Falling Into the Unknown

I felt the fog lifting slowly from my head. In my dazed state, I looked around, taking in the wrecked state of the train around me. Dimly, I noticed the shapes of Azure and Amber in front of me, stirring slowly.

I shook my head, freeing myself of the cobwebs I felt clouding my mind. The train bad apparently been turned on its side, immediately after a loud boom had been heard from the front. My Sa-58 lay on the ground in front of me, apparently knocked off of my back when the ponies and I had fallen on what used to be the side of the train. I grabbed for it, gripping the stock and pulling it towards me. Grabbing with rifle with one hand, I used the other to help myself push off of the floor.

Azure slowly got up in front of me, followed by Amber. They turned to look at me.

“What happened!” Azure shouted.

“I don’t know.” I replied. “We all heard a loud boom, and then the train turned over. You alright?”

Azure looked himself over. “Yeah, I’m fine. You look ok as well, Tyler.”

I did a mental checklist and, finding everything in order, quickly turned back to the matter at hand.

Turning to Azure, I said, “We need to find out what the hell just happened, and why.”

Suddenly, a shout came from the other side of the door at the end of the car. “I think they’re in here!” The muffled voice said.

I turned towards the door, raising my rifle. Azure and Amber went to their small packs, and each used their hooves to grab onto a short sword. How they grasped objects with their hooves, I still don’t know, but it works.

The door suddenly blasted open, falling downwards. On the other side stood a unicorn and some creature I didn’t recognize.

“There it is!” The unicorn said, quickly charging up its horn. I fired one round into it, quickly blowing its head apart. The other creature jumped into the car, causing me to quickly turn my rifle and  fire another round. It caught the thing in the head, the creature sliding into view of one of the remaining lights.

“Griffon.” Amber spat.

Together, we moved past the corpse and out of the car. The unicorn was a magenta color, most of its body covered by black cloth. Azure examined it for a moment before turning back to me.

“It’s a raider, no doubt about it.” He said.

“Raider?” I questioned. “I though this place was all ‘peace’ and ‘love’ and shit like that?”

Azure grimaced. “Some beings don’t like Celestia or Luna too well, and the raiders make up most of them. They accept any species, plundering and raiding outlying villages. This, however, is a bold move for them. Why do you think they attacked?”

I thought about it for a moment, before dismissing it. “I don’t know, but let’s get out of here.”

Together, we moved out of the train and onto the ground. Various shouts filled the air as the raiders worked their way towards them. The train had derailed in a heavily forested section of the track, so there were plenty of tree to hide behind.

I quickly started running through the forest, followed closely by Azure and Amber. My pack slapped against my back as I ran, the annoyance of it fading quickly.

Suddenly, an arrow sprouted out of the tree next to me. Looking back as I ran, I noticed several ponies and griffons chasing us. I even think I saw some zebra-type thing as well, but I couldn’t tell in the dim moonlight.

We had a large force chasing after us in the dark, inside of a forest. Either god really hated me, or life was just normal for me at this point. Looking towards Azure, I saw him glancing at the treetops, waiting for an opening.

“Azure!” I shouted, causing him to momentarily turn towards me. “I need for you and Amber to fly out and get help. Anyone, anything, I don’t care. I can hold them off until then!”

Azure nodded to me, motioning towards a dark blur to his right. They both turned towards a tiny clearing and jumped into the air. With them off, it was time to set my plan n motion.

Actually, I had no plan. I just figured that I would shoot them, and keep shooting them until they were dead, and then shoot more. Don’t you love my half-baked, insane ideas? Yeah, this was stupid, on par with my crazy stunt when I was captured, but I didn’t care.

I quickly came upon a large field. I spotted a small grouping of trees and grass about two hundred feet away. I sprinted towards them, reaching them quickly and plopping down in the grass, turning so I could see the end of the forest.

I propped my Sa-58 on my shoulder, aiming for the tree line. I waited. And waited.

Two miniutes after I had ground to a halt, there was movement at the line of trees Several black-coated shapes began to form: I noticed about four griffons, six unicorns, and two other ponies (probably earth). They all moved out of the line of trees, slowly, the unicorn’s horns glowing with light: it appeared that even they needed a flashlight of some sort.

I held my breath for a moment, aiming down the iron sights of my rifle. I sighted on the head of one of the unicorns, and quickly fired.

*BANG*

The sound of the bullet casing hitting a tree next to me was miniscule compared to the thundering boom of the rifle. As the other ponies and griffons turned, almost comically slowly, towards their fallen comrade, I sighted on another one and pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

The other scattered, quickly realizing that they were under attack.

“Scatter!” One of the griffons yelled, taking to the air, along with the other three. My rifle spat six rounds, taking down all four of them. I had no idea how I did it, probably instinct, but what was done is done.

The remaining six ponies took cover behind trees, making it difficult for me to spot them. A pair of unicorns popped out from behind a tree, horns glowing. They quickly launched magical bolts at me, the green and blue projectiles missing wildly. I held my fire, so as not to give away my position.

Slowly, but then quicker, the ponies walked out of their cover and converged on the field, headed towards me. They were a hundred feet away by now, close enough so that I didn’t hardly need the sights.

Suddenly, the one in front shouted, pointing at something in the sky. They quickly started to run back towards the trees. Turning my head away from them, I looked up into the sky.

Two blue ponies, Azure and Amber, led a small group of eight other Pegasus guards, white coats gleaming, even in the barest light afforded my the light. I turned back around, quickly aiming my rifle. I fired two bullets, each one hitting a pony, both unicorns. The Pegasi swooped down on the field, half cutting the raider’s retreat while half caught them in a pinchers movement from the other side.

“Surrender, bandits!” The voice of a guard boomed across the field. Slowly, each raider bowed their heads, letting two guards quickly put something on the horns of the unicorns, as well as point their spears at the two earth ponies.

Azure sprinted across the field, looking around.

“Tyler!” He said. “You can come out now!”

I quickly safed my rifle and got up, slinging it across my back. Slowly, I walked across the field. Azure and Amber were a mess. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and Amber look uncomfortably at her wings.

“Are you two ok?” I asked, concerned.

Azure nodded. “Yeah, just tired.” He said. “We had to fly all the way to Baltimare to get the guard there, and we went as fast as we could. How did you hold out?”

I gestured towards the scattered bodies on the field. Amber slowly shook her head. “Why do you always seem to get into trouble wherever you go?” She asked.

I shrugged. “It’s the best way to do things.” I looked around, towards the guards, seeing they were herding the four raiders into a small chariot that had landed. Looking some more, I found at least ten more guards at the scene, with some flying over the forest towards the train.

Apparently, I was now at the center of some sort of attack. We needed to figure things out, and fast.

“Come on!” I said to Azure and Amber, still standing around. “We gotta get to the train, see if we can find anything.”

We ran through the forest, and within twenty minutes we arrived at the train. The dawn was finally arriving, the edge of e sun casting a few golden rays over the area. It was a disaster scene; smoking fires, metal and wood scattered over the area, even a few bodies. Royal guards in their golden armor were swarming the area. A few of them gave me tense looks, before a high-ranking guard explained what I was. After that, things went along much more smoothly.

I ducked into a doorway, entering a car further down the train from ours. A few bodies filled it; consisting of two raiders and two passengers. The passengers had apparently put up a small fight, because the two raiders each had burns over much of their body, from magical bolts.

Moving through the cart, I quickly recalled what I remembered of the event. Suddenly, a thought struck me.

I quickly ran out of the cart, towards my friends.

“Azure! Amber!” I shouted gaining their attention as I slowed to a halt.

“What is it, Tyler?” Amber asked.

I smiled. “I think I know why they attacked us.”

“Why did they, then?” A guard asked.

I pointed to myself. “They were either after me, or  weapons. Remember when one outside the door shouted something like ‘They are in here’?” Azure nodded, so I continued. “Well, given the fact that, after that, they chased after us and us alone, I think they were after me or my weapons.”

The guard nodded. “That makes some sense, creature.”

Ignoring him, I turned to Azure. “We need to find out who could be doing this. If they did this once, they can and would do it again.”

“How, though?” Azure asked. “I doubt the prisoners will say much, and I don’t have time, and neither do you, to search every cave.”

“Yeah, I’d hate to be stuck with that!” Another guard said. I ignored him. Although I did enjoy the company of my friends, I barely tolerated most other ponies, finding them to be either annoying, arrogant, or both. Half of them barely tolerated other ponies, much less another species. And the ones who were more accepting were, more often than not, annoying as hell.

Quickly, the guard force finished doing… Whatever they were doing. Most of them flew off, a few staying to clear the tracks and guard the wreck. I looked around, deep in though. Someone had tried to kill me, and it pissed me off.

They would not survive me.