The sun beat down along the sandy dunes of Saddle Arabia. The unforgiving landscape had long been traversed by travelers throughout the centuries, always unchanging and always brutal. From the sand that blew everywhere with the slightest hint of a breeze to the rattlesnakes that inhabited the desert, it was no easy feat to make it through the barren wasteland.

Over the horizon, the sun climbed higher into the air, casting an orange glow that chased the dark of the night away in order begin the day anew. Shadows elongated themselves along the ground as they stretched to greet the new day. All was still in the desert landscape, not a grain of sand moved and not a breeze was felt.

However, just over a tall hill of sand, one could make out a cloud of dust rising into the air and moving forward. On the other side of the hill, four motorized carriages made their way through the desert. Inside each were a group of ponies of all kinds wearing gold plated armor and carrying weapons. These were the Royal Guards, the strongest and best trained military force in Equestria. Though their name implied that they should be guarding a fair princess in a castle in some far off land, they were in fact, soldiers, meant to defend Equestria whatever the cost. Highly trained and heavily armed, they would stand up to any foe who threatened the safety of their home.

In all of the carriages, they sat talking among each other, laughing with each other and talking amongst themselves. There they chatted, merely enjoying the company of their brothers in arms. Many had grown close to one another over the past few years they had spent in the desert together during their service and had been through some of the most grotesque events in their lives together.

One carriage in particular, however, was especially alive with activity, electric guitar music blared from the speakers inside as a Rainbow maned pegasus sat with a pair of stallions on either side of her. Had it not been for the music, the carriage would have been utterly silent, not even the soft laughter of two normally wisecracking young privates was able to break the silence in that carriage. It was then that the cyan pegasus opened her mouth to talk.

"Oh come on you guys. I feel like you're taking me to a court-martial or something. This is crazy! What did I do wrong this time? Any minute now, you're probably gonna pull over and shoot me! I mean, come on! What, are you not allowed

to talk or something?"

One of the stallions swallowed nervously.

"We-we can talk, ma'am. Its just that-"

"Oh, I see how it is. It's personal, huh?" said the pegasus, playfully feigning offense at the guard's remark.

"You intimidate them. They're not sure how to react to someone being bigger and badder than them," she heard a feminine voice say from the seat in front of her.

Rainbow Dash smiled a bit upon hearing the mare's voice front of her. Just then, she saw the stallion on her right slowly raise his left hoof into the air. Dash turned to look at him.

"You're- you're kidding me with the hoof raising, right?" She asked. "Come on, just speak up! I don't bite... often". She playfully flashed her white teeth at him in an animalistic manner before giving him a warm smile.

For a moment, she thought the young stallion (who may as well be a colt) would wet himself any second by the look on his face. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes a bit and wrapped one of her wings around him, pulling him close and keeping the same smile on her face.

"Come on," she said to him. "What is it?"

He merely stared at her, wearing a blank expression for half a second before he suddenly remembered that he was in the real world.

"Um... Miss Dash... I know you probably get this way too much, but I was wondering if you um... might take a picture with me? I mean... 'cause.. my friends at home will never believe me if I say-"

"Is that it? Jeez, with the way you were acting I was expecting you to get on your knees and propose to me right here!" said Rainbow, cutting him off. "Sure. Why not?"

Turning his head around, the guard reached into his saddlebag and pulled a small camera out with his mouth, giving it to the mare in front of him with a nervous grin. As she took it and began to fiddle with it, he leaned in next to Rainbow Dash and put on smile. Rainbow in turn put on a face that she thought would look... cooler to everyone. She didn't smile, but her face didn't show signs of unhappiness or anger; she just looked very calm and... cool.

The camera clicked and the inside of the carriage filled with a bright light for no longer than the blink of an eye. The guard reached his hoof out and took the camera back from his female comrade, thanking her.

"Now, just remember, kid," Rainbow Dash said, "if you have something to say, just say it. Don't wait for someone to call on you like a little schoolcolt in the first grade."

The white stallion opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the windows were filled with a blinding flash of light as they felt their carriage suddenly come to a halt. The driver slammed his hoof on the brakes and made a sharp turn that nearly flipped the entire vehicle. When they came to a stop, the side window was now facing ahead. Looking out, Rainbow could see that the carriage in front of them, once made up of fine iron, was now nothing but a smoldering mass of molten metal and flames.

"Contact! We have enemy contact!" the mare in front of them screamed out as she grabbed her gun and attached it to the side of her armor.

Checking to make sure it was secured and that the ammo belt in her saddlebag was properly linked in, she leaped out of the carriage and opened fire into the distance. The surviving soldiers in the convoy followed suit as they filed out of their transports one by one and opened fire. The second stallion on Rainbow's left opened the door and scrambled out, taking his gun with him.

"You! Stay with Miss Dash!" he yelled to the remaining soldier in the carriage. Just as he finished his sentence, he was engulfed in flames from a nearby explosion.

Rainbow Dash wasn't looking when the door behind her opened. Her eyes were locked on the explosion that had just taken the life of a young soldier barely into his adult years. When she felt the carriage shake from the closing door, she snapped out of her trance and looked behind her to see that the soldier who was supposed to guard her had directly disobeyed his order and climbed out to help his friend.

"Wait! Wait!" cried Dash, beginning to fear for her life upon hearing the sound of guns firing and grenades detonating just outside. "Give me a gun! Or a knife! Or something!"

"Stay here!" screamed the soldier, attaching his gun to his saddle bag and loading a clip of ammo. "You hear me?! Stay he-"

He was cut off as a barrage of bullets hit him right in the chest, puncturing a few holes in the door he had just closed. His lifeless body leaned against the side of the carriage before sliding down to the ground. Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes shut as she did her best to collect herself after what she had just witnessed. Opening the door opposite the one covered in bullet holes, she crawled out of the carriage, the sound of guns and explosions filling her ears the second she put her front hooves on the ground. In the distance she heard a loud noise that sounded like a rocket had gone off. Just to her right, she saw the carriage that had been driving behind the one she was in explode. Its wheels flew off in different directions as everyone inside or nearby was instantly incinerated. Before she had time to register that over seven ponies had just been killed, the fourth and final carriage was also hit.

In a haze, Rainbow Dash scrambled through the sand towards a rock that was just large enough to hide and hopefully protect her from any incoming bullets. From her own custom saddlebag, she pulled out a small cellular phone, among the most advanced in existence, and desperately tried to press the buttons with her shaking hooves. As she finally pressed the final button there was a soft thud to her right. Looking away from her device, she saw that a small, glowing, fire red ruby had landed right next to her. What struck her as even more odd about this already unusual projectile was that it seemed to

glow from the inside and... oh no...

Rainbow Dash let out a scream of both surprise and horror when she realized that it wasn't just any ruby that had been designed to explode. On the side, she could faintly make out the words "Dash Industries" engraved onto it's surface. Before she could turn to run, the gem detonated. The force of the explosion sent her flying backward, slamming her down on her wings several feet away.

Rainbow Dash lay unmoving on the sandy floor of the desert; her entire body burned in agony for several seconds before she felt a warmth trickling down her chest and stomach. Pulling her head up with a groan, she found that dozens of small cuts had been slashed into her chest area by shards of the ruby, each progressively releasing more blood as the seconds went by. She let her head fall back down and looked to the sky above her as the blood continued to flow out of her body. She felt her body beginning to shut itself down as she slowly slipped into the depths of unconsciousness.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to find that the sun had been replaced with a glaring lightbulb overhead and that something, although she wasn't sure what, was holding her down and keeping her from moving. Suddenly, she felt an excruciating pain in her chest; she looked down to see several silhouetted figures standing over her and talking to one another, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Dash opened her mouth and released a scream of pain into the air. She managed to pull one of her hooves out of the restraints and began to flail it around in a hopeless attempt to escape.

Whatever had been holding her down sprang back and wrapped itself around her hoof once again, slamming it back down onto the table she was lying on.

"Noooooooo!" She screamed once again, trying to pull her hoof away.

She struggled seemingly endlessly, her chest on fire, every muscle in her body flailing in an attempt to escape whatever force was keeping her down. She screamed once more before she could see what looked to be a small metallic object being lowered down into her chest, where an incision had been made. The sight of this immediately sent her into a panic, and she began to struggle even more than she already had. Before she could manage to yank herself free once more, a cloth was plastered over her face.

"NO!" She screamed, suddenly feeling very dizzy "Don't do... don't do... don't... do... do... do... it..."

Before she could finish her sentence, her body once again went limp and the entire world around her faded into blackness...

For the second time in one day, Rainbow Dash pulled herself back from the depths of unconsciousness. The room she was in appeared blurry and there seemed to be an unnatural dark tint to everything. As her senses slowly returned to her, she could feel that something, a common potato sack perhaps, had been cast over her head. She was sitting in an unnatural position on what felt to be a chair, with a rather heavy object in her hooves. Her vision started to clear a bit, allowing her to make out what seemed to be a tripod-mounted camera in front of her.

Rainbow Dash moved her head around in an attempt to try and make sense of her surroundings. She heard a voice overhead seemingly speaking to the camera ahead. The sack was suddenly yanked violently from her head, taking the dark tint it had given to the world with it. Rainbow's eyes widened as her vision finally cleared itself up; upon viewing her surroundings, however, she truly wished she could go blind again. She was strapped to a chair in a room filled with strange bipedal dogs. Each of them, with the exception of the one talking, was carrying a gun of some form or

another. Their gazes were focused on her as the one speaking read aloud from a scroll held in his paws. Rainbow Dash's breathing grew quicker and shallower as she realized the horrible truth.

She had been kidnapped... and she was now a hostage...