//------------------------------//
// First Impressions 
// Story: Out of the Sand 
// by Forward Unto Dawn 
//------------------------------//

First Impressions...

Second Lieutenant Miles 'Wolf' Worth has seen and experienced many things in his roughly 22 years of life. He'd seen war, death, all of the shit that would leave anyone a broken shell of who they were. But never once had he seen multicolored horses who could, yes, COULD, talk. This only left one thought in his mind when he saw the six other horses grouped up in front of him. 

'Why me?' 

I was stumped on what I was seeing. Simply, utterly confused. I don't know why I did it now. I mean, there were the three little horses or 'fillies' as they called themselves that he was currently following. Well, until now he had been following them. Rhino and I had stopped quite aways from where the other horses were standing. My mind felt as if it were about to shatter like glass.

Well, that was until Rhino's voice spoke into my headphones. I shook my head and formed up a suitable reply.

"Repeat your last. I got a little fuckin' confused at what I'm seeing." 

Rhino whispered through my headphones. 

"See that blue one on the far left? The one with the wings? It looks a little too twitchy for my liking sir." 

I nodded and glanced at it. Rhino was right, it was taking up an aggressive stance, well aggressive to me at least... 

"Got it. Yeah, it looks kinda aggressive. Oh, and before I forget, you've got permission to speak freely unless I state otherwise. I understand that it's weird for you, so I'll make it easier for both of us."

"Thanks Wolf." 

I just nodded and stepped over to his position a little on my right. Rhino was eyeing the horses through his sunglasses. I gazed at them as well, glad that they couldn't see any recognizable facial features through my black mask and sunglasses. I noticed the fillies walk up behind the horses, and tightened my grip on my rifle. I started taking in all of the stares that we were getting. I counted the horses numbers. Two were pegasi, two were just multicolored horses, but the last two caught my gaze. 

They were unicorns. Of fucking course they were unicorns! Why wouldn't they be?! My teammate and I were stuck on horse world! Yep, I'm officially dubbing this whole place 'Horse World'! 

I took on a serious train of thought after that, snapping to business. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, gaining an attitude of professionalism. I patted Rhino on the shoulder and pointed towards the group. He took the order with a grunt, moving up next to me so that we could cover each side. We walked up slowly and cautiously towards the group, grips tight on our firearms and checking the area behind the group, incase there were any hostiles. I flipped off the safety just in case right as the blue horse darted forward towards me with amazing speed. 

Only to be snatched by Rhino's hands and pulled into a headlock. 

The winged horse started writhing and screaming as I pulled my rifle up and aimed it at the other five group members, switching between each of them incase they wanted to try anything else. I glanced over at the still writhing horse, as it struggled to get out of Rhino's grip unsuccessfully. 

The other horses looked on in shock, until I snapped all of them out of it by yelling. 

"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!" Although I had yelled, I was quite calm when I did so. The horses stared at me, even the blue one stopped and stared. I continued on. "Alright, now that I have everyone's attention. There are two ways this will work out. The blue horse calms down, you five don't try anything stupid, and we give it back safe and sound. If you don't comply, however, there will be consequences." My voice was cold, as if I could freeze water by breathing on it. Thankfully, for them and for us, the blue one took the hint and calmed down. 

Rhino spoke into her ear, but I was close enough to hear it faintly. "Thanks. Now I'm gonna let go, and you're gonna go back to your friends, ok?" She nodded slowly. And with that, he let go of her. I watched as she darted back to her friends as quickly as she had come. 

I decided to break the ice. Speaking in a nicer tone of voice, I started. "Great. So we can move on to introductions now, right? My name's L-"

And that was when it hit me. Literally. Yes, it caught me blind. And no, I never expected to get talked by a golden-armored horse. I bet Rhino didn't either. I fell flat on my face, the gear that I was wearing thankfully comforting me as I hit the ground. I felt pressure on my back and yanked my right arm around, hitting my elbow on a leg bare of any kind of armor. The hostile rolled off of me, giving me the chance to roll on top of him. 

Blue eyes peeking out from golden armor glared into my sunglasses. The expression inside of them showed some kind of unknown hatred, like I'd insulted his honor somehow. It changed to pain however, as I punched him right on the bottom of his jaw, knocking him out cold. I saw Rhino still grappling with another on top of him, and I pulled up my rifle quickly. My finger pulled the trigger, the assault rifle coughing as a bullet smacked into his shoulder. He flinched and fell, as blood trickled out of the wound. I doubted it would do any real harm to him permanently if he got help. 

I darted over to Rhino and pulled him on his feet, giving him a pat on his shoulder to let him know it was indeed his teammate. And with that I spun towards the remaining hostiles. Only to be blown off of my feet. I landed on my back roughly ten feet away. Thankfully, I still had my rifle, and it was trained on the other two horses that we wearing armor. And a much larger horse who had both wings and a horn. Rhino darted over to me and helped me up, keeping one weapon trained on the horses. All of a sudden, a large bubble appeared around us, and I started losing consciousness. The last thing I saw was Rhino firing three shots at one other horse before falling next to me. And then everything was cold and black.