//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: The Return 
// Story: The Ultimate Sacrifice 
// by DarkWolf 
//------------------------------//

 Chapter 10: The Return

“Boss, does he have a pulse?”

“Yeah… it’s rather slow, but he’s alive.”

“Who is that?” Celestia asked the group.

“A friend of ours. How the hell did he get here?” Sandman responded.

“I don’t know. I sensed a magical force at work when that light appeared, but I do not know what exactly happened.”

“Great, another human…” Rainbow mumbled to herself.

“Is he hurt?” Twilight asked.

“For the most part, no. He’s got a couple of cuts here and there, as well as some burns on his chest, but nothing life threatening.”

“Boss, his radio is getting a signal!” Truck shouted out. 

They could hear faint static from his radio. Sandman quickly grabbed it up and placed it in his ear. He could make out a faint conversation over the radio, but the signal was failing.”

“Overlord, we….. SAR bird at grid….. 451….. 67….”

“Copy Metal…. who….. looking for?”

“Frost…… somewhere out near….. park….”

“Copy…. reading a faint signal….. his HUD, don’t know where…. the location…. off grid.”

“Overlord, this is Sandman! We need to know our location!”

“Metal…. receiving… from his HUD radio….. response.”

“Overlord! This is Sandman! We have Frost with us! Triangulate our position, track us, something!”

“Who are you talking to?” Twilight asked nervously, but Sandman waved the question off.

“Frost? Frost is…. you? It’s Ghost! Where……?”

“No! It’s not Frost! It’s Sandman and Frost is with us! We need a location!”

All of a sudden, the radio lost its signal.

“Hello? Overlord? Anyone?”

There was no response. All they could hear was faint static coming from the radio before it cut out entirely.

“DAMMIT!” Sandman yelled as he threw the radio to the ground in frustration.

At this moment, Frost slowly started to come to. He slowly opened his eyes to see Sandman, Truck, and Grinch standing above him.

“Ugh… what the hell? Am… am I dead?”

“Holy shit, Frost!” Sandman shouted as he crouched back down to help Frost up into a sitting position. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Truck asked.

“Uh… Sandman? Truck? Grinch? Well, I must be dead then if I am seeing you guys….”

“What the hell does that mean?” Grinch asked.

“You… you’re all dead. Killed in that diamond mine. They were never able to recover your bodies because the diamond mine collapsed in on itself.”

“Well, whoever told you that lied. We aren’t dead. Far from it actually. Well, at least I think we aren’t.” Sandman responded.

“So… where exactly… are… um… what?” Frost said as he noticed the other faces looking down at him. They looked like a bunch of colorful horses.

“Uh… what the hell is this?” Frost asked.

“It’s a very long and weird story.” Truck responded.

“Well, um… perhaps you could give me the short version then? Or at least tell me why there are a bunch of colorful horses standing around me?”

“Hey! We are not horses, we are ponies.” Twilight corrected him.

Frost sat there for a moment staring at Twilight in complete disbelief. One of them had actually talked to him.

“I’m sorry, but did that thing just talk to me?”

“Yeah… they do that. Don’t freak on me man, we reacted the same way. Apparently they are trying to help us.” said Grinch.

Frost once again waited a moment before speaking. He examined each one of the ponies standing around him. After a while, he started laughing a little bit.

“Uh, Frost? Why are you laughing?” Truck asked.

“Am I high on something? I must be high on something. Am I alive in the hospital somewhere drugged up hard on a lot of morphine? Wouldn’t surprise me at all! Last thing I remember was me taking a rocket to the chest!”

“Man, you aren’t high. I don’t know exactly how to explain this, but… we are sort of in an alternate world with talking ponies in it that are trying to figure out how we got here and how to get us home. And, about the rocket part, it doesn’t look like it. You got a few cuts and burns here and there, but you would be in pieces if you took a rocket to the chest.” Sandman responded.

Frost’s attitude slowly seemed to be shifting to a more serious outlook.

“Ok, hang on. That’s got to be some bull shit. Seriously, an alternate world? Who the hell made that one up?”

“That’s what I said…” Truck interjected.

“Well, believe it or not, it’s apparently true. Unless we all got stuck in some really awkward limbo full of talking ponies, we got a situation on our hands.” Sandman said while shooting Truck a glance of disapproval.

“Well, I guess we can…” Frost started, but was soon cut off when the sound of a rifle shot echoed throughout the area, and a bullet hit Truck right in the chest.

“SHIT! GET DOWN!” Sandman yelled out as he dropped next to Truck and pulled him off to the side of the trail they were walking on. Frost and Grinch quickly followed suit as another shot rang out that whistled directly past the head of Frost.

“Princess! Put up one of those shields around you!” Sandman yelled out to the group of ponies still standing on the road in shock. Celestia quickly placed a shield around her, the guards, and the six Elements just as a bullet hit it and bounced off the side. Turning towards the humans in the ditch beside the road, she yelled out to them.

“What was that?! What’s going on?!”

“It was a bullet, but just stay there! We will take care of it!” Sandman responded, but quickly turned his attention back to Truck.

“Truck, you good?”

“Yeah… goddamn… I guess Kevlar really does work… heh… AHHH, my ribs are all fucked up though…”

“Your alive, that’s all that matters. Stay down, we’ll take care of him for you.”

“Might want to take… AHH, ugh, my ACR. You aren’t going to be sniping… ugh, people with that M9 of yours….”

“Just stay down.” Sandman responded as he crouched along the side of the ditch towards Frost and Grinch.

“Heh, not like I am going anywhere…. AHH, dammit!”

“Boss, is Truck good?” Grinch asked.

“Yeah, he’s probably got a couple broken or fractured ribs, but he will live. Frost, you stay back with Truck and try to provide a bit of a distraction. Me and Grinch will flank around and try to find the sniper. I saw a flash from that tree line over there. It’s about three hundred yards off… but we can take this ditch about two hundred more yards to get closer, the rest will have to be a sprint into the woods.”

“Here, take these...” Frost said as he pulled out two  smoke grenades off of his vest. “Once you need to get across, throw these down. I will keep him occupied over here.”

“Got it, don’t be getting yourself shot though Frost. I don’t think he has a bead on any of us right now, so once you shoot, move to a new location. Don’t let him track you.”

“Roger that.” Frost said as he slowly crouched back over towards Truck. Another shot rang out and hit the shield the ponies were standing behind.

At this point, the mane six inside the shield were quite literally freaking out, for they didn’t know anything about what was going on outside. The guards formed a circle inside the shield surrounding the Elements and the Princess, allowing them to calm themselves a little bit.

“Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight asked anxiously.

“I don’t know, but the humans told us to stay inside the shield and wait. They will take care of it.”

“Wait… and we are actually going to listen to them?!” Rainbow shouted out.

“They have given me no reason not to trust them, so I will trust them in return.”

“No reason!? Look at what they did to me!” Rainbow yelled as she pointed a hoof towards the sling across her shoulder where the bullet Sandman had shot at her left its mark.

“I understand your concerns and why you are angry, but right now, they seem to be trying to help us. I will not tolerate any violence against them as long as they don’t show violence towards us. Is that clear?” Princess Celestia said in a raised tone.

“Yes, Princess...” Rainbow said, a defeated look upon her face.

All of a sudden, automatic gunfire caused all of them to jump. They turned to see the new human shooting his weapon into the tree line across the field. Right when he ducked, a bullet flew across and hit the dirt directly in front of where he was sitting, sending up a small cloud of dust. Meanwhile, Sandman and Grinch were slowly making their way around to the side in order to flank the sniper, making sure to keep their heads below the edge of the ditch. Once they hit the edge of the ditch, Sandman tossed out his 2 smoke grenades, and after a few seconds, a giant cloud of smoke filled the air in front of them.

“Ok, GO!” Sandman yelled out to Grinch. They both got up and sprinted the remaining distance into the woods. Once they were inside, they began to look towards where they thought the sniper was.

“Frost, be careful with your shots, we are in the woods.” Sandman whispered into his radio.

“Got it, I will keep my fire on the left. I will try to draw him out again, watch for a flash.” Frost’s voice sounded back through it.
Sandman and Grinch stopped and sat down, staring along the edge of the forest. Frost got up and shot a couple more rounds into the woods, while a yellow flash appeared about one hundred yards in front of them.

“Got him…” Grinch whispered.

They both slowly crept forward, when all of a sudden, automatic gunfire came from directly in front of them. Sandman hit the deck while Grinch quickly jumped behind a thick tree.

“Shit! Frost, we got at least two shooters out here!” Sandman shouted into his radio.

“Roger that, I will try to keep the sniper occupied.” Frost responded as he shot a few more rounds into the woods. After the gunfire ceased, Sandman could make out a voice in front of them. It was Russian.

“Lyeonid, my poluchili protivnikov, v lesu, my pod ugrozu! Padenie obratno v les!”

Sandman could hear a faint voice respond from what sounded like his radio.

“Vam nuzhno pomochʹ Andryeyu? Skolʹko tam?”

“YA dumayu, chto dva iz nikh, no ne bespokoĭtesʹ obo mne! Prosto zaĭdite!”

Grinch stepped out and emptied a couple rounds in the direction of the voice. A figure could be seen running back towards another tree once the fire stopped. Sandman aimed the ACR and shot three rounds at it. The third hit the figure in its back right shoulder.

“Derʹmo!” It shouted out.

Behind the first, another figure got up and started to run down the edge of the forest away from Sandman. The two of them got up and started to push forward. Every now and then, more fire would erupt through the tree line in front of them, but blindly. Not many shots came close to hitting either of them.

“Frost, you got a bead on anybody?” Sandman asked.

“No, I’m only seeing flashes here and there. Don’t know who is who.”

“Ok, don’t fire then. We are trailing two guys over here. If anybody steps out, light them up.”

“Got it.”

More fire erupted through the thicket in front of them. Grinch got up and fired back towards what seemed as the point of origin, and a shout could be heard from behind it.

“Akh! Chert poberi!”

“To, chto proiskhodit Andryeĭ? Gde ty? The voice from the radio sounded out.

“Prosto zaĭdite! Ne bespokoĭtesʹ obo mne, brat!”

Sandman and Grinch both burst through the thicket to find a body lying on the ground with a bullet wound in his right shoulder and two in his hip. He was clutching an AK47 with one hand and holding his other hand to his radio. The two both approached the man on the ground, guns pointing directly at his head.

“DROP YOUR WEAPON!” Sandman yelled out to him.

The man hesitated for a moment, but ultimately dropped the gun to the ground due to lack of strength in his right arm because of the bullet currently lodged in it. Grinch walked up and kicked the gun aside and removed the man’s sidearm from his waist.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Sandman asked.

The man did not respond.

“Do you speak English?”

He slowly nodded his head yes.

“Then what is your name!?” 

“Andrei.”

“What are you doing here?” 

“I know not. What YOU doing here?”

The radio on Andrei’s helmet began to go off again. The same voice was calling through it.

“Andryeĭ, gde ty? YA na mesto vstrechi.”

A moment passed between the three of them with nobody making a move, but Andrei, already having his hand near his radio, quickly responded.

“Ubiraĭsya ot•syuda Lyeonid! Oni u menya!”

Immediately after Andrei finished his sentence, he was met with the butt of Sandman’s ACR to his face, knocking him out.

“What the hell? Now we got Russians to deal with?!” Grinch shouted to nobody in particular.

“Well, at least it’s something familiar. Come on, we got to bring him back to Frost. Make sure you grab his weapons too. I will keep lookout for that other sniper.” 

Grinch picked up Andrei’s AK47 along with his sidearm, a G18. He strapped the weapons over his shoulder and proceeded to pull Andrei out of the woods with Sandman covering him.

“Frost, we are coming out. We got one of them breathing, but we don’t know where the other one went.” Sandman radioed. 

“Ok, I got you guys covered from here.”

Sandman and Grinch stepped out of the woods. Once they felt they were relatively safe, Sandman helped Grinch by helping him lift Andrei over towards the road.

“Oh your shitting me… Russians?” Was the first thing Frost said as the two approached the road.

“Apparently so…” Grinch responded.

“Princess, you are all safe now for the time being. You can take that shield down now.” Sandman called out.

The shield surrounding them slowly faded away into nothingness as the Princess’s horn stopped glowing.

“What was that? What just happened?” Twilight asked. “And… who is that?”

“An enemy of ours. We were fighting his country in that war I told you about.” Sandman responded.

“Did he give you anything useful?” Frost asked.

“No, all we got out of him was that he is named Andrei, and that there is another sniper out there. Don’t know where he went.”

“So… now there are six humans in Equestria.” Celestia said to herself.

“Why? Why is all of this happening now?” Twilight said, receiving agreements from the rest of her friends. At this point, Sandman and the others were turning and listening for an explanation.

“Hmmm, I hate to say this, for I have been saying it a lot recently, but I do not know. I need to get back to Canterlot in order to research this problem further. However, we still need to get you all to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“To where?” Frost asked.

“We will tell you on the way, but we need to get to a hospital or something first for Truck. He is hurt badly with multiple broken ribs.” Sandman said.

“And Andrei over there has got three bullet wounds on him.” Grinch added in.

“That can be arranged, but I don’t think having you all running through town will be a good idea. I can have Nurse Red Heart bring out some medical equipment and help your friend at the farm.”

“Speaking of which, how are we supposed to carry Truck and Andrei over there?” Grinch pointed out.

“I can help you with that.” Celestia said as walked over to Truck and lifted him up in the air with her magic.

“Hey, what? What the hell!? Put me… AHHH, damn ribs….!”

“Don’t worry, you will be fine.” Celestia responded.

“Princess, you don’t need to do that. We can carry him.” Sandman said.

“Nonsense, if he is hurt, then having you haul him around will make it worse. At least this way he won’t have to be hurled around on your back. Besides, we can consider this as a thank you for helping us.”

“I guess I will carry the Russian…” Grinch said as he walked over to Andrei, who was still knocked unconscious on the ground. He patched up his wounds with some cloth to help stop the bleeding until they could get to the farm.

“I can help you out.” Frost added in as they both picked him up and threw him over Grinch’s shoulder. “If you get tired, you can switch off with me, ok?”

“Ok, thanks.”

Leaving it at that, the group set off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
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“Chert vozʹmi ! Kakogo cherta ya dolzhen delatʹ? YA dazhe ne znayu, gde ya zdesʹ, v etikh lesakh ...podozhdite... Kto vy?!”

“Tell me, what language is that? It sounds rather odd… never heard it before in my life, and I have lived a long life.”

“Eto russkiĭ, kak vy ne znaete, chto? Podozhdi, ty kto?”

“I’m sorry, but can you please speak in my tongue? Your language is strange.”

“It is Russian… what do you want? Who are you?”

“That is not important anymore. I was a friend… a friend who was betrayed by his own friends. Now, I am just a myth. A storybook character that has faded out of knowledge. If they only knew…”

“What do you mean? Who are you!”

“Oh, getting angry I see. I’m sorry, I haven’t been around others in a very long time. It’s only been recently that I have awoken from my slumber.”

“Khvatit s igrami! Skazhite mne vashe imya , ili ya podvezu vas , gde vy stoite!”

“I thought we already went over about speaking so we can understand each other.”

“Tell me who you are NOW, or else I will put a bullet in your head!”

“A bullet… hmmm… not sure what that is. Would you care to explain?”

“Why don’t you find out first hand?”

“Heh, very well. Show me.”

…