The Equestrian Hitcher

Chapter 4:

Wanted

"That's a big hole." Big Macintosh commented dryly as he climbed out of the car. He wasn't wrong.

"You are not wrong." Shining added with a whistle as he looked at the crater where the house used to be.

It was clean, far too clean. There were still parts of the house standing when I'd last been here, there had still been the slab the house had been built on, but this? Everything was gone, the pipes, the slab, the debris. "Somebody cleaned this up... or should I say somepony?" I asked with a look towards my present companions.

"It wasn't E.S.S. I've have heard about it," Shining dismissed with a wave of his hoof as he stepped up the remaining sidewalk towards the edge of the pit.

"Who else has the juice to pull off this kind of cleanup? It had to be ponies, we don't have the tech to pull this off this fast, there's no sign of heavy machinery here either," I added as I walked along the front edge of the pit. I looked over the edge, about six feet deep, and perfectly the perimeter of of the house, as if somebody just scooped it right out of the ground.

"There was something here we're not supposed to find," Shining said offhandedly, "This kind of cleanup though..."

"We're dealing with some really heavy hitters here, I can't imagine this would be easy for anyone, even a powerful unicorn," I added. Something about the situation was nagging at me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. A twitch on the back of my neck.

"Nobody thought It was strange? Where are the police, did no one call this in?" Shining asked as he pulled a ball of dirt out of the pit. His eyes narrowed as he examined the dirt floating in front of him. To me it was just a ball of red clay but--

I felt that twinge in the back of my neck again, my eyes snapped back and forth across my field of vision, something was... watching me? Big Mac said something, I wasn't listening anymore, that feeling was so strong. I turned my head to the east, past the Skylark, it was stronger in that direction, the muscles in my neck were twitching.

Palms were sweaty, hair was standing on end, I could feel my heart pounding, fight or flight response, every part of me was ready to spring into action, I could feel the imminent threat but what was it? Hands started to twitch, I could feel time slowing down, my eyes kept scanning.

A flash of light on a roof top, my body sprang into motion. My right hand went under my coat as my feet kicked off the ground, I felt the grip of the pistol in the palm of my hand as I drew the weapon in slow motion. I felt my foot impact the ground, I was moving as fast as I could, the flash was maybe six hundred yards out, not enough time, never enough time...

The pistol in my hand barked out three shots in the direction of the flash, my other foot hit the ground and started to push off, my eyes flicked over towards the direction I was moving; Shining Armor still stood at the edge of the hole, but he'd dropped the dirt, his eyes were wide, his head was turning towards me. His horn was glowing.

Ten feet left, I saw the spray of blood off his shoulder, it was a glancing hit, he started to stumble. I fired three more shots in the direction of the flash, dropped my shoulder, and kicked off my next step. I felt the thud of impact as I barreled into his side, felt all of the air rush out of my lungs as we both started to go over the edge of the pit.

Time returned to normal as we hit the dirt. I bounced off of the unicorn and landed on my back, he rolled with the landing and ended up back on his hooves, the blood was running down his left foreleg, but he seemed to be ignoring it.

"Where did it come from!?" He yelled as he stared down at me, his eyes were wide, his expression was one of unrestrained fury. He'd been shot, that was enough to make anyone angry but this... there was more to it than that.

I pointed my finger towards the east as another shot kicked up dirt on the edge of the pit, "Six hundred yards that way, top of the book store it looked like!" My neck was still tingling, heart still pounding, I'd never felt like that before.

Shining nodded and then disappeared with the sound of a whip crack and a flash of light, I could smell ozone on the air. He'd teleported right in front of me, I knew it was possible but I'd never seen it in person. It was serious high level unicorn stuff.

The gunfire stopped almost immediately and I vaulted the edge of the pit back up to street level. Big Mac was crouched low and pressed against the side of the car, using it as a shield, he looked at me questioningly; I pointed down the road at the book store.

"Watch out!" Pinkie yelled in my mind suddenly. I started to turn my head as the changes started, I felt the fur springing up out of my skin, and then the switchover happened. Well, I'd been planning to tell Shiny and Mac about it eventually anyway, right?

~~

I couldn't see, couldn't think, but I could feel. Everything felt... wrong, physically distorted, the last time she'd done this I was completely out of it but this time it was different. There was fear but also determination. I was a passenger in my own body, if... it was even just my body anymore.

My mind was cloudy but I could still grasp some concepts still drifted through, there was a sense of urgency but also purpose?

Feeling rushed back to me, my senses returned to me, like I'd been launched back into reality out of a slingshot. I hit the ground in a roll, my jacket protected my skin but the wind still got knocked out of my lungs.

My eyes snapped to the roof across the street, I knew where I had to look almost instinctively. The trunk of the car was open, I didn't know when that had happened but I knew the contents, another bit of information that I didn't know how I had. Did I know everything Pinkie had seen when she took over?

"Shiny!" I barked out, already moving again, heading for more cover. I couldn't think, didn't have time to wonder; it was as if I already knew exactly what I had to do and was just going through the motions to make it happen.

"Catch!" he yelled back, I heard the telltale sound of unicorn magic, tasted the ozone in the air. I shot my arm up into the air and caught the strap, the weight was exactly what I was expecting. It was loaded. Good.

I sprinted towards the shed in front of me as more gunfire rang out, there had been more than one shooter. I should have known, should have been more careful but... with all that'd been going on I wasn't exactly been thinking straight.

I flipped the rifle around in my hands and unfolded the stock from the side. It was an AC-556, when my dad had acquired and why it was in his car was a good question for another day, for the moment I was simply thankful for the leg up.

I jerked the oprod back as another shot kicked up dirt next to my cover, the shooter was bound to get lucky sooner or later. I had to make sure he didn't have the chance. The bolt slid home with a satisfying click, I snapped the safety off with my index finger and rolled the fire selector to full auto.

It wouldn't be efficient, but if I could get him to put his head down, then just maybe...

I heard the car's engine roar, it was as if Shining had read my mind. I spun out from behind the shed and drew the rifle up to my shoulder and squeezed the trigger, a five round burst barked out of the barrel of the automatic rifle and peppered the shingles of the roof across the road, the shooter ducked behind the ridge cap.

I snapped the stock closed and ran for the car like the devil himself was chasing me. The back door was open and I dove in head first, my shoulder hit the cushion and I tasted ozone again, I heard the door click and the car lurch and stall.

I looked over the seat and was shocked to see not Shining Armor, but instead Big Macintosh in the driver's seat. How he'd shoehorned himself in, I couldn't figure out, but I didn't have time to wonder. I stuck the barrel of the rifle out the driver's side back window and squeezed off another burst to make the shooter keep his head down as the engine roared to life a second time.

This time the car lurched forward and then kept going with a squeal of the back tires, we opened up distance on the house rapidly as the big red pony clumsily caught second and then third gear. I looked back down the road the way we'd come as the car clumsily turned a corner, taking us out of the line of fire.

I wasn't sure what bothered me more, that the entire block turned into a firefight or that nobody seemed to care. Whatever was going on, it was certainly bigger than me, I'd never felt so out of my element. That I was alive at all was more easily attributed to something like supernatural luck than any actual ability, I was, at the end of the day, a cop, not a friggin navy seal.

But I was in this, for a penny or a pound, I just had to keep pushing till I came out the other side, come what may. I owed Pinkie Pie this, though why I felt that way I didn't know. Maybe... no, best not to think down those lines, she wouldn't have done such a thing anyway.

"I can't rightly say I know why that just happened but," Mac started as he looked at me in the rear view mirror, "when were you going to tell us that you're Pinkie Pie?"

I sighed and slumped back in the chair. Why was I Pinkie Pie? Well, I guess in light of everything that was the easier question to answer, so why not give it a shot. "I'm not exactly... I'm who I said I was. That house... or rather the crater that used to be a house, that's where I picked her up. They had done... something to her. I think, somehow, she was bound to me."

"That kind of magic is forbidden," Shining Armor said with an edge in his voice, "But... it gives me an idea of what they had in mind, what they have in mind, and if that's the case we need to hurry before the girls really are out of reach..."

I didn't really know what to say to that, but I could tell that it was deeply troubling the white unicorn, I put my hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture, he shook his head, "In light of that, however. I'm authorized to use any means necessary... even dark magics, if I have to."

"It's that bad?" I asked, still holding his shoulder.

"Imagine if a being of pure evil, and... to do this they would have to be the very definition of it... was able to get their hands on the power to reshape reality, to change anything or everything to what their idea of 'correct' was? This... This is as close as you could ever get to such a thing. That you found Pinkie in time... that may be our ace in the hole," he explained.

It was the 'Elements of Harmony' thing, I didn't entirely believe it but he seemed convinced, and he didn't seem like the type to put stock in voodoo, magic aside. "We'll get them back, all of them."

He nodded, "The first shooter, in his thoughts... I'm almost ashamed to admit what I did, but... I know where we need to go."

"Pull off here," I said suddenly, pointing towards a side road behind the local supermarket, Big Mac gave a non-committal grunt and downshifted the car, a bit less clumsily than fleeing the scene had been. Whatever Shining Armor wanted to tell me could wait, at least a little while.

I had to calm myself, I was smart enough to put a few things together at the very least. If they had wanted Pinkie, they knew I had her, and that meant they wanted me too. I'd put money on that being the reason they were trying to keep me in that hospital room.

I shook my head and looked up, the car had already stopped and Big Mac had gotten out. I realized Pinkie wasn't saying anything, switching places must really be taking it out of her. If she was even half as exhausted as I felt than it certainly made sense that she'd be quiet.

"So what have you got?" I asked the unicorn as I stepped out onto the hard-packed red dirt. My eyes lingered on the body of the car, surprised that it hadn't taken any hits. Then again, we'd been the targets, not the car.

"Reunion Tower. There was something important about that place," Shining Armor said with a shrug.

"That's it? I thought you read his mind or something," I complained. What kind of game was he playing?

"It's not exact, it's not like reading a book, there are... shades of meaning, colors, ideas. It's open to a lot of interpretation," he explained. "My sister would have been better at it than I am. Whatever is going on, that place is important to it."

I groaned and kicked at the dirt. Reunion Tower, if there was one place that I'd expect a cartoon villain to have his lair in Dallas, it would be there. So, it made some strange sense that with ponies involved it would take that kind of turn.

"We're on television," Big Macintosh commented.

I turned my head to look at the big red pony, his hoof was pointed up at an electronic billboard down the road, across from the gas station. Age, Species, Race, photos of all. We were wanted for questioning?

"We're in deep," I said dryly. "Wanted for questioning in the disappearance of national heroes? Why do I smell a setup?"

"Well, maybe we can blend in, go under cover, until we figure this thing out," Shining Armor offered. I was skeptical.

"An Asian, a Unicorn, and the biggest Earth Pony on the planet. Yeah, we blend in just fine," I muttered. "You know, they know I'm not stupid, putting my face up on that billboard means I'm going to ground, they had to know that."

"I've got an idea" Pinkie Pie said softly in my ear.

"So, you have a valid point," Shining Armor started, "Still--"

And he was silent, I could taste the cotton candy in my mouth again. The change was happening again, only thing time I wasn't blacking out. I felt my hands clenching into fists, felt the fur growing out of my skin, felt the ground getting closer.

"Well, that does count as a disguise."

Author's Note

So, happenings, etc.