A rather large dark brown earth-pony stallion smashed open the front door of the house, and stumbled in carrying the prone form of a powder blue unicorn on his back. He staggered heavily across the chipped floorboards before setting the unicorn down on a ragged brown couch. He was followed into the house by a nervous looking mint green pegasus, who quickly locked the door behind him.
“Aww no. Aww no. Aww no.” The pegasus, whom was clearly much younger than the earth pony and unicorn, repeated his mantra as he sat heavily on the floor. He clutched his head with his hooves as his eyes desperately scanned the room as if looking for a method of escape. His current demeanor contrasted heavily with his cutie-mark of a smiling sun.
Meanwhile, the earth-pony was running his fore hooves over the unicorn, searching for the source of the blood matting his fur. Suddenly, he froze, with his right fore hoof lightly touching between his left fore leg and chest, up near the joint. Maneuvering the unicorn’s leg, he was greeted with the site of a gaping hole in his friend’s skin, with blood pouring out.
Turning, the stallion shouted at the near-hysterical pegasus, “Well don’t just stand there, get Stiff some bandages!” Without waiting to see if the pegasus had moved, the earth-pony shook Stiff, eliciting several ragged breaths. “Hey, how you feeling?”
The unicorn coughed weakly, and even managed to half open an eye. Barely moving cracked lips, he barely managed to mumble, “Li’e I been sta’ed in the heart.” He smiled weakly. “I tol’ you thi’ plan wa’ bucke’ up.” Without waiting for a response, he shut his eyes; the only sign of life being his irregular, twitching breaths.
Even though he knew his friend was too far-gone to hear him, the earth-pony smiled, and said, “Yeah, you did, didn’t you?”
He turned with a start when he felt a hoof hesitantly tap his shoulder. Turning, he saw the green pegasus nervously hovering, clutching a roll of bandages. “Um, Amber, I got the bandages for Stiff.” But upon saying the name of the unicorn, the pegasus lost what little composure he had, and quickly handed Amber the bandages. He flew over to the door, and clutched his head in his hooves again.
Amber smiled softly and said, “Hey, Sunny?”
He waited several moments for the sobbing to stop, and heard Sunny give a shaky reply, “Yeah?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you make it out of here. I promised Somber, and I don’t go back on my word.”
Instead of reassuring the pegasus, it just drew still more muffled sobs from him. Realizing that his words may have had unintended consequences, but unsure of how to fix them, Amber turned back to Stiff.
He noticed that the breathing had stopped.
Knowing that it wasn’t going to help, but deciding to do it anyways, Amber began wrapping the hole in Stiff’s chest with the bandages. As he worked, he spoke aloud, “Well, I was wrong. The sauce wasn’t the death of you after all.” He finished wrapping the wound, and closed his eyes. “I guess I owe you those twenty bits, huh?”
Knowing that a response wasn’t coming, but hoping for one anyways, Amber stared at the face of his longtime friend. At length, he stood up. He averted his eyes from Stiff, and turned to the distraught Pegasus.
“Hey, I think it’s time we get out of here, don’t you think?” But as he walked to the door to gather his companion, he glanced out the window, and froze. He saw the blue uniforms of the Ponyville P.D.
Sunny, who had stood up to leave with Amber, followed his glance out the window to the figures surrounding the house. His eyes widened, before he threw himself into a corner. He covered his eyes with his hooves, and started pleading.
“Oh, please don’t let them kill me Somber. Please, don’t let me disappear. Please Somber? I promise, I’ll do anything, just please don’t let them make me disappear. Not that.”
Amber looked on as the younger stallion seemed to draw into himself. He didn’t know what to say; and he certainly didn’t know what to do. His musings were cut short by a loud buzz.
He looked out the window, and saw a line of police, and a unicorn levitating a microphone up to a older looking, uniformed stallion. “This is Lieutenant Hard Case of the Ponyville Police Department. We have you surrounded. Please, come out of the house with all hooves on the ground, and end the bloodshed. No one else has to get hurt. You have ten minutes.”
Amber looked from the cowering Sunny, to the Police outside, to the body of Stiff. He walked over to the couch holding the still warm corpse of his friend, and sat down heavily. He sighed, and brought a hoof up to his temple. He was smiling awkwardly, although there was more than a hint of pain in his expression.
At length, he looked over to his friend and questioned, “This isn’t good, huh? I’ve got to get Sunny out of here; he doesn’t belong here taking heat with us. He’s a good kid, right? I mean, out of all of us he probably had the least reason for being here, except for wanting to impress his brother.”
His nervous smile disappeared, and he leaned forwards. “I tried my best, you know? I didn’t deviate from the plan in the slightest, and I tried my hardest to keep everyone safe. You know that, right? I would’ve taken a knife for you, did you know that? Isn’t it funny, how you knowing that seems so important right now, but I never told you when I had the chance?”
He nervously chuckled, and tore his gaze away from Stiff. “But things never go exactly according to plan, right? I mean, I should have known, I should’ve accounted for Steel freaking out. It’s my fault you’re dead, huh?” He turned back to his friend, and hesitated. He needed to think of a way out of his situation, but he didn’t know where to begin. And he only had ten minutes.
“How did it come to this?”
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a non-comedy. Please, let me know what you think.