The Queen of Sand

by The First Hunter

3

To Princess Twilight Sparkle, the land of Saddle Arabia might as well have been another planet.

She knew that Trixie had been there quite a few times. She had actually developed a bit of a following in the desert kingdom, often wishing aloud that a day would come where any city in Equestria paid her half as much as the Saddle Arabians did to see her perform. Starlight had gone with her to one of these expeditions, she remembered, but as far as she knew, that hadn't ended particularly well.

The Saddle Arabian palace was located in the country's capital city of Aljana, and from the balcony she was seated at, Twilight could see all of it: the ponies far, far below raced from building to building, occasionally stopping to chat with another citizen on the way to where they were headed. She spotted two Equestrians in the crowd, but both of them appeared to be tourists, as she saw one of them circle around the main plaza a few times too many. A few of them stopped to look at the castle, scanning it up and down, but Twilight knew they couldn't see her: She was safe from her ivory tower, though she knew not how long it would last.

The country was truly beautiful. The way Celestia's light hit the dunes of sand gave Twilight a euphoric sensation just by looking at it, and the architecture that her hosts had built was truly a marvel. The magnificent arches and regal mosaics were entirely foreign to Twilight, and while she'd only seen a very small part of the country, every bit of it was enough to make her feel like a complete stranger.

Amira had made her tea, and the Equestrian princess accepted it gratefully. Her proposal, of course, was a lot to take in, and Twilight requested some time to herself before she discussed the matter at hand. She was in the process of writing multiple copies of a single letter to be sent to all those looking for her, and once that was complete, she planned to sit down with Amira and give her the painfully obvious answer she could to her husband's request.

No.

Twilight flipped the quill she'd been writing with incessantly with her magic. She looked back down to the ponies below her once more, not particularly keeping an eye on any one of them as she lost herself entirely in her thoughts.

After everything -- waking in the desert, feeling the sand scorch her hooves to the bones, succumbing to heat and wasting away -- Twilight Sparkle felt good. She'd been resurrected from the grave, and as the tea washed down her throat and the Saddle Arabian heat hugged her like an over-eager relative, she could only think about just how spry and vigorous she felt.

Twilight Sparkle was a dead mare, and dead mares didn't feel good.

She looked to her quill again. She'd overdone the twisting, and a few of the feathers had flown off of it in the process. With an idle sigh, Twilight dipped the quill in ink and started on the next letter, this one addressed to a certain cyan pegasus.

Rainbow,

I'm in Saddle Arabia and, for the most part, completely unharmed. It's all a really long story, but I should be back in Ponyville within the next few days to tell it: I won't be staying here too long

The quill dropped to the table.

She knew magic. She knew what it could do, the power it held. She'd seen magic do incredible, incredible things, but there was one thing she was always taught that magic simply could not make happen.

And here she was.

She simply could not let it go. It was a parasite eating at her with every passing second, and she knew that if she left Saddle Arabia without figuring out exactly what had happened to her, it would keep her awake at night for the rest of her days. Sighing, she reached for the quill and plunged it once more into the ink, but her words this time were far more permanent.

Rainbow,

I'm in Saddle Arabia and, for the most part, completely unharmed. It's all a really long story, but I have some unfinished business here that I need to attend to. Hopefully, I'll be back within the next few weeks, but I could never ask any of you to travel all the way here to be with me. You should be getting this letter almost as soon as I send it, and so I hope I can ease your minds of worry. Think of this as a diplomatic visit, just... unplanned.

See you soon,

Twilight Sparkle

"You've been writing a fair bit of letters."

And thus, the moment she had been dreading had finally come. Amira pulled out the chair at the other side of the table and sat down, but Twilight paid her no heed. Instead, she began to write new letters with the revised body she'd written in Rainbow's, and she felt Amira's presence loom over her as she responded.

"Yes. I have many people who are worried about me, Amira. I'm sure you understand." She was already silent, but it became even more deafening with Twilight's passive-aggressive tone seeping through her words. Once Twilight was done revising Pinkie's letter, she moved on to Fluttershy's, and it took a lifetime for Amira to speak again.

"Have you thought over my--"

"Of course I have!" the Princess of Friendship interjected, slamming down her quill with a sickening thud. Amira reeled back, and once Twilight saw the fear glint in her eyes, she closed her eyes and gave off a long sigh.

"I'm sorry, Amira. I didn't mean to frighten you," she began. "But this whole thing, it's, it's insane! You teleport me thousands of miles away, resurrect my corpse, and all to give me a proposal you have to know I wouldn't accept? Amira, I have the Elements of Harmony I need to be with to combat any threat. I hold an administrative duty in Ponyville, I run a friendship school, and I have so many people I care about in Equestria. And to do what? To throw that all away to become the ruler of a place I've only just now been to? I know nothing about the culture, the ponies, the politics, the cities. I'm flattered, but you have to realize that I wouldn't say yes to this, even over my literally dead body."

Twilight had met Amira very few times in her life, but she knew she'd never given her any indication in those meetings that she was capable of such an outburst. Regardless, she didn't waver, and that thing Amira so often did where she'd refuse to look at Twilight as her spirits clearly dropped reared itself again as she turned.

And she said nothing, and so Twilight kept writing. For a few minutes, the only noise in the air was the scratching of her quill and the crumplings of old drafts, but after a while, Amira spoke again.

"What if I had something that could change your mind?"

And the quill stopped once again. Twilight wasn't going to let another long silence take over, however.

"You don't," she retorted.

"I might," Amira replied back. "I only ask that you come with me to see it, because it is why I have brought you here. And once you do, I will no longer lie to you, Twilight. I have been a shadow of the mare I was raised to be these past few days, and I cannot apologize enough for my actions. But please. I beg this of you."

Twilight felt her eyes widen as she stared at Amira's. She looked for any hint that she may have been lying, but the steel resolve mixed with a dollop of fear was enough to convince her she was telling the truth.

"What is it?" Twilight asked her. Almost immediately, Amira shook her head.

"I cannot say." Twilight felt her eyes narrow at that, and if she had any less restraint, she would have rolled them. She grew tired of Amira's constant dodging, and though it seemed she was getting somwhere, the Saddle Arabian Princess seemed to take four steps back once they started making any progress.

"You can't say? Why, Amira? Because you think somepony is listening?"

For Twilight, the words had been a bitter jab of frustration.

And then Amira's eyes shot wide as the sun, and with a paralyzing glint, she nodded ever so slowly.

Once she realized Amira was completely serious, Twilight reeled back. She leaned her head a bit to the right to watch the guards standing firm at their post, and then she leaned across the railing to watch the ponies jaunt about Aljana. The anger and irritation Twilight had once held vanished like a wisp, and as calm as she could, she turned back to her mysterious new friend.

"When would you show me this, Amira?" Twilight asked her.

"Tonight," she answered, almost immediately. "I'll rouse you from your bedchambers."

Carefully, Twilight nodded, and she grabbed the teacup that had been sitting close. She took a gentle sip, savoring the flavor as it danced upon her tongue, and once it washed down, she nodded her head toward the door.

"Very well," Twilight said. "Come get me then. I have some more letters to write, if you would excuse me. I'm here if you need me."

Amira stared off into space for a few precious seconds, but eventually, she rose without a word. She made her way back down the hall, and Twilight watched her go, observing her gait and the way she carried herself. Amira had managed to be suspiciously dodgy in the day Twilight had gotten to know her, but this little conversation revealed a whole different side of the matter. Amira was scared, and it made the shroud around Saddle Arabia that much thicker.

Eventually, Twilight turned back to the parchment. The empty pages stood back at her as if they were showing her all the knowledge she held of her current situation.

So she started writing.

Dear Spike...

---

Everyone knows of the desert heat. But at night time, when the temperature plummeted, the cold that bit could be just as cruel.

And so the pony sat, a tent pitched in the sand only opened to allow the smoke from the fire in the middle of it to billow out into the sky. One would think it to be lonely at these times, but the pony thought nothing of it: He would get company soon enough, and if he was lucky, he would get good news with it.

But for now, he only had time to stare at the sand. There would be time for more, he knew, where every grain of sand in the desert would be his, and it was sooner than he'd ever tasted. Saddle Arabia was a beauty, but once it was his, it would be more than just something to look at. No, it would be the fulcrum of the known world, and even the princesses in Equestria that scorched the desert and let it freeze would no longer tower over them.

He was interrupted from his thoughts, though, by another entering the tent. The pony could spot a member of the almuharibun from across the continent, but this one, whose blood-red coat and striking orange mane and tail matched the fire in front of him almost mesmerizingly well, was one the pony had come to know particularly well.

"I bring news from the castle," he said curtly. The pony chuckled, gesturing outwardly with his free hooves.

"I would hope," the pony said. "Anything important? How is Haakim fairing?" To the pony's surprise, the soldier shook his head almost immediately, and he moved around the fire to stand firmly in front of the pony.

"I bring no news of Haakim," the soldier began, "But of your sister. She's brought Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria to the castle. She arrived in the night, and I know not the reason for her sudden appearance, nor what the two have been discussing."

The pony was expecting to hear many things, but that was not one of them. Princess Twilight Sparkle had arrived at Saddle Arabia from worlds away, and his sister had somehow made it happen.

The pony said nothing at first, opting to look down toward the sand, but slowly, he felt his lips curl at their ends as he looked back to the soldier.

"Well, well," he began, leaning in towards the fire. "Amira has brought another bird for us. We'd best have our stones in order."

---

Twilight had sent her letters to everypony she'd written to beneath Luna's moon, and for the past few minutes, she'd been waiting.

Waiting for nothing. Without Spike, transmitting a letter across the world was a very difficult task, and although she was sure Celestia could possibly manage it, she had never seen her try to do so. With a long sigh, she leaned back into her chair and looked up to the stars.

She started laughing.

And it did not stop, nor was it merely light chuckles. If the past few days were a Daring Do novel, it wouldn't have been believable, but here she was, gazing to the stars in a sky she'd never seen. Twilight should have been filled to the brim with seething rage at what Amira had done, but instead, she was quietly writing letters in her castle as if she had come to Saddle Arabia for a day trip.

And so she laughed. And laughed and laughed, as the tears filled her eyes and the night was still no longer.

That was, until she felt her horn begin to glow. The laughter died in her mouth immediately, and she quickly launched off the spell she'd felt involuntarily building. Twilight's eyes widened as she realized what was happening: Somepony, probably Celestia, had used her own magic as a conduit. The process was extremely difficult, especially this far away, so she assumed that what she knew would be a letter popping out from the spell would have to have been extremely important.

When it plopped neatly to the table in front of her, it was a letter, and Twilight ignited her horn with a bright light to read it in the gloom of the night. There weren't a lot of words, but the ones it did have were more than enough to draw a gasp as Twilight put her hoof to her mouth.

Twi,

It's Rainbow. Be there in a few hours.

Don't die again.

Comments

[readsponies]

Thus, like its subject, the tale returns to the land of the living. Such suspense! Will Rainbow truly have the stamina to go the distance? Will the author? Stay tuned!

[Aether Spark]

Good to see this isn't dead.

[Cross Lament]

and she felt Amira's presence loom over me as I responded.

she closed my eyes and gave off a long sigh.

A couple accidental perspective shifts, there.

Ah, good, the most level-headed of Twilight's friends is coming to help!

[The First Hunter]

10004056
Fixed. Thanks for the catch.