Falling Into the Unknown

I collapsed onto the bed, completely exhausted. Over the two weeks since we had arrived, Celestia had assigned Azure and Amber as my guards. Although their departure from Canterlot had been… Highly irregular, Celestia didn’t really seem to mind that much. A week after their arrival here, they had finally been assigned to an empty house near the center of town, with a door that opened up to a nice view of a park.

Azure and Amber seemed happy with it. All three of us got separate rooms on the second floor, which I was thankful for. Now, whenever I wanted to completely ignore them, I could lock myself in my room. It might not be mature, but I didn’t care much.

I got the feeling that Celestia sent me here for a reason, and a second one had popped up: The first being that she wanted me out of the way. She couldn’t really get rid of me, and killing people didn’t seem to be her style, so she decided to send me off to a random town in the middle of nowhere. The second reason had only recently popped up: From their questioning of the people who had attacked the train, I got the feeling that someone wanted me and my weapons. Getting my weapons alone would have been a prize, but me? I was a source of information at this point. I could tell plenty of things that would help someone, and it didn’t really matter who. In the middle of this city, I was pretty safe.

Pullmare itself was surrounded by a wooden wall. This wasn’t some silly palisade wall of wooden logs stuck in the ground: The wall was made of high-quality cut wood, with a center of gravel and sand, and the outside was covered in some type of chainmail-like covering. Whatever it was, it made the outside wall almost impossible to climb because of how smooth it was, and I had noticed dozens of guards on the wall when I walked by.

Why the worry, then? Well, even after the interaction that I had attained (by that I mean visiting a local bar with Azure or Amber occasionally), I was still known around the town as an Outsider. Heck, my habit of drinking only occasionally (but mostly letting Azure or Amber get drunk and then laughing hilarious at them in the morning) had probably gotten me in better standing. Except with the local mares, with whom I flirted shamelessly when I was drunk, or so Azure said (he also said that I’m an idiot, but I don’t believe him). If that was true, it was probably time to stop drinking.

I haven’t thought about Earth much recently. I suppose that, since there is little chance of me getting back (Azure confirmed that the little dot I saw of the portal was there because the spell was winding down, not because it was just closing for a moment), my mind was trying its best to ignore it. I didn’t really mind. As long as I felt a minimal drive to do something, I was fine. Right now, this night, it was sleep.

I closed my eyes, slowly drifting off into my sleep.

I woke up to the blackness of night. I groaned and looked at the clock, noting that it was midnight.

“Great,” I said. “Four hours of sleep and I’m up.”

Having nothing else to do, I simply turned the light off and stared at the ceiling. It must have been around ten minutes later when I heard the front door open. Curious as to why Azure or Amber would be up at this time of night, I turned on my light and got out of the bed. I heard hesitant hoofsteps coming up the stairs, slowly, when I realized something: Azure and Amber had gone to bed even before me.

The steps were coming slowly now, stopping suddenly in front of my door. I slowly reached down for my pack and grabbed my knife, pulling it out of its sheath. Suddenly, the door burst open, and I caught sight of a green pegasus launching towards me. I dove to the side and pulled up my knife, putting myself in an ideal position to strike as the pegasus struck the wall where I had just been.

I kicked out, catching the stunned pegasus as he fell. I quickly got up and came down on it, keeping a hand on its back and pressing the knife to the back of its throat. He stopped suddenly, feeling the knife most likely. Seconds later, a disheveled pair of pegasi burst through the door.

“Tyler!” Azure said, catching sight of the pegasus. “What happened?”

“I heard the door open, and him creeping up the stairs. Then he burst in and tried to tackle me. Isn’t that right?” I asked rhetorically, pressing the knife against him. He shook slightly in my grip.

“I’ll call the guard and get him interrogated.” Amber said.

I held up a hand. “Wait, I want to do this.”

I turned to the pegasus and pressed the blade of my knife to his throat. “Talk. Who told you to do this?”

“I don’t know: I only know that I was supposed to bring you to the warehouse on 5th and 10th!”

I looked up at Amber and Azure. “That’s one fuckin block away. Amber, call the guard. Azure, after they get here, we’re going to do a bit of housecleaning.”

Azure smiled a bit, and looked down at the pegasus as Amber rushed away. “Buddy, you’d best be glad you’re not going to be in that warehouse when we get there.”

Ten minutes later, with the attempted kidnapper taken away, I grabbed my G-17C and my knife, sliding the knife sheath into my belt, and putting the holster on it. I was ready.

Azure and I quickly exited the house, the guards trailing us. We went north a block, before turning west. One block further, 10th street met 5th street. There were two warehouses in this intersection, but only one of them had light going out of the window. Azure and I quickly walked to the door, with me motioning to get on either side of it. The guards trailing us finally caught up, standing against the wall.

I turned my head towards the captain and asked my question. “Can we go in alone?”

The captain shrugged his shoulders, how I do not know. “Sure. We’ll be waiting outside.”

“Don’t come in if you hear bangs. That’ll be us thinning out their numbers. I hope you don’t mind.” I said.

“I don’t care. It’s less paperwork I need to do, and less ponies I have to put in the jail.”

Well, at least someone here has the right attitude. I looked over at Azure, noting he was ready. “Azure, on three. One.”

“Two.” He said.

“Three!” We both said together, with Azure turning around and giving the door a solid buck. I rushed in, the pistol extended in front of me, both of my hands gripped around it, finger ready to move and pull the trigger. The entire warehouse must have been filled with boxes, because a single path led through the tall crates to our right.

“This is the guard! Surrender immediately!” Azure shouted out.

Far from surrendering, two unicorns came from behind the turn in front of us. They each had a crossbow in a magical grip. One of them fired it, the bolt zooming past us and imbedding in a box near the entrance. I raised my pistol, aiming down the sight and lining up on the unicorn who fired. I pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

The shot echoed through the building as the unicorn collapsed, its face a complete mess. I lined up with the second unicorn as it aimed its crossbow.

*BANG*

The shot caught it at the front of its chest, passing through most of its body, and the associated organs, before stopping. The unicorn instantly collapsed, dead. Azure and I rushed past, turning the corner.

Azure instantly took flight to meet a pegasus that was charging at us. They collided, with Azure on top, and both tumbled to the ground. The other pegasus tried to stab Azure with a knife it awkwardly held in its hoof, while Azure simply brushed the foreleg aside and delivered a solid buck to its chest, knocking it back and towards me. I kicked out, catching it in the head and knocking it out. We left it behind us for the guards to take in, when they did.

We turned a 180 degree corner, finding ourselves in a massive room in the center of the warehouse. Seven ponies, three obviously armed and four not, stood around it. The armed ones, unicorns, instantly started to raise crossbows. I went down on one knee, still partially behind the corner, aiming with my G-17C.

*BANG* *BANG*

Two of the unicorns standing by one another went down, both of them shot through the chest. I didn’t have the time to made head shots, not anymore. The last one fired off a bolt, the metal projectile imbedding itself in the wood behind us, missing Azure and I by around two feet.

I aimed down the sight, and fired two shots at the unicorn. One impacted behind it and another in its chest, the unicorn dropping its crossbow and falling to the ground. The other four unicorns simply stood there, paralyzed with fear.

“Don’t move!” I said, walking forward while Azure went off to call in the guards. “Who’s the leader here?”

Three of the unicorns pointed to a fourth.

“Alright, why are you here?”

The unicorn mare fumbled for a moment before answering. “Uh… W- We were h- here to teleport y- you to our bosses’ headquarters.”

I cocked my head. “Oh, and where would that be?”

“We don’t know!” The unicorn franticly said. “We were just given a set of Thaumic coordinates to teleport you to! We don’t know where!”

I smiled. “I guess the guard will have to find out.”

Ten seconds later, half a dozen guards rushed in. Ignoring the dead bodies, they apprehended the four unicorns and led them out. The captain of the guard walked over to one of the corpses and poked at the crossbow.

“Something on your mind?” I asked. He, at least, had proved to be neither an asshole nor annoying.

He turned towards me, a frown on his face. “These are crossbows. We’ve heard of them, but they’re supposed to be just going into production at Baltimare. There aren’t supposed to be any at this point outside of Canterlot or one of the big cities.”

“Then how did it get here?” I said, asking the obvious question, to which he shook his head.