, and I doubt  that they could even see one of us... but they don't seem coming from this world: when I took with me the one that gave the order to shoot, he could not believe that I was using magic”

“Really ? Then how they could power up that.. weapons ?”

“It seems that their weapons have a rather odd way of working, but, as you can guess, I could not study them further.”

The talking between the two ponies was interrupted by the arrival of one of the begin : the creature stood on two legs, its height was around one meter and ninety centimeters; it had two arms and hands, resembling the one of a minotaur, but smaller; it was covered by a dark blue dress and carried on its side a sword and one of the strange weapon powered by something.

The creature asked with a sarcastic tone:

“So, horses, what are your names? Nothing of too much important, just for prepare your body bags in case of... “accident”

Twilight, wondering about what it meaned about “prepare the body bags”, answered :

“I am Twilight Sparkle, this is Applejack” and pointed to Applejack, “Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash”

“Alright, Twilight Sparkle, for who you are working? Who declared us war ?”

Twilight was confused by the question: declare war? Attack? How their trip was an attack ?

She answered

“What? We didn't come here for attack the fort! We come over here for...”

“Then why you tried to capture one of our officers?”, then the creature punched her

“Ooow, what? Tried to capture him? I didn't, I just tried to stop the shoots coming at us!”

“You should know that this is a military zone, if you are not aware of it, well, pity”, the creature gave another punch

“Now say for who you are working, or your fine horn will be used as paper holder by the commander!”

“Ok, ok, ok, I work for Princess Celestia as her personal student”

The creature murmured “So, a spy....”, and appointed something on a piece of paper, then it passed to  Applejack

“Now, you! What's your role here ? Who are you ?”

Applejack said “I am a farmer, just a farmer”, the creature took the Applejack's neck and said

“Don't joke with me! Say your role in this expedition!”

Applejack tried to speak “I... work.. in this ex..dition.. as... carrier “

The creature wrote down something and said at low voice “supplier and maybe cook”

The creature passed to Rainbow Dash, and said

“Now, what is your role ?”

“You don't ask me something without freeing my friends!”, then the creature pulled off a knife and did a cut over the mare's leg

“Don't be pride of yourself: you are lucky that we didn't killed you”

“I fly recon for avoid eventual dangers...”

“Scout...” said the creature, then it passed to Rarity, but she said before even letting the creature starting

“Your clothes are ugly, and no, I didn't come here for a purpose”, the creature launched itself over Rarity and tried to choke her with its hand.

Meanwhile, Pinkie finally woke up, and freed herself by scratching the rope over a sharp edge of the room, and when she liberated, Pinkie freed the others, and tried to stop the creature, but she was pushed away with a kick.

Finally Twilight got the power back, immobilized the creature and said

“Alright, could ask a question ? Why you captured us? “

“ Simple as that: we are soldiers on a dead borders, we shoot at sight, especially if someone doesn’t seem a traveler”

“Shoot at sight? Why?”

“I don't know, it's my duty to stay here and guard this border for avoid invasions”

Twilight gulped and imagined what threat was so big that needed, as countermeasure, soldiers that shot on sight without warning ?

She asked “From who do you defend? I mean...”

“I don't know, we come over here and defend this arid plain, simple as that, now could you please stop?”

“Alright, if you don' attack us...”, then Twilight lifted the blocking spell.

Giovanni was surprised by the report given from the private : the group wasn't an attack group, it was mostly a group of travelers.

Because it was curios to try a new thing, Giovanni asked two guards for escorting him in the room where the prisoners were hold.

A bodyguard opened politely for Giovanni the door: Giovanni entered, and said

“Good morning, captives, they said to me that you aren't a threat, and I wanted to have the please of have contact after years with new people.” Giovanni held out his hand and said

“Major Giovanni, a pleasure to meet you”

“Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia and bearer of one of the Element of Harmony.” the equine offered her hoof to the Giovanni's hand.

“Now, I guess that you are the commander of this garrison, and I want to know something : why you are shooting us on sight ? I mean, it's a dead border, so no enemy should arrive from the desert”

“Well, everything could exit form there: from equines like you to blood lusting tribes”

“And THAT is the only reason for shoot in sight? I mean, this  happens from where I come, but  that happens rarely, and for evident reasons, while here... doesn’t make sense”

“Who knows, once this was the place where the tartars dwell ed, but God knows how much times has passed since they went away...”

“ So why you are still here?”

“I'm just respecting the orders coming from the Higher Command.”

“Well, I guess that they had some spare time for sending people like you to defend a inactive border.”

“You aren't in a position for judging, besides, why you come here? “

“They told me that over this desert there was a rich land still to explore...”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but this land is all but rich. But I guess that taking a license and go away from this arid rock for a week would not hurt”

“ I guess yes.... anyway, are we set free ?”

“Not now, I need to talk to the commander of this garrison, I will tell you tomorrow”, then Giovanni exited from the door and headed for the Simeoni's office in the fortress.

“So, you are telling me that they aren't hostile? Nah, too much problem with the civilians, better send them back, if you wish thought, you can go with them along with a bodyguard” said Simeoni while he lit up a cigar

“Well, I'd like go with them in their country: after all, nothing in our reports talks about “talking, colored horses” after that desert, and, in all honesty, I wish try something new for once”

“As you wish, but don't expect too much from them...”, then Simeoni wrote down a license with the end date labelled as “When the new country will be mapped”, then he placed the piece of paper in a postal folder, ready to be sent.