//------------------------------// // Prolouge // Story: The Sands of Saddle Arabia // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// “Faster, girls, faster!” I yelled in a terrible panic, as the four of us galloped away from our sinister pursuer at full speed. “It’s gaining on us!” Did you ever have one of those days, where things never seem to go right? It’s the days where you get out of bed in the morning, with a hopeful and good feeling about the day, and then everything just suddenly all goes straight to heck? This has really been one of those days, and I just can’t believe how wrong things have gone from what we had originally planned. “Oh skit! Paradise, ze mummy pursuer, he is closing in on us!” Daffodil screamed, in that thick accent of hers. “Ve have to run vaster, or ve are nefer going to make it!” We must be quite the sight; a quartet of terrified mares in different colored harem costumes and translucent veils, running through the passageways of an ancient crumbling stone pyramid, as a creepy decomposing undead stallion in bandages ever- so-slowly closed in on us. We are lost in these endless maze of corridors and hallways, running for our lives from the terror we accidentally released from that sarcophagus in the burial chamber. And we’re desperately looking for the entrance that will lead us back to freedom, and the bight light and sunshine of the outside world once more. But there doesn't seem to be a way out of the endless, torch-lit corridors. No doorway that resembles the portal we passed though to first enter this accursed place, no pathway that will take us away from these torch-lit chambers and back to the dry and hot desert beyond these ancient walls. It's almost as if... as if this still and silent place were alive, it's hieroglyph-covered walls almost seem to be shifting and moving around as we run desperately for our lives. The other three are keeping pace behind me, following hot on our hooves as we desperately try to dash our way to freedom! Our goofy blonde Pegasus friend is, as usual, certainly not trying to be of any real help to any of us. “Gee whiz Vanilla, maybe he just wants some of your cofee!” Surprise giggled, flapping ahead and zipping circles around the rest of us. “His stomach probably gets kinda thirsty out here in this dry old desert, ya know!” “Oh shut up you, blonde bimbo!” Our group’s lone unicorn spat, as the mummy’s howls filled the chamber behind us. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t opened that mummy’s crypt up in the first place!” “Hey! It was all colorful and pretty! I thought there was candy inside!” Surprise protested angrily, snapping back at the other mare. “How was I supposed to know it was just some dead guy?!” Oh dear…. I thought this trip to Saddle Arabia would be just the vacation the girls and I needed. The four of us were just begging for some time off, as we were all bored with our regular everyday humdrum routines. Some time away from the bright and sunny land of Ponies, for a vacation that would be a real change of pace. But the four of us thought we'd all be sitting under a palm tree, eating dates and pomegranates fed to us by rich stallion sheiks in turbans. Instead, we're all running from our lives from a moldy thousand-year-old pharaoh hell-bent on doing something truly foul to us. If I would've known our vacation would end up like this, I never would've let us leave port! "Uh, oh! I think we just hit a dead end!" I wailed, as we came to a screeching halt. "I don't see any other way we can go!" "Can't you wink us out of here, Vanilla?" Daffodil asked hysterically, as the shadowy form closed in on the small room, with no other way out. "I don't want to end up zome long dead pharaoh's hustru!" "I can't wink us out, Daff!" The other mare responded, abject terror reflected in her trembling voice. "We unicorns can't teleport around in an enclosed space like this!" "Aieeee! This is the end, I just know it! We're all gonna be ground up into mummy burgers!" Surprise squeaked, as the mummified stallion stepped through the doorway. "Wait, maybe we could communicate with him through song! Anyone here know the human song 'walk like an Egyptian'?" Oh, what a sight we were- two white Pegasus, a white unicorn, and blue earth pony... all of us, quivering in the corner like four scared fillies. It's a good thing all of our faces were hidden beneath our veils, so that lurking behemoth couldn't see our looks of absolute fear. This isn't how the brochure made this trip sound. So far, we've been chased by desert pony Bedouins, almost eaten alive by crocodiles and attacked by hippos on a river journey, and put into a crazy sultan's harem with a bunch of his other mares. If this is what a vacation is like, I never want to leave my normal old boring life again! "Graaagggh!" The mummy growls, shuffling towards us menacingly. As the walking relic opens it's mouth, a most foul and odious stench emanates from inside the creature's open jaw. "Ewwwww, that's gross!" Daffodil commented, holding her hoof over her nose. "When's the last time you had a breath mint, Nightmare Moon's Banishment?" Seeing as my friends and I are about to become a mummy's supper, I can only help but remember how this whole mess started. How a simple desert vacation snowballed into one of the biggest adventures of our lives. It would be a wonderful story to write down some day, if I even live long enough to tell it, and fill up one of those exciting adventure books I always like to read. Dare I take the time to recall all of the horrors that have befallen us over the course of this dreadful week past? Should I spend my last few precious seconds upon this world, recalling the unfortunate sequence of events that led my dear companions and I into this moment of malady? Well, it unfortunately seems I really have nothing better to do with my time right now. My name is Paradise Oasis, and this is our story....