Chapter 11: Event Horizon
“So… this is Sweet Apple Acres?” Sandman asked as they walked past the gate to the farm, the brilliant sun setting behind it. What should have been a relatively quick journey took them all almost three hours because of all the distractions they had to go through. By this point, all of them were worn out and wanted nothing but to go to sleep, but that wouldn’t be possible since they had to treat Truck and Andrei as well.
“Yes, this is Sweet Apple Acres, your temporary home until we can either find better accommodations or we send you back to your world. For the time being, you will be staying in the barn.”
“Good enough for me. I would take a barn any day over sleeping outside in the woods.” Grinch said, followed by a nod from Sandman. The group opened up the door to the barn and stepped inside. After setting down Truck on a pile of hay, the Princess turned towards Applejack, who was still feeling uneasy about the whole dilemma with the humans, especially since they had to stay HERE.
“Don’t worry about a thing. I promise that they won’t hurt you in any way. Plus, I will have wight guards here with them along with Haybrun. They won’t let a thing happen to you.” Celestia said, trying to comfort the orange mare. She did nothing but return a nod. The Princess called over two of her guards, who both rushed to her side.
“Go into town and retrieve Nurse Red Heart. Escort her here and help bring some of her medical equipment. If she asks why, tell her I sent you and that it is an emergency.”
Both of them nodded and, both being pegasi, flew up towards Ponyville.
“We might want to tie Andrei up over there, just in case he wakes up. I doubt he will be very understanding about the situation.” Grinch pointed out. He and Sandman both walked over to the wall of the barn and grabbed a length of rope off of it. They tied Andrei by his hands to one of the support beams inside near the back.
“Ahm gonna go inside and tell Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Applebloom about this so they don’t go cuckoo when they see all of you standin’ out here.” Applejack said as she turned and made her way inside.
“Well, I guess we got time to burn then. Mind telling me exactly what’s going on here? I barely know anything about this place.” Frost asked.
“Yes, I can do that. What would you like to know?” The Princess asked.
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“Well, I don’t see what’s so dangerous about these… ‘bullets’ of yours. They are rather… ineffective… to say the least.” The man said as he looked down at round casings lying on the ground. “They do make an awfully loud noise though, if I may add.”
“No... no kak? Kak vy...?!”
“Ugh, must I say this again?”
“You… you just… how?!”
“How did I what? I didn’t do anything except stand here. You said you were going to… ‘put a bullet in my head’, so I asked you to show me. As far as I can tell, it didn’t do much.”
“They… they went THROUGH you, like you were a ghost! How are you still standing?!”
“I don’t know, am I not supposed to be standing?”
“NO! You’re supposed to be lying on the ground with about thirty bullet holes across your chest! I emptied a whole magazine at you!”
“Well, this has been interesting. Care if I show you what I can do? It’s been so long though, I’m not entirely sure I could pull that off again…”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Well, I guess I can just… ‘show you first hand’, as you say.”
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“Wait… so you’re telling me that you can literally raise the SUN? Like, manually?” Frost asked, completely lost.
“In a sense, yes. If I felt like it, I could allow it to not rise, but I have no reason to do that. My sister raises the moon each night.”
“Princess, the guards are back.” Rarity announced as the two guards approached with some bags of medical supplies and Nurse Red Heart following close behind. Celestia approached Sandman.
“If you can, please try to avoid telling her that you are from a different world. I want to try and keep this a secret as much as possible. I don’t think the citizens of Equestria are ready for that kind of knowledge.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
“Princess!” Red Heart said as she bowed before her.
“It’s quite all right, you may stand. These two are in need of medical assistance.” She said, pointing a hoof over towards Truck and Andrei.
“But… what are they?” She asked, a confused expression written all over her face.
“Oh, forgive me. Let’s just say they are travelers who happened to be lost in Ponyville.”
“Um… okay, but I have never seen anything like them. How do I know what to treat them with? What’s exactly wrong with them?”
“Ask that one. He will tell you what the problem is.” Celestia said, pointing a hoof towards Sandman. Red Heart approached him, slightly scared of what he was, or more so the lack of knowing what he was.
“Okay, that one over there on the hay pile. His name is Truck. I believe he has multiple fractured and/or broken ribs. The other one over there, his name is Andrei. He has three gunshot wounds. One is to his right shoulder, and two are in his hip.”
“Very well, but may I ask how they got these injuries? And what is a... um... 'gunshot' wound?”
“A gunshot wound is… well… just… nevermind. Imagine that he got pierced by a small flying piece of metal.”
“Okay. Well, for the one over there… um… Truck, was it? Very odd name, but anyway, there isn’t much I can do to treat ribs. If a pony has broken ribs, all they can do is rest and let them heal all on their own, but I can bandage up his chest to make a form of a splint so they will heal up better, as well as give him some pain medication. I will need to examine the other one though. His name was what again?”
“Andrei.”
“Once again, very odd name. Oh well, let me take a look at his wounds.”
As she was examining his wounds, Andrei slowly started to come to. He slowly cracked open his eyes to see what appeared to be a white horse with a pink mane standing above him, looking around at the wounds on his waist.
“Why is he tied up?” She asked Sandman
“Because he can be dangerous.”
“A? Chto proiskhodit?” He mumbled out, causing Red Heart to jump back and Sandman to grab the ACR and point it at him.
“Kto ... chto? Eĭ! Razvyazhite menya!” He yelled out. He began to thrash around, but stopped rather quickly due to the pain in his waist and shoulder.
“Hey! Calm down! We are trying to help you!” Sandman shouted at him, lowering his ACR to show he meant no aggression. Seeing this, he relaxed slightly, but was still tense, looking around frantically.
“How did you get here?” Sandman asked. He didn’t respond, just like before. He only looked around at his surroundings with confusion in his eyes.
“Hey! Over here!” Sandman said as he flicked his fingers together, like something you would do to get a dogs attention. Andrei instantly turned and looked at him.
“How is it that you are here with us?” Sandman asked again.
“I… I know not. What in hell is going on here?! What are those things?!” He shouted out, nodding towards the ponies standing behind Sandman.
“They are friends and they are trying to help us. Now, we need to take a look at those wounds or else you’re going to bleed out. So, try to relax, ok? Nurse, you may continue.” Sandman said as he motioned for Red Heart to return to what she was doing.
"Okay." She said. As she approached, Andrei quickly tried to slide away from her.
“Net! YA ne khochu etu veshchʹ u menya!” He yelled out again, causing Red Heart to jump back once more.
“Ok, what’s the problem now?!” Sandman asked, anger beginning to build up in him.
“I don’t want that… that… whatever it is near me!”
“It’s a pony for God’s sake, It’s not going to kill you! Haven’t you ever seen a pony before?”
“No! That’s no pony! It speaks!”
“Why is he so violent?” She asked with a hint of fear in her voice.
“I don’t know, he is probably freaked out right now just as much as you are.” Sandman said as he turned back to Andrei. “Look, at this rate you are becoming more trouble than help. I can just have you sit there and take the bandages off; let you bleed out and get rid of you. However, me and my men are in a situation in which keeping you alive is more valuable than killing you. So, how about letting Miss Red Heart here do her job so we don’t have to go to the other option, okay?”
“Chto ya vvyazalsya…” Andrei mumbled to himself.
“What was that?”
“Fine…” He said with a hiss.
“Good, now he shouldn’t be a problem anymore for you.” Sandman said to Nurse Red Heart. She approached him again for the third time, but he didn’t make any movements. She continued to examine the wounds on his hip and his shoulder, slowly unwrapping the cloth around each wound.
“Oh my…” She said when she saw the full extent of the damage. The rounds hadn’t gone straight through on his hip, which meant the bullets was still lodged inside of him. However, the shoulder round had went through, leaving an even larger hole on his back than the one on his front.
“This will require some work. It is starting to look infected, so I will need to give him some antibiotics…” She said as she reached into one of her saddlebags and pulled out a vile and a needle.
“I’m sorry Miss Red Heart, but what is in that vile?” Sandman asked.
“Penicillin, why?”
“Um… I don’t think that will help much…” Sandman trailed off.
“Why? What do you mean?”
“Well, on our wor… um… well, we are kind of immune to it. It won’t work well.”
“Why? It works fine on everypony I use it on. What makes it different for you?”
“O vashem shutishʹ… How have you not received better antibiotics!? Penicillin is outdated!” Andrei shouted out.
“What? No, we have been using it for around eight years with no problems! It is one of our greatest discoveries in medical history!”
“Lies! We have used Penicillin since 1940’s! What age you live in?”
Quickly, Sandman ran over and put a hand over Andrei’s mouth to shut him up.
“Chto… mmmph.. .vozʹmi! Mmmph… Vozʹmite ruku… mmmph!”
“Shut up! Stop arguing with her!” Sandman angrily whispered in his ear. “You got to trust me on this, just go with it! We can explain this later!”
After a small amount of time, Andrei finally relaxed, so Sandman took his hand away.
“Sorry about that…” Sandman apologized.
“Oh, it’s fine, but you all are very confusing. What exactly are you things?”
A moment passed and some glances were exchanged between the men and Princess Celestia.
“I can tell you Nurse Red Heart, but if I do, you must swear to never tell anypony else. Is that clear?” Celestia said.
“Um… I guess… but why exactly?”
“Do you swear?” Celestia reiterated.
“Yes.” She responded, looking a litle bit fearful.
“Good, now, these creatures that stand before you are called humans, and they…” Princess Celestia started, but was interrupted by a bright flash of light from outside the barn, blinding everyone temporarily. For a moment, everything seemed very quiet, almost as though everything went silent at the exact time. After what seemed to be ages, but what was really only half a second, a giant explosion was heard in the distance that caused the entire ground to shake violently, sending everyone standing inside the barn to the ground. The sounds of the barn’s support beams cracking was almost inaudible over the intense sound of what seemed like a million thunderclaps going off at the same exact time. Sandman tried to regain his balance, but was knocked down when a piece of the barns roof caved in and landed on him, pinning him down on the ground. The last thing he saw before his vision was blocked by another giant piece of roof falling on him was a small purple aurora fill the room.