//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Change Of Plans // Story: The Ultimate Sacrifice // by DarkWolf //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Change Of Plans “Truck!" Grinch yelled as he frantically shook his comrade. "Truck, get up NOW!” “Uh… what? What’s going on?” “I heard gunshots. It could be Sandman.” “Wait, what? Where? What direction? How many did you hear? Were they close?” Truck spewed forth quickly as he made his way over to his gear and began packing. Grinch pointed towards the woods. Now that it was light out, he could make out hills breaking over the top of the canopy. “It sounded like it came from that way. I heard two shots, each evenly spaced out between each other.” “Well then let’s go! If it is Sandman, we got to go get him! Maybe he knows what the hell is going on here.” He responded as he loaded his ACR. As soon as Truck finished his sentence, another shot rang out in the distance. “I suggest we get there sooner than later…” Grinch mumbled. Without another word, the pair gathered up the rest of their supplies and ran off in the direction of the shots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The rainbow horse was stopped dead in its tracks. It let out a high pitched squeal, fell to the ground and began screaming out in pain. “OWW! AHH! W-WH-WHAT D-DID YOU DO?!?! AHH!” It managed to say as it thrashed around, clutching its left shoulder. The shot had hit the front left shoulder blade, just an inch or two from a neck shot. There was a clean exit wound however, so it didn’t hit the bone directly. Sandman turned to face the five other horses, ready to fire. “Oh my gosh, RAINBOW!” The purple one stepped forward towards the rainbow one, but Sandman shot the ground directly in front of it, causing it to jump backwards in fear. “Stay back!” Sandman yelled out at them. "What the fuck is going on here?! I just shot a rainbow colored horse with wings and now I am holding five other colored horses at gunpoint! When did they teach us about THIS type of shit in basic?!” He noticed the rainbow one trying to get up, but it kept falling over from trying to put pressure on its leg, crying out in pain each time it tried. “R-Rainbow, just tr-try to stay down, okay?” The purple one if front said in a shaky voice. The white one, along with the pink and yellow ones, were hiding behind the corner of the house, while the purple and orange one were standing out in plain view. Both were exchanging glances between Sandman and their friend lying on the ground. “What did you do to her!?” The purple one shouted out at him. Sandman sat there staring at it, not knowing how to respond. Hell, he wasn't sure what he was thinking right now. “Ah don’t think it knows what yer sayin’ there Twi…” The orange one responded, staying very close to the purple one whom she called 'Twi'. Sandman looked over at the one called ‘Rainbow’ on the ground. There was a small puddle of blood on the ground next to it and its breathing was getting shallower. Sandman knew it was going to die of blood loss if it sat there much longer. His mind told him to go shoot it again, put it out of its misery, but his gut was telling him that it would be a bad idea. He didn’t want to stress the already shattered relations with the inhabitants any further than he already had. "Oh, what the hell am I thinking? Treating them like humans? They are horses! Talking... flying... horses that express themselves in a sentient manner.. His mind was racing at a million miles an hour, leaving him with no idea how to deal with the situation. Finally, he made up his mind. “Go look after your friend.” Sandman said, slowly backing away from the body, but keeping his weapon trained on the group. Perhaps he could make his way back to the woods, rendezvous with Grinch and Truck, and figure something out then. All of them looked back at him in surprise that he spoke, but they paid him little attention. Their focus almost instantly drifted back towards Rainbow. The orange one and the purple one called ‘Twi’ sprinted over towards their friend. “Rainbow, are you ok? Can you hear me?” “Do somethin’ Twilight! Cast one of yer spells on her or somethin’!” “I don’t know any healing spells! We need to get her to the hospital!” Sandman stood and watched in complete amazement as the horse LEVITATED her friend in the air, an odd purple glow surrounding her and what appeared to be Twilight’s horn on her head. What is going on here?" He thought as he continued to back up slowly. “We need ta tell the Princess about this here… thing.” he heard the orange one whisper to Twilight as it shot death glares his way. Next thing Sandman knew, he was hit in his right side by something that blew him a good five feet back, making him face-plant in the dirt. He rolled over to find that he was sitting in what appeared to be a blue bubble that surrounded him on all sides. “What in the hell is this?” He shouted to nobody in particular. He saw on the other side the white horse standing next to the bubble, its horn glowing a light blue, the same color as the bubble around him. He got up and ran into it trying to break it, but to no avail. He shot two rounds at the bubble, only to have them both ricochet back towards him, barely missing him and landing in the dirt. He looked up to see two large cracks from where the rounds hit, but they slowly repaired themselves. He was trapped. “Rarity! What are you doing!?” Twilight shouted, backing up in horror. “Well, we can’t leave this... this... monster out here! The Princess needs to see it! It’s too dangerous to leave out by itself! Who knows what it could do? You’ve already seen what it did to Rainbow Dash!” It announced in it's feminine, yet dignified voice. “Spike is back at the library, he can send a letter to her. Me and Applejack have to get Rainbow Dash to the hospital. Fluttershy, fly over to the Library and tell Spike to write a letter to Princess Celestia asking her to meet us here. Pinkie, stay here with Rarity and watch over that... thing.” With that, the yellow one called ‘Fluttershy’ flew up into the air and darted off towards the town. He could see that it was crying as it left. Twilight set Rainbow Dash down on top of the orange one who Sandman assumed was ‘Applejack’, and the two sprinted off down the hill towards the town as well. The pink one addressed as ‘Pinkie’ walked over towards Rarity and stood next to her, staring at Sandman in confusion, interest, and fear. Sandman could see Rarity gritting her teeth in frustration as she continued to hold this shield over him. She seemed to be in deep concentration. "How is she doing that?” He slowly tried to piece together what was happening, and what his captors exactly were. "It looks like a horse, but it’s smaller than a normal horse. It could be a pony or something, but the horn?” It slowly dawned on Sandman what it was. "It’s a pony, it has a horn. Is it a… Unicorn? Wait wait wait… what the hell am I thinking? Unicorns don’t exist! They’re made up! A stupid fairy tale creature you only see in kid’s shows! But… then again… talking ponies aren’t supposed to exist either, and neither are flying ponies, and especially ponies that can cast shields over people. Jesus, what the hell is going on?" Sandman sat an pondered his options for a few seconds. "Ugh, they probably won’t talk to me, but I need information. At least I should try..." “Who are you? Where am I?” Sandman asked, causing both of them to jump a bit. Neither responded though. They continued to only look at him with strange expressions on their faces. “I understand if you don’t want to talk to me, but I…” His sentence was cut short by Rarity. “Your right we don’t want to talk to you! You hurt our friend! Almost killed her you monster!” “But you need to listen to me! Where am I? What country is this? I shouldn't be here!” “I’m not telling you anything! The Princess will know what to do with you!” “But…” Before Sandman could finish, Rarity cast another spell on the shield, blocking out all sound from the inside out. "Well, so much for that idea. Who is this Princess Celestia anyway? Perhaps I will be able to reason with her instead. Then again, she’s probably another pony as well, seeing as though those are the only inhabitants I have seen so far.” Sandman sat in the shield for what seemed to be around an hour. The sun was up in the sky now, making him assume is was around 11:00AM. Rarity and Pinkie sat in silence for the entire time. Sandman could clearly see that Rarity was getting tired of holding up the shield. Her body language told it all. She was slumped over, almost falling over at times. There were obvious signs that she was dead on tired, closing her eyes every couple of minutes. "Fall asleep dammit!” If the shield was to go down, Sandman would make a run for it. Rarity would be too tired to follow and he doubted Pinkie would do anything that would hinder his escape. She didn't seem like anything specal. Those dreams were dashed away though when he saw Fluttershy and Twilight sprinting back up towards them. “Pinkie! Rarity!” Twilight called out to them. Pinkie turned and ran straight towards them, while Rarity stood there motionless until she slowly acknowledged that someone had called her name. “Oh my gosh, is Rainbow Dash okay? Did they take her in? Is she in surgery?” Pinkie blurted out in quick succession. “Yeah, she will be fine. We got her there just in time. She is in urgent care right now. Applejack volunteered to stay behind and make sure she was ok.” “Is the Princess coming?” “Y-Yes, she w-was in Manehatten when she g-got the letter. She was in the m-middle of a meeting with the m-mayor. Sh- she would be here in about t-two hours.” Fluttershy shakily announced, almost at the point of crying again. "Fluttershy..." Twilight started as she hugged the poor creature. "Everything will be okay. Got it?" She merely nodded in response. “In that case... you mght want to switch with Rairty. She is getting really sleepy...” Pinkie announced, pointing a hoof towards the unicorn. All three looked over at Rarity, who was almost completely oblivious to her surroundings. She was swaying back and forth like she was about to pass out any second. “Rarity, you can take a break. I got it from here.” Twilight said as she approached her. “Oh… Twilight. I didn’t know you were here darling, I… uh…” Twilight took over the spell, causing the shield to change colors from a light blue to a dark purple. “Thanks Twilight… I am…uh… going to go rest for a bit…” Fluttershy led Rarity inside the house, while Pinkie and Twilight stood guard over their strange prisoner. “Twlight?” Pinkie asked. "Hmmm?" "You uh... really think the Princess will know what to do with it?" “I’m sure she will. She has never let us down before. Everything will turn out fine, I promise.”