//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Equines of War: Friends to the End // by stotans //------------------------------// Dom and Tai stood in the middle of their work. Griffin corpses layed about in front of them either laying in the snow or hanging from the trees. Dom and Tai felt at unease at what they had done. This wasn't like killing Grubs. The Grubs, they felt no remorse for. Animals that were bred to do nothing but kill humans. They had no sense of morality or sense of ability to decide for themselves. They seem human like in a way. The creatures here seem intelligent enough. Why did we have to kill them? You had no choice Sergeant. Here the basic rule of survival still applies. Kill or be killed. Dom found truth in Prescott's words, but when will the killing end he thought? When will he find peace? "My friend…" Dom shook out of his train of thought. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine." Dom answered somberly. "Let's go find Carmine." The two Gears trudged into the forest searching for their lost friend. Carmine was still running though the forest with the filly grasping onto his arm. He had long lost Dom and Tai, but right now that was the least of his concerns. Something was on his tail and he was in full sprint trying to put distance between him and them. However, Carmine knew that they were going to catch up to them very soon and luck seemed to be against him at the moment. The snow storm had stirred up again and the wind blew against Anthony with peddles of snow that slowed him down tremendously. He rushed against the storm shoulder first trying to find some way of losing his pursuers. Carmine sped through the forest trees making twists and turns to try to shake off them off, but whatever was chasing him stayed right on his tracks getting evermore closer and closer to its game. Carmine kept running until he saw a small opening out of the forest. As he ran out into the open he skidded to a sudden stop when he realized that the ground in front of him was missing. He looked down and saw that he stood in front of a steep trench that he couldn't see the bottom to. "Damn, that would've been nasty fall." He looked along the edge of the trench and found that there was a roped bridge not far from him. He looked across the bridge and saw that the storm prevented him from seeing where the bridge ended. Carmine took a step on the first plank, cringing at the creaking sound of the wood beneath his foot. "Dammit, if I go out like this…" He holstered his Snub Pistol and grabbed onto the rope rail of the bridge to try and balance himself while the wind was tossing the bridge around like a ragdoll. With each step Carmine took, he was walking on eggshells. The filly raised her head from Carmine's arm to see what was going on, but as soon as she saw that they were practically on a wooden death trap, suspended up who knows how high, she buried her muzzle right back in Carmine's arm, grabbing on tighter this time. "It's okay. We're almost there. Almost there."Carmine was trying to calm the filly, but at the same time he felt like he was trying to calm himself down as well. Carmine had reached the midway point and was carefully edging slowly across, but not without eagerness to get off the bridge. Suddenly, he felt the bridge do a sudden jump that nearly made him fall of the bridge. He heard a loud snap and the right rope rail went loose. Someone was cutting the bridge down from behind him. "Oh shit!" Carmine took off into a sprint, not caring about the planks breaking under his feet. He saw the end of the bridge in sight and dashed towards it. Another snap shot through the air. Carmine jumped and reached out and grabbed onto the ledge of the trench with his left hand by his fingers while he was still holding onto the filly with his right. He couldn't pull himself up with one hand alone and his fingers were beginning to slip. "Trust me on this one kid." Carmine tossed the filly over the ledge safely onto steady ground. After hearing the filly land, he began to pull himself up. Carmine was almost out when a griffin landed against the ledge with his claws right on top his hands. One of his claws was purple with dried blood and one of his talons was missing. He recognized him as the Griffin who he had stopped from killing the filly. The griffin drew his beak near Carmine's face and gave him a malicious smile while digging his claws in his hands. "Don't have your friends to help you now. They are being ripped apart limb from limb as we speak." He went into a fit of giggles. Carmine tried to get his hands free out from under the Griffins claws, but the Griffin dug his talons into his hands making him grimace from the pain. "Now now, be a good dumb beast and stay down." "I'll show you who's a dumb beast, and I'll tell you another thing. I doubt that my friends are the ones being killed off. As a matter of fact, they're probably already cleaning the blood from your friends off their hands right now." The Griffin pulled an amused look. "You might be dumb as dirt, but at least you're not a coward. However, I believe I can fix that." He pushed Carmine's hands closer to the ledge. "You wouldn't happen to have a fear of heights do you? That would be such a shame." Carmine's fingers were now trembling trying to hold on to the ledge. "Not even a day in being alive again and I'm already going to be done in by a fucking bird thing. I must have the worst luck ever." Carmine thought. The Griffin was in blissful enjoyment with himself. He hadn't noticed that the filly was behind a tree not five feet away watching the whole scene before her. With a sudden burst of courage, the filly ran up behind the Griffin and she finally spoke. "Leave him alone!" The filly then opened her mouth and bit the Griffin right on his tail. The Griffin let out a roar as he went berserk trying to get the filly off of his tail. He whipped his tail and the filly flew and crashed against a tree. After the Griffin had finally gotten rid of the filly, he turned to find that Carmine was standing right in front of him holding his Snub Pistol right in front of his beak. Carmine pulled the trigger, blasting a bullet directly into the center of the Griffins skull. A single smoking casing fell to the ground at the same time as the body. The storm was now beginning to dim into a calm, and the air was still with the smell of blood in the air. Carmine stared at the body before turning back to the filly, who was lying under the tree. She wasn't stirring, but she was still breathing. Carmine picked up the filly in one arm huddling her like a football. "Man I have to admit, you got some guts for someone your size." "Carmine!" He turned around and looked across the trench. He saw that Dominic and Tai were emerging from the trees waving towards him. "Tai, Sarge, over here!" "How'd you get over there?" "There was a bridge, but the bird thing cut it down! How are you going to get across?" Dom looked down the trench and found that he could see the bottom. "We're going to climb down and climb back up on your side! Wait there!" Dom and Tai began trekking down the trench side being very careful to not slip off the rocky wall. They were cautious to check whether grabbing a certain area would be able to hold them or not. Pretty soon, there were already on their way back up on the other side. As soon as they reached the ledge Carmine was there to help them up. Carmine saw the blood on their armor had already dried and began to crust in the cold. "We headed into a little detour."Dom pointed out. "Is the horse okay?" Anthony showed the filly that was huddled in his arms. "Got her right here." "Her?" "Well it seems like a "her" to me." Dom looked over at Tai who just shrugged his shoulders "And you won't believe this Sarge, she actually talked. Not only that, she saved my life." "No shit?" "Yeah. Damn bird had me pinned down against the ledge, and the little horse went right up and bit it on the tail. The bird got off of me and I was able to kill it, but the horse got knocked out against a tree. She's still breathing though, so that's a good thing." Carmine followed for a pause that lasted for several seconds before Tai broke his silence. "So. . . what happens now?" Carmine and Tai looked towards Dom for their orders. "Alright, since the snow storm cleared we will be able to see and walk much easier now. What we need to do is-" Dom was cut off when a large blast of light aimed directly at his chest. At the impact he flew back in mid-air and fell into the snow. "Sarge!" The other Gears tried to get to Dom but they were also blasted by the same light. When Carmine was hit, the filly fell from out of his hands onto the snow still unconscious. Dom was dazed by the blast and was slowly getting up. Dammit soldier what are you doing? You're not going to let yourself die barely into the game are you? Stand up on your feet and fight like a man! Dom finally recovered gathered to his fellow Gears. The Gears recovered from the ambush and were one their feet, Lancers in hand and ready. Among the trees, they saw shadows slowly emerging from the forest. They aimed their Lancers ready to fire a soon as the threat was identified. Dom's eyes went wide when he saw what was in the forest. "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Tai and Anthony were confused at Dom's sudden outburst. They turned to the forest and saw Pony Guards emerging from the shadows. Slowly a dozen Earth and Unicorn Pony Guards began to surround them while several Pegasi Guards hovered over the trench behind the Gears. They were completely surrounded. A single Pegasus Guard hovered in front of the Gears landing about five feet from them. Under the Guards helmet streaks of rainbow colored hair peeked out. On the center piece of her armor on her chest, a large jewel piece shone. It was the shape of a thundercloud with a rainbow lightning bolt. "Attention trespassers! You have walked into Equestrian land! You will surrender yourselves and fall in to our demands! If you refuse, we will subject to force!" "What is your decision?"