The sun was starting to set in the sky over the sand dunes, and with it the sky was starting to change in colour, from its previous blue with no clouds in the sky to quite a pleasant orange that was starting to shift towards a pink or purple shade as the sun descended.
Flash certainly thought that the sunlight looked impressive, but that wasn't the focus of his day. Indeed, he needed to find somepony, and doing that was not going to be easy.
"Sand, sand, and more sand," he complained, as he flew along. The wind was starting to pick up in places, blowing sand particles around and exposing a wadi to direct view, the water having ceased to flow within it many years ago. Or so he thought. "Who would choose to live in this sort of place anyway?"
He certainly missed the vineyards of his native Cloudsdale, and the rolling hills too. As he whizzed through the air, he could see other things in the distance. There was a strange cluster of tall things that he could see as he flew closer, and as he closed in he could see the ruins of a town that had long since fallen into decay, the buildings full of even more sand and starting to crumble.
He ignored it and went on his way. The tall objects rapidly turned out to be obelisks, and he weaved in and out of them to see if he could dodge them. The obelisks seemed to be set up like an obstacle course, and he smiled as he dodged in and out of them with minimal effort. He still had it, after all, and he dived towards the desert sand and suddenly climbed back up again, his commanding position in the sky once more in place. As he flew over, he then saw more of the obelisks, and then a line of tall, triangular structures, positioned in exact alignment with each other to the most exact of precision. You had to hand it to the Neighhiptians. Even if their military proved to be complete pushover (seriously, who uses a sword to slash these days?), they knew how to build things to last.
That landmark told him exactly where he was. This was the Valley of the Five Kings, a network of pyramids built as the tombs and final resting places of the Neighhiptian Pharoahs, eternal reminders to those who lived nearby and throughout the land of their legacy and that they still, in a sense, lived there. The Pharoahs had stopped using pyramids a while back, instead preferring to be buried in underground tombs some miles away, but enough of that. Flash now knew where he was supposed to go. Based on what the guards had told him, his contact had been seen not far from here, so he changed his course.
The Pyramids were aligned in a north to south alignment, so it made sense to follow them along the course of the river. Flash whizzed past the base of the first and climbed rapidly into the air, before pulling up even higher, turning over, and executing a perfect elliptical loop before diving back towards the ground. He had always loved the exhileration of diving toward the ground from high up, the speed and wind resistance an amazing sensation as the ground rushed up to meet him. Of course, when one is diving towards the ground, you must remember to pull up or else the results will be extremely messy, so he pulled up just in time, his stomach only just missing the ground, and flew onwards, a grin on his face. That never got old. As he whizzed past, he dodged through the air, whizzing around the top of the next pyramid, flying up the base of the next one up to the top, and then around the side and circling around the next. His next trick would be his best. He climbed as high as he could, his heavy armour and equipment weighing him down, and once he was as high as he could get, he rolled back, and dived.
The weight of his equipment pulled him downwards at incredible speed, the earth rushing towards him faster and faster until he pulled out of the dive and looked for a place to land.
"Somebody made an entrance," said a familiar voice. Flash looked up to see Somnambula sitting on a nearby pyramid entrance. Presumably Neighhiptians did that for fun, or something.
Flash Magnus' heart dropped at seeing his beloved again. With a quick jump, he took to the air and landed alongside her, gently sitting back, leaning on the wall of the pyramid and sighing. "You know me. Occupational hazard."
"I've missed you, you know?" Somanbula told him, joining him. "It's been such a long time since we last saw one another, and there's a lot to talk about, I imagine."
"I've been pretty busy," Flash admitted, pulling off his helmet and disconnecting the armour around his rear. "It's nice to get this off my head once in a while. It gets hot under all this armour."
"I can imagine," Somnambula said. "Would you believe me if I told you a Sphynx came through this part of the world?"
"Really?" Flash asked, perking up his ears. "I've always wanted to see one, so that must have been interesting."
"It was, and a little frightening." Suddenly, she said something that Flash didn't understand.
"Sorry? I didn't catch that."
Somnambula reached for her necklace and detached a piece of Glowpaz from her necklace before handing it to Flash. Well, not hand in the conventional sense since she lacked hands, but you know what I mean. Once Flash had it on him, he found he could understand her with no difficulty.
"Miraculous thing, Glowpaz," Somnambula continued. "Amongst its other properties, it allows the wearer to understand what another user is saying as it translates their speech."
"How very handy," Flash admitted. "As you were saying?"
"Ah, yes. I found myself near that pyramid. See that isolated one in the distance? Yes. These strange metal objects had landed, and the ape things nearby were in another set of metal machines. Then the Sphynx came, and there was a great battle between myself, the apes, and the Sphynx and its many hordes of undead creatures."
Flash nodded. "Just wait until Rockhoof hears that one. I'd love to hear what embellishments he'd make!"
"And how about you?" Somnambula asked. "What have you been up to, eh?"
"See this shield?" Flash said, pointing to his stack of equipment. "I was given that to help draw out and fight off a group of dragons in the Dragonlands warzone. My holding action allowed another unit to break out members of the 3rd Legion and allow us all to escape."
"What bravery," Somnambula said, as they watched the sun start to dip below the horizon.
Flash jumped up. "Oh horseshoes! Praetor Ironhead said I needed to be back to camp before sundown! If I'm back late I'll be in the slammer for sure!"
"After such little time?" Somnambula. "Never fear, Flash. I shall come back with you. There is not much out here to entertain me anyway."
"Thanks," Flash said. In that moment, the pair kissed for the first time in many years. The truth was, Flash had been harbouring feelings for her for a while, and told her before he was redeployed to the dragonlands. She had returned those feelings in kind, and it was the hope of seeing her again that drove him to his acts of bravery. He was very, very relieved to learn that she hadn't forgotten him, and indeed their love was as strong as ever. "We'll need to set off now if we're going to get there before sundown."
"At least the scenery is interesting," Somnambula told him as they took to the skies. "Be glad you are not allocated to the Griffish Isles. I overheard some Legionaries complaining that those islands consist of nothing but mud and rain."
"I heard the same," Flash laughed. "One of the forts out there is called Mediobogdum. If that isn't an indication of a place, I don't know what is." It's probably worth mentioning that he had pulled all of his armour back on by this point. It would have been remiss to leave it behind, especially Invictus.
As they flew through the late evening sky, with the Temples of this land beautifully lit, Flash suddenly saw something odd. Down below them, just visible over one of the dunes, there was a large column of dust and smoke, and sand being thrown up into the air below them. Flash indicated this to Somnambula.
"That's odd," he said. "We haven't seen those around here before."
"We should follow," she said, and both of them turned towards the trail of dust. As they moved in at the back, they looked closer and suddenly saw the markings on one of the trucks.
Project 722.