//------------------------------// // Family Sticks Together // Story: Stranded // by OConnerGT-R //------------------------------// Chapter Four: Family Sticks Together One good spell that morning was all it took to blow the pathetic lock right back into the ocean. “Wish I had known how easy that would have been yesterday,” I said to my sister who was finishing up a makeshift bow to go along with several arrows. I reached my hoofs inside to pull out a rather large pump. Carefully inspecting it, it read on the side: Solar Pump, let Celestia’s sunlight power your day. It apparently could also cleanse water with an added magical rune, which it so happen to have. “This could be useful if we can find a stream,” I thought to myself. Slow scrapes from Brave’s knife caught my attention. My gaze fell on the custom made bow that had been forged from strong bamboo. The craftsmanship was beautiful and no doubt had taken my sister a good deal of time to create. “This is for you,” she said with a smile. “I’m a better shot with a pistol, so you and your unparalleled bow skills can have that.” I hovered the bow close to my eyes, carefully eyeing it for any indications of weakness. I found none to my surprise. Carefully pulling back the string, I leaned my face away making sure it wouldn’t break right into my eyes. “It’s fantastic. Reminds me of that time I used the crossbow to headshot that snake through those bushes!” Both my sister and I busted out laughing. “That was so crazy! You jumped over the edge of that small cliff and nailed that son of bitch!” Brave slapped the sand next to her while she levitated me the arrows and bamboo quiver to go with it. They too were noticeably well made. I set the quiver down along with the bow before looking back into the chest. Inside, I also found a flare gun with three shots next to an enchantment that was used to make the chest unbearably heavy to anypony that did not possess the key. I remembered running into these kinds of chest back in the Badlands. The trick was to have something that wasn’t a pony to move them. They always managed to piss me off one way or another. “I’m going to hold on to this,” I stated as I pulled out the holster that accompanied the gun. What sat next to the holster caught my attention immediately. Reaching my hoof down back in, I pulled out a semi-automatic pistol with a six bullet clip, fully loaded. A huge smile stretched across Brave’s face. “That’s mine.” My sister’s enthusiasm for guns was more than enough of a reason for me to move it her direction. As she reached for it, I pulled it back. “What the hell, Starry?” I spoke sternly, “This is for emergencies only, you hear me.” Brave rolled her eyes as she reached inside the chest to grab the holster. Once it was tied around her leg tightly, she snatched the gun away. “Remember, we don’t know if there are any hostile ponies in the area. So use that wisely.” Brave scoffed as she levitated up a crossbow from behind a tree. “I got it,” she hissed. I didn’t like that, but I didn’t say anything about it. After all, Brave always had a problem with authority. Then again, so did I, at least when I was on the wrong side of the law. A loud clap of thunder shook me to my core. I looked over at Brave seeing she was looking slightly shocked too. “Where the hell did that...” I trailed off looking at the sky which had become dark very quickly. “Storms coming in.” “Thanks, Captain Obvious,” my sister mumbled jokingly. Her hooves pulled out a small radio from the chest, which sadly wasn’t the type to contact anypony. After she fiddled with it for a moment she managed to find a signal with some rather cheery music playing, which Brave turned off right away. “Ugh, Starry you can have this.” The rest of the chest was filled with a stash of those packaged nuts from our flight. I stashed the equipment back inside the chest, making sure to close it in case the weather got a little out of hoof. Staring at the pump for a few minutes gave me an interesting idea. “What if we hooked that up to a pipe system and led it back this way? Should filter out the salt. I bet there are a lot more bamboo trees around here for us to make pipes out of.” “Let’s get started then,” my sister said as she geared up as another clap of thunder crashed in the distance. “On second thought, let’s look for better shelter first.” *** *** We took a dirt path that lead us further up the mountain, but the further we walked into the forest the taller the trees got. Eventually, every tree top canopied over us so that only a few rays of light shone through. I had quietly begun questioning myself if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, which was beginning to annoy me. A boulder obscured our path along with the view of anything that might be hiding behind it. While I was climbing on top of it, my sister went around, passing me. “Hey,” she called up to me while I jumped down. “I’m going to take the lead now, besides you’re better at long range.” I pushed her back gently, taking the lead again. “No,” I retorted firmly. “I need you to back me up. That’s how we’ve always done this.” Brave tried to argue, but I cut her off. “End of discussion, Brave.” “No, not end of discussion. Ever since we got here you’ve been taking charge. Let me take over for a change, because honestly, I think you’re starting to feel a bit stressed.” My sister placed a hoof on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off. Walking ahead of me, she faced my gaze only for a brief moment while I walked ahead again. “Do as I say,” I commanded firmly. Brave stepped in front of my path, stopping me dead in my tracks. “Do as you say?” she questioned angrily. “We ain’t little fillies any more and this isn’t the Badlands. You can shove that over-protectiveness back where it came from.” I let out a quiet sigh, trying to keep a level head about this. It was becoming obvious to me that she wasn’t going to let me avoid this, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try. “Drop it, we need to find some shelter before that storm gets here,” I said while reasoning we had a hoofful of hours before the rain hit. “You’re doing it again!” Brave shouted making her horn spark up a little. I questioned that last sentence which only seemed to push my sister’s anger even further. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. You’re always treating me like some filly, then when I try to bring it up you just dismiss it!” I had to admit to myself that I had always taken the lead when it was just me and my sister. Usually, this was because of Brave’s brash nature getting us into trouble. At least with me, I could think through the situation better before resorting to the trigger. “Well, maybe if you didn’t go in guns blazing every time we had to get things done, I wouldn’t have to take over so often,” I spat back, sounding more irritated than I had meant to. Brave took a step back. From here, she began looking more and more like a ticking time bomb. “That has nothing to do with this and you know it! You don’t trust me enough,” she retorted with her horn wrapping itself in a small sheath of magic. “Yes, I prefer to use guns over words, but sometimes you have no choice! Starry, you slaughtered how many ponies that night?” “That night was situational!” I yelled back at her as my hoof punched the dirt. My instincts told me to hit her as hard as I could, but I refrained from it. “They would have killed you. I was left with no choice, Brave, where as you pull the trigger whenever you see fit without thinking of repercussions!” I paused, carefully thinking about the phone call I had received from that junkie. “Which, may I remind you, is the precise reason you got strapped to that chair, with a stupid Magic Trick ring on your horn, in the first place.” “Shut up!” Brave screamed, blistering fury blazing in her eyes, as her pistol levitated up at me. My eyes slowly fell to the barrel. “Just because I do things a little differently than you doesn’t mean you can take charge all the damn time!” I opened my mouth to speak, but Brave cut me off. “No, you listen to me, Starry Night, or so help me I will pull this trigger and give you a reason not to trust me,” she quietly mumbled to me, as I fixed my gaze on her. Brave paused. In that moment, I could recall playing chicken with Brave when we were fillies. We always settled things that way, but it always ended the same way, with my heart racing a hundred eighty miles an hour. Brave let out a deep breath. Once she was done taking a breather, her attention became focused solely on me. “All I want you to do is show me a little—” “Brave,” I warned cautiously as my eyes locked on to the long slithering body that we had been oblivious to for who knows how long. “No, don’t ‘Brave’ me! We are having this discussion now!” my sister shouted at me, forcing me to take a defensive step back. Our eyes met and I looked away to whatever was behind her. She paused for a moment then turned slowly to see what I was looking at. I telekinetically pulled my sister back towards me as the creature lunged forward, trying to constrict where Brave had previously been. “Take the shot!” I yelled at her in a state of panic. Without any time to think, I pulled her all the way back to me, aiming my sights on a shack not to far away and began to tow her. Pushing me away, Brave reached for something in her backpack. “It was never loaded,” Brave shouted with a hint of panic. “Never loaded! What the hell were you thinking!” I screamed back at her as the python whipped its tail, swiping Brave into a tree making her drop the clip and gun. Its eyes were focused on me now as it hissed. Levitating out my bow with three arrows, I drew them back, then let them fly with two successfully impaling its body. The snake recoiled but the attack only seemed to anger it further. “I was just trying to freak you out! You don’t ever trust me so I figured I’d give you a real reason not to!” Brave retorted back while fumbling for the clip. As she reached for the gun, the snake attacked, smacking her into the tree again. I groaned, taking a jump back as the snake got within striking distance. Continuing to move just outside of its range, I could feel my back hoof hit the moss covered metal of the shack as the python followed moving past Brave. “In the middle of a forest? Don’t you ever think things through? Having a conversation like this now was a bad idea!” A loud crack went off making me dive past a window. I rolled just as the snake brushed up against the side of the shack trying to bind me. Another loud crack went off. “You won’t ever let us have the talk!” Brave shouted back as her bullet punctured the window above me. The snake stopped its advances then looked at Brave. With a brief moment of freedom, I drew back another arrow. Taking a few steps back, my hoof broke a branch behind me. The snake's attention returned to me, but only for a moment as its gaze went briefly to the broken window. I looked at what was next to the open door and cursed at myself. “Damn it, we walked right over to its nest!” As the snake turned its focus back to me, I fired my arrow with a successful hit. The creature shook it off as I dove to the side. It turned and lunged. I dove again. As I began to dive once more I realized I was trapped inside a large circle that snake had lured me into. My horn lit up, creating an illusion of myself in the spot I dove from as the snake constricted, causing the illusion to evaporate with a “poof.” . “Do you trust me?” Brave asked as she aimed the pistol at the snake. “Now is not the time Brave!” I shouted back at her as I drew back three more arrows. With each passing second the snake slowly attempted to surround me again. It was becoming apparent to me that the adrenaline pumping through my veins might not be enough to save me this time. “Oh I think now is the perfect time,” Brave retorted as she fired an arrow from her crossbow into the snake's body. It hissed loudly, tearing its gaze from me to Brave. “I’ve got this.” The snake knocked me to the ground, going straight for my sister. I rolled back onto all fours, my bow armed with three more arrows. Each arrow flew through the air, but the snake’s agile movements only allowed me to get one successful shot. “Over here! I said, over here!” I shouted at the snake. It knocked Brave over, preparing to kill. I drew back another arrow this time letting it fly right into the side of its neck. The creature recoiled, allowing Brave to scamper away. “Yeah, come get some. Next time it’ll be right between the eyes,” I muttered coldly as I drew an arrow back while it turned to me, returning its attention fully on me now. Releasing the arrow, it lunged forward, twisting around the projectile and swept me off my hooves, as my magic imploded letting my weapon drop. I landed on top of its body, letting out a cough as it prepared to coil around my body. Frantically trying to roll off its back, I found that I couldn’t move. Instead, we were both trapped inside of two magic fields. I looked over at my sister to see she was doing everything she could to keep the creature from mangling me. Every ounce of her magic skill was poured onto us, barely keeping us apart as her horn sparked, the strain looking almost too unbearable as she moved over to us. In Brave’s mouth was her pistol. A loud crack screamed from the barrel. The snake’s body dropped like a stone in water as I was set down gently. It didn’t take long before Brave flung the dead snake, along with its eggs, back into the dense portion of the woods. “I really hate the woods,” I wheezed. Then it dawned on me that Brave had used three bullets from that gun, which we needed for emergencies. It took a moment before my lungs could handle the anger I wanted to voice. “I thought I told you to save that for emergencies!” my voice echoed around the woods. Brave slid the pistol into her holster, but only took her gaze away from me to roll her eyes. “You could be a little more thankful that I saved your life, maybe try ‘oh, thanks Brave for saving my life, it was either it or me,’ geez.” Once she was finished, my sister took a look at my bow, but returned it once she was sure there were no signs of damage.