//------------------------------// // Prolouge: Another Desert? // Story: Uncharted: Equestria // by Rayvinne //------------------------------// As usual, I don't own the Uncharted game series or any of it's characters. I also do not own MLP. Kinda wish I did though. I apologize if anyone is offended by Victor's use of language. I would prefer not to use it, but it's apart of his character. "Here's the thing, kid, we don't get to choose how we start in this life, real greatness is what you do with the hand you're delt." -Victor Sullivan Uncharted: Equestria Another Desert? Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, and Victor Sullivan walked towards the dirty old plane that rested on the tarmac, bathed in an orange sunset. They were finally done with what they thought to be their final adventure of any great magnitude. They had found the lost city Iram of the Pillars, and only briefly got to behold it's beauty before it sank into the sands of time, taking it's secrets with it. "It's not as good as the one you two wrecked four years ago, but...it'll do." Sully joked, recalling their first adventure that brought the unlikely trio together, when they ended up finding the remains of the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake, along with a horde of Nazi zombie things. Pleasant, right? "Now let's see if I can remember how to fly the goddamn thing..." he finished, hefting his luggage. "Hey, this has parachutes, right?" Elena asked, recalling the very same event with their previous plane. "Oh...yeah." Victor responded, blowing off the question. "Three...right?" added Nathan, his arm draped around his wife. "More or less." Victor teased, as they climbed in and got situated. They taxied the ancient plane to the runway, revved the engines, and took off into the fading sunset. Nathan awoke with a start. He thought he heard a noise coming from the plane, and not a good one. He was drifting back off to sleep when he heard Sully's irritated muttering. Deciding he probably find out what was wrong, before they all exploded and were sent to their deaths, Nate pulled himself out of the chair he had slept in, making sure to not wake the still snoozing Elena. Nathan made his way up to the cockpit, rubbing his eyes. "Sully, what's wrong?" Nathan whispered, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "I dunno, kid! The plane's just going haywire, and we're losing altitude, fast!" Victor answered, panic started to creep into his voice. "We're gunna have to bail, unless you wanna end up pancaked in the middle of the desert!" "Get the parachutes out, I'll wake Elena!" Nate commanded, before heading back to wake his slumbering wife. "Elena, wake up, we gotta go." he gently prodded her, causing her to stir from her dream. "Wai...whah?" she asked, confused. Victor tossed them each a parachute, and handed them each a bottle of water. "If ya get lost, find the highest point ya can see, and we'll all find a way to meet up, okay?" he more of commanded then asked, but nobody questioned him. After making sure all their parachutes were secure, Victor threw open the hatch and jumped, followed by Elena, and lastly, Nate. "Whoohoo!" Nate shouted into the night sky. Last time he jumped out of a plane, well, got sucked out of a plane, he didn't have a parachute, and it was a stroke of luck that he was still alive. He counted the seconds after he had bailed from the plane, and when he reached ten, he yanked the parachute's deployment cord. Nothing happened, and the string tangled uselessly in his hand. Nathan heard a wumph as Victor and Elena deployed their chutes, and his own screams as he plummeted down to the cold, sandy Earth that was quickly rushing to greet him. Victor's and Elena's calls drew quieter as he slowly lost consciousnesses. His world faded to black as he impacted the ground, but his body was absorbed in a great flash of light. When Victor and Elena made it to where he landed, not a trace of his body was to be found, and all that remained was the parachute's ripcord, torn from the rest of the pack.. Elena quietly wept into Victor's shoulder at the loss of her husband. A man who fought and won over violent zombies, ancient curses and power-hungry madmen, had just been defeated by a faulty piece of string. Had they been watching, they would have noticed that they too were being consumed in a flash of light, leaving the lone piece of string to fall to the ground. Nathan awoke covered in sand. He was really, really starting to hate sand. He looked about in all directions. Just more sand. But wait. Very faintly, way off in the distance, he could see what appeared to be a structure. "Might as well get to walking." He thought, a rush of memories from his deplorable stay in the Rub' al Khali desert. He began his trudge to the structure, unable to make it out. He started to walk...and walk...and walk. The sun didn't ever set, but his internal clock told him it had been roughly three days, based on his lack of sleep. The structure, he figured out, was a grand castle. Or at least, it used to be a castle. He couldn't make out the design or markings that decorated it's deteriorated exterior from the distance he was at. It actually wasn't that far, not distance wise at least. The only problem was the castle was located atop a colossal sand dune, and there seemed to be a mountain that broke the dune's peak and towered over the castle on one side. And he would have to climb the scorching sand dune to reach what he hoped would be a refuge from the sun and heat. The top. Summit of the tallest damn mount of sand in wherever the hell he was. The castle was surrounded by a deserted, sandy city. Canals of sand crisscrossed the grounds, he could only assume they used to flow with water. The castle itself stood above the sand covered city, towering into the cloudless sky. A pair of great wooden doors blocked the entrance to it's hopefully shaded interior. One door had the carved out symbol of the sun, and the other the moon. With a great effort, he pushed one of the doors open far enough for him to squeeze in. Shade. Shade, shade, and more shade. It was at least thirty degrees cooler in the shade of the stone castle, albeit a bit musky. Drake heaved the great door shut again, and turned to wander the castle, searching for a source of water. It wasn't until he felt something sharp and long jab his back, and a deep, gruff voice spoke out to him. "Halt, intruder, put your arms up and turn around slowly." the mystery voice commanded. Nate followed the instructions, and couldn't help himself but gape and stutter in shock. He pointed a finger back and fourth between his two captors, and they promptly knocked him out with a long, metal pole. His captors were ponies. Two dark grey ponies, clad in a deep purplish armor, with menacing bat wings and sharp, vampire like teeth. And they did not look happy.