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// 81 - The Rude Sandstorm 
// Story: Age of Kings 
// by A bag of plums 
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Morn Dread sat atop his armored steed and overlooked the Kievan lands. He had taken this horse from the captain of the Fort Visage de Cheval. It turned out that the mental dominating power of Excalibur also extended to animals like horses. This new charger obeyed his every command, without even the slightest protest. It would probably run right off a cliff if he ordered it to. It was no Windspeed, but it had to do for now.

Morn knew that Emerald had come through this way. He had interrogated the soldiers here himself, and learnt of her departure into the Kievan Horse territory. He had never been this far away from Canterlot, but there was a first time for everything.

For the past day, Morn had taken rest at the fort to regain his strength. Excalibur still took a lot out of him if he pushed it too far, unlike his beloved, who could use it to no end. With all the mind dominating, it had worn on him and he had also let that bandit get away. He wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice, and so, he took it on himself to rest up after long days of using Excalibur’s power.

Even though Morn had left many of the Canterlot knights behind in other territories, his ranks had been bolstered by dominating soldiers from the forts he had come across and added them to his army. Canterlot’s king cursed to himself. He had wanted to catch up with Emerald before reaching the Kievan Horse lands, but she had eluded his grasp once again.

Just where are you going?

She wasn’t just blindly running. Morn knew Emerald too well to believe that. She had some kind of plan in mind, and it all counted on heading east, whatever lay in that direction. He squinted at the mountains in the distance, just barely visible on the horizon of the land. Emerald was looking for something, but he did not know what. Perhaps she was going to far off lands to bring back some foreign soldiers to oust him from the throne. His armored fist tightened on Excalibur’s grip. Let her try; he would dominate them all with his sword’s power.

Though he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, he could feel the sword’s abilities wearing on him. He was tired, and it was more than just mere travel fatigue. He knew how to cope with that. He had known, of course, that Dawn Saber was incapable of using Excalibur’s abilities without immediately having his vitality drained from him. All the knights had, and while Morn seemed to be able to tap into the sword’s power better than Dawn Saber had, he knew he could not compare to Emerald, for whom the sword had been forged.

Morn continued to stare ahead at the Coltcasus Mountains, but in his eyes, he could only see Emerald Edge before him. For the life of him, Morn could not understand why she had chosen to become his enemy. He had it all planned out. By taking Dawn Saber’s place, he was only putting a stronger king on the throne, one who would not value his own reputation over family. Morn would bring order to the world, and there would be no more fighting. Wasn’t that what every ruler wanted for their people, everlasting peace? And then Emerald was to rule beside him as his queen, but he could not understand why the woman he so loved would not want that. He was doing this all for his love for her. He was doing this for her.

Scowling, Morn looked down at Excalibur’s blade. Its gold and silver surface reflected his face very well. His open mouth displayed a pair of short, pointed fangs. He ran his tongue over them. He wasn’t quite sure when they had appeared, but it had most likely been after he had claimed the sword from his father. He didn’t know what to think of them just yet.

Morn looked behind himself at the Canterlotian and Prench soldiers who were now part of his army. The same golden light shone from all of their eyes, and they stood as still as trees on a windless day.

“Alright, troops!” Morn shouted to his soldiers. “We are about to cross into the Kievan Horse lands. We must catch up to Emerald Edge and bring her back to Canterlot. You understand me!”

“Yes, King Morn Dread,” the soldiers droned as one. At Morn’s side were his chosen lieutenants, Sir Gallophad and Sir Lionheart. The other Knights of the Round Table had all been sent to other kingdoms to gain their allegiance through either diplomacy or force. 

Diplomacy.

Morn scoffed at that. If these other kingdoms had leaders like Dawn Saber, force would be the only language that they would understand. And with Sir Lionheart with the unconquerable shield and Sir Hors with the mystical staff, victory was all but assured. 

And then there was him, with Excalibur. Its power was truly overwhelming, and now that he had accustomed himself a little to its power, Morn could understand just how Emerald had defeated her enemies so easily before. Its might was stupendous.

Morn gripped Excalibur tighter and his horse obediently followed, setting off at a brisk trot into the Kievan lands.  His army marched dutifully behind him. Emerald would no doubt see them coming, traveling like this, but Morn did not care. A king need not hide behind deception and subterfuge. A king announced his presence loudly and proudly, and let his enemies know that he was coming. After all, what should a king have to fear?



Emerald decided that it would be the wind that drove her insane first. The group had been halfway through the thirteenth day of travel, by Emerald’s count, but all of a sudden the caravan had run into a vicious sandstorm. They had seen it coming from miles away and had quickly pulled the whole caravan to a halt, and set up makeshift tents. 

The camels, most of all, seemed to know what was coming and lay down on the sand, eyes shut and heads tucked behind their bodies.

Emerald had just finished securing the last rope on her tent when the dust storm had hit. She took shelter inside with the Apples and Spectrum, listening to particles of sand battering the cloth of the tent from the outside. The wind howled and threatened to tear the tent from the ground, but with a person sitting on each side of the cloth, the tent stayed in place almost perfectly. Only the occasional gust of wind slipped in, bringing with it small puffs of fine brown sand. 

At first, the five of them were worried, not having experienced this kind of thing before. The Apples, Emerald, and Spectrum said nothing for the longest time, glancing around as if looking for any holes or leaks in the tent. Then after what felt like an hour, they got tired of being worried and simply settled for being apprehensive. And then only concerned.

“How long are we going to be stuck here?” Spectrum complained, shifting herself to a more comfortable position.

“Ah don’t know,” Honeygold replied. She was sitting in between her mother and Emerald, dressed in her white robes and hood from earlier that night. “Must be dangerous if Salt Flats made everyone take cover, though.”

Golden Nugget leaned up against his wife. “Ah just hope we’re almost at Masyaf. Wasn’t the journey supposed to be twelve days? This here’s thirteen if Ah’m countin’ right.”

“Well, we did hafta make a detour cause of that dragon,” Apple Bean reminded him. “But don’t worry, honey. Ah’m sure that we’ll be at Masyaf soon.”

“Ah sure hope so,” Golden Nugget sighed. “Em, do you know how we’re doin’ on food and water?”

“I checked this morning,” Emerald said grimly. “We’re almost out of preserved vegetables and bread. Everything else we should have enough of to last another few days, but if we don’t get to the capital by then, we’ll be in serious trouble.”

Golden Nugget accepted this with a nod. Outside, the sandstorm raged. 

“I hope the others are all right,” Spectrum said eventually. “I’ve seen storms before, but this is something entirely new. What if we get buried in the sand? Will we have to dig our way out?”

Emerald leaned back a little and was alarmed to feel an almost foot-tall buttress of sand at her back. It was starting to pile up around the tent. 

“I’m sure it won’t be that long,” Emerald said, trying to keep the group’s spirits up. “I think it’s starting to die down a little.”

The former pegasus lifted the corner of the tent a little and peeked out. Some sand trickled inside, but there was less forceful wind than it had been when the storm had first hit.

“As long as we stay in here, it will all be fine,” Emerald said reassuringly. “I’m sure this isn’t the first sandstorm that Salt Flats has encountered.”

This seemed to comfort the rest of Emerald’s companions, and they settled back down into a sort of not-so-comfortable silence as the wind continued to whip around their shelter.



It was a much longer wait than Emerald had expected. But she was jarred out of the doldrums by a knock on the tent door flap. She peeled the cloth back and was rewarded by Light Speckle’s smiling face.

“You can come out now! The storm has passed.”

Spectrum and Honeygold were the first to scramble out of the confines of the tent and out into the evening sunlight. Emerald could see that the sandstorm had indeed piled up a lot of sand around the tent, but not enough to bury it, thank Celestia. The shape of the desert had vastly changed from before the storm. She hoped that they wouldn’t get lost in this new terrain.

Salt Flats and some of the other caravaneers were talking, but Emerald could not understand what they were saying. Eventually they concluded their conversation and the lot of them began to unpack for dinner.

“We’re not going to keep going?” Posey asked Emerald.

“No, I suppose not,” Emerald replied as the Saddle Arabians started to get a fire going. “Maybe they figure we’ve had enough for the night from the sandstorm.”

The rest of the evening was spent removing sand from the camels and their wares, as well as digging the tents free from the piled up grains. 

That took up all of the remaining sunlight, and Emerald privately thought that Salt Flats had made the decision to stay put for the rest of the night, even if it meant adding more time to their trip. She sat down with everyone else and had dinner, with Emerald passing on the meat like she always did. Afterwards, she talked to her friends and companions about their experience with the sandstorm, getting some interesting stories from it. Apparently Guard Streak and Nightfall Gleam had played cards to pass the time during the storm.

The night was clear and starlit as Emerald lay down to sleep for the night. She rolled over in her slumber and dreamed of flying. Again.



The next morning saw the traders eating an early breakfast while clustered around Anise’s map, chattering in their tongue about what Emerald presumed was about directions. They kept glancing up at the sun and at their navigator’s pathfinding device. It seemed that the storm had altered the desert’s appearance so much that they had only those to rely on to get on the right path.

The only other piece of news that happened was the return of Gabriel. From listening to Posey translate the bird’s screeches, Morn was still at least two weeks behind them, but surely closing the distance. Moon Tide had made it safely back to Canterlot, but the eagle had yet to locate Paradise along any of the roads or paths. Emerald hoped she had made it out of Morn’s grasp safely.

Once the sun began to go down, they began riding. Emerald noticed that they were moving quicker than usual, with the camels trotting along instead of the usual walk that they used to conserve energy. Almost like they were rushing to get somewhere. Were they so low on water that they needed to get to the next oasis to replenish their supplies? 

As the moon rose to its peak, Emerald began to sweat again, but their pace did not slow. The camels were now trekking up an enormous sand dune that obscured anything ahead. Emerald directed her camel up, following the beast in front of her. But when she reached the top of the dune, she gasped.

There, laid out in the middle of the desert and surrounded by squares of farmland, was a massive city, built in concentric circles all around a tall, brown stone citadel. Emerald sat there atop her camel, slack jawed. A slow grin began to spread over her face.

“I’m… I’m not seeing things, am I?” Posey asked, riding her camel next to Emerald’s. “Is that really there?”

“I see it too…” Emerald felt her heart soar. “We made it. We made it to Masyaf! You hear that, everpony?” She turned and threw her arms into the air, prompting the rest of the questors to ride up and look at the city. “We actually made it!”

There was a chorus of whoops and cheers so loud that the traders stopped their camels to turn back and grin as well.

Finally, at long last, they had made it to Masyaf. It was almost as if the artifact was finally within their grasp. All there was separating them from a guide was a couple of miles of sand, and then they would be home free.

“Come on, everyone!” Emerald spurred her camel forward. “Let’s go!”