The months and the years had passed: Giovanni Drogo, once a young Captain seeking glory and honor, has become Major and second-in-command to the command of the little garrison of the fortress.
Giovanni thought about his old friends: maybe now where tired of work and became grandfathers; maybe they found the wealth and the glory; maybe now they are counting their children and grandsons, or maybe they died in despair, without anyone caring of them.
Only one thing was sure: Giovanni was consuming himself : until a week ago, someone could tell that was still young and could see him going around with the horse in the arid plain, even if he did it hardly; then all changed: his muscles lost their power, his skin became more wrinkled more the time passed like a tobacco leaf, his eyes started to hollow out and started to lost the hope to find why he was still here, waiting on a dead border in a desert.
Giovanni Drogo started to stroll round the Bastiani Fortress, and the memories passed in his mind: the monotonous turns of guard in the external bunker; the walls of the fortress once white who were now gray; the uncomfortable bed of the first days; the nostalgia of home felt before entering the fortress... and the foolish decision of not turning back.
Giovanni Drogo was interrupted by Simeoni, who said to Giovanni Drogo :
“You seem so... consumed by something: I'd suggest to take a license and go away, maybe in sea city”
“No, commander, I already feel better: just lest me recover. Just now I'm going to have my weekly ride with my horse”
“As you wish”, then Simeoni returned in his office... that office who never changed in decades: there was still the old picture of the king, the ceremonial sword, the spartan table...
Giovanni, sighing, took his equipment for the ride reluctantly and prepared the old horse for the ride: even if that activity wasn't anymore enjoyable, it was the only thing that he could do at the moment.
He went down the steep slope and watched the never-changing sight : white rocks who seemed perfectly allinated by some kind of giant, dead bushes and sand... lot of sand.
After he finished his usual round, while he was returning up to the Bastiani Fortress, Giovanni heard a scream and a bell:
“THE ENEMY! THE ENEMY! TO THE ARMS! TO THE ARMS!”
That was what he expected for years: a sign of attack, the proof that the time passed in the fortress wasn't wasted in series of all-equal days: Giovanni Drogo galloped up to the fortress, for then taking his old weapon and see the enemy force's composition, but what he saw surprised him:
knight less equines, just knight less equines on the sight, and not much either: only five or six.
Giovanni thought : “I defended this fortress for years... if I consumed my life.. for defend my nation from a group of equines... then they must be powerful !”.
Giovanni gave the order to prepare the cannons and go in the defense positions, but something interrupted the process: a long rainbow appeared over the fortress, for then disappear in the nothing, after the first shock thought, the soldiers restarted to arm the cannons.
When all was ready, he gave the order to do a warning shoot: after all, they might be travelers from another country... when the soldiers shoot, Giovanni saw that three of the equines stopped: uncertain about what to do, Giovanni gave the order to keep shooting on the incoming equines. After ten minutes, he saw a purple aura circling around him....
Two hours before, in the desert
Twilight Sparkle was losing her hope : it was told by someone that, over the desert of Appleloosa, there was an entire new world, never mapped beforehand and full of riches: she, took by curiosity, chose to go on and explore it, but somehow, her friends wanted to come with her, even if they knew how hard was the travel across the desert; but it seemed that the rumors were false: over the land, nothing apart from white rocks and sand was there, and everyone in the troop started to complaint.
“My hooves hurts after this long trip! Could we stop ? ”
“Why we are taking so long to arrive ? Speed up!”
“This...is so boring...”
“I'm hungry and sunburned”
“Twilight..are you sure to keep moving?”
Twilight Sparkle didn't even answered, she just said :
“Do you wanted the bike ? Now cycle !”
An hour later, Twilight Sparkle heard a sound of a bell.
At first she thought to a mind-created sound, but then the same noise repeated, this time more clearly... she stopped and tried to track from where the sound come, and what she found surprised her : they made it! They reached the opposite part of the desert! Excited, she dropped down the equipment and bounder around saying “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Rainbow Dash said “What's up egghead? Did you found out a new kind of sand? Uhu, useful info !”
“No, Rainbow Dash, we reached a civilized zone! Could you please recon for us from this part ?” Twilight pointed out a far mountain .
“Are you kidding me? There is nothing!”
“But I heard a bell ! “
“Are you sure that wasn't a sound created by your mind ?”
“Of course it isn't created by my mind!”
“Alright it then, if I don't find something, then you pay me 20 bits”, then she flew away, heading for the mountain.
Few seconds later, Rainbow Dash returned, and reported living forms in a building resembling a barracks.
Twilight Sparkle said with a triumphant voice :
“Girls ! We are near to our goal! Resist some more and we will found out the secrets of this new world !”
“yay” said Fluttershy in her usual low voice, before jumping away from a piece of sand moved by a steel ball, as did other patches of sand around them.
“What's happening Twilight?” said Applejack with an unusually scared voice
“Maybe it's their welcome! Respond the same way!” said Pinkie Pie
“I doubt, Pinkie, mostly because this are bullets, and they are made for kill: I don't think that they will welcome friendly someone by shooting at them: we must move faster.” , and so she did, while Pinkie stood there wawing to the source of the shooting, Rarity lost awareness, Applejack guarding them and the two pegasi coming along with Twilight
Some time later Twilight was near a rope bridge over a cliff, because she was still under fire, Twilight decided to take with her the creature who gave the order of shooting to she and her friends:
she concentrated, and saw one of the creature circled by her purple aura....
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.
