Chapter Six: Everything Happens for a Reason
The number of storms passing over the island, back to back, made gathering medicinal herbs so difficult I almost started to pull hair from my mane. Not that there were many recognizable herbs I noticed in the first place. Without being able to reach our campsite in time, a storm had ripped through the island sending everything we had worked on right back to the ocean. Thankfully, I had tied down the chest, as well as made sure to pack it with enough bottled water and food to last a few more days if needed. Unfortunately, everything else had been washed away, along with most of the medication that could have helped my sister.
Brave had broken out into a fever, which was determined to stick around no matter how many remedies I used, because of this I had lost track of time, and I was running low on options I could choose from to help her.
Outside the cave that I had stumbled upon in my search for herbs, now our new home, another storm continued to thrash about. I kept a small fire going, every so often poking it then checking on my sister every couple minutes like clockwork. Eventually, the wind began to die down, little by little. Soon I’d be able to go back out.
Checking our supplies again, I found that our salvaged medical provisions were nearly gone. The herbs might not have done anything for her, but the fever reducing meds were. Without hesitation I left a cool makeshift rag over Brave’s head before gearing up. Lucky for me the storm had become nothing more than a light drizzle. “Don’t go anywhere,” I commanded to a sleeping Brave. I galloped to the cave entrance then looked back at her. “I’m serious. You need to humor your big sister this time.”
*** ***
The clouds disappeared during my walk to find a town, or at the very least an abandoned boat house, or maybe even somepony willing to offer me a hoof. After all, my sister said she heard gunshots. Not to mention the shack and water tower. At this point I would have settled for anything. It was at that moment I arrived near a small pony-made fire pit with several…what I assumed…were fish guts cooking above the flames.
A stallion poked some of the burning wood with a stick making the fire crackle. He looked up at me, but didn’t seem to flinch at the sight of my weapons. I would have thought that the gun would have made him flinch a little, even without knowing there weren’t any bullets left.
“Care to take a seat?” he asked with a tone so soothing it was more than a bit unsettling. “Soothing Tone, nice to meet you, miss.”
I hesitated for a moment. In all this time being out here neither me nor my sister had seen any other pony on the island. This stallion didn’t strike me as threatening, at least not as threatening as what I had previously seen since arriving here, but I felt—odd. “Starry Night,” I stated while calmly taking a seat on a log. I set my stuff down next to me, making sure to keep part of my attention on the bag.
Thunder rumbled above us making me look up. The sky was still clear. As I noted this, my stomach growled. My eyes wandered back to the fish guts cooking on the fire.
Soothing pointed a hoof towards the fish. “Take some,” he offered. “I’ve got more than I need.”
My hoof wrapped around the stick and before I knew it I was ripping a chunk of whatever-it-was without even thinking. It tasted…not right. This didn’t stop me from eating though. “Funniest tasting fish I’ve ever had,” I commented while letting my eyes wander around a bit.
Soothing poked the fire a bit more making it crackle a few times. His gaze fell on me, “It’s not from around here.” That much was certain, but I didn’t ask too many questions about it, my stomach didn’t care. We locked gazes for a moment. “Where did you learn what fish taste like, not many ponies I run into have an interest in it?”
For a hiker, notably out in the middle of nowhere, he asked very few questions. Something about the way he talked though, no matter how soothing it was, didn’t sit right with me. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I started to think that might have been the fish. “My grandfather, he used to take my sister and me out hunting in the Everfree,” I stated bluntly. My eyes wandered down to his cutie mark, which depicted a pony skull.
The stallion kept his gaze on me, never once blinking, just staring. I didn’t blame him, after all I did have several weapons strapped to me. “The weapons, what are they for?” he asked curiously. “You from that town out near the edge of the mountain?”
My eyes went down to the gun, crossbow, and bow I had strapped to my backpack. After thinking about the makeshift weapons, I had to admit that your everyday hiker from what sounded like a nearby town probably didn’t bring these along. “No, I’m not. I live in the forest and from time to time I’ll make some extra weapons to keep me safe.” I had to be careful of what I said. My grandfather always said to never trust anyone but your own kin while out in the wilderness. “Can you point me towards the town? My sister needs some medicine.”
It didn’t take him long to explain where it was. Sadly, it would take me several hours on hoof to reach it without cutting through the forest. If it got me the help I needed then I’d risk leaving Brave on her own. I stood, dusting myself off. “Thanks. Keep yourself safe, you hear.”
“You sure you don’t want me to take you in my truck? My cabin isn’t far from here,” he offered me kindly, yet his words sent shivers up my spine. There wasn’t a part of me that wanted to stay around him any longer than I had to.
I had to think about his offer though. If it meant getting me closer to civilization sooner than it could be worth it, but after spending just a few minutes near this stallion I didn’t want to take a chance. I didn’t have a reason not to trust him, but I had learned that if a pony didn’t give me a reason to trust them that alone was reason enough not to. “No thanks, I’ll take the long way,” I said with a nod to reassure him I was fine.
He called out to me making me stop in my tracks as a low rumble of thunder went by. “Be careful out there, Starry. Crazy ponies live out here on this mountain, I fought off one the other day,” he warned with caution in his voice. “All kinds of crazies you can run into,” he mumbled as his gaze fell back onto the fire.
*** ***
Gray clouds filled the sky again, making me assume that this would be the norm if we stayed here, which I was not okay with. Each branch I stepped onto broke, causing my ear to twitch in a vain attempt to detect if there was a threat nearby. My senses were heightened to the point even the littlest sound set me on edge.
A small garage came into view, looking like it had seen better days compared to the town not far away from it, but then again it all looked like shit. The garage in particular had enough hail damage going through the structure I was surprised it hadn’t fallen apart.
My hooves picked up the pace, my mind racing with thoughts about medicine. As I got within a few pony lengths of the open garage door, I stopped. The sound of music, which hadn’t been echoing from inside before, gained my full undivided attention. I drew my bow, pulling an arrow back.
Peering inside, I could see a…a cherry red Corvette C5. Screwed up bumpers and fenders alike lay behind it with rust covering so much of it the original colors couldn’t be seen. My mouth slowly opened at the sight of seeing how much work had gone into rebuilding the car, I had only ever seen this kind of work done on an old school Stingray.
Thunder rolled again.
I put my bow away once I saw that the source of the music was a radio positioned by a large toolbox. Outside the dust tinted window, a flash of lightning went by while thunder shook the entire building...at least I passed it off as thunder once I realized the engine couldn't have made that sound without being on. “One island shouldn’t have this many storms,” I complained to nopony. I turned the radio off.
“Well what do you expect when this island has its own tropical subclimate,” said an unfamiliar voice that made me crouch down into an attack position with my bow still drawn. Searching for the speaker, my eyes locked with the floating barrel of a pistol pointed at my head. “The weather here is so unpredictable that even the pegasi can’t control it, kind of like the Everfree forest in Equestria.” The gun jestered upward and I didn’t argue. Holding the gun in a yellow levitation field, with gamboge colored eyes that matched, was a gray coated unicorn mare that now had me backed into a corner. “Put the bow down,” she ordered with an icy tone. Her gun barrel motioned for me to set it down on the counter.
I did just that. Then, I attempted to levitate my own gun, but felt something jab the back of my head. Slowly turning around, I saw the twin barrels belonging to a sawed off shotgun. I set all my weapons down on the counter along with my bag then backed away. It was only when I faced my attacker did I see that the pistol was a fifty caliber with a laser sight pointed right where my heart was.
“Are you a survivor from the plane crash,” I asked trying not to panic. This was the first time in a long time I had been jumped like this, like an animal, by another pony. Not to mention she hadn’t made a single sound until it was too late.
“Not important, but what is important is that you’re not a threat,” she said giving me a good look over, then letting out a sigh of relief. Every weapon that was pointed at me floated back up into the hiding places they came from, which were noticeably not the only ones she had lying around. “Sorry for the scare, I thought you were that stallion running around on the island, hunting who knows what fell out of that plane.”
My heart rate, which was beating rather fast, finally had slowed down. There was one thing I had to admit though, Soothing Tone was right, there definitely were crazy ponies on the island. Not that this mare was one, for some odd reason. I actually felt safe around her, which was more than likely due to her not blowing my head off.
She poked her head over the engine bay, inspecting the work that had gone into getting the corvette running again. A few hums escaped her muzzle while she silently stared down at what I was beginning to assume was her work. “Pass me that wrench, would you,” she asked pointing at the wrench sitting right by my weapons. “Were you on that plane? I thought I saw something drop out of it, but I was busy avoiding a bear.”
My hoof reached out to the tool, then moved it over to her. “So what’s your name?” I asked as I slowly began moving to my weapons.
“Not Important,” she muttered.
Low cranks from the wrench made my ear twitch a little. I ignored my weapons and walked over taking a look at the engine. It was beautiful. V8 with a centrifugal supercharger boasting at least four hundred horsepower. “It looks good, but what’s with the roll cage and tire setup,” I questioned noticing that each of those added a lot more weight to a car that would be better with less. Not that they didn’t look good on the car, just rather odd.
Not Important looked up at me, then at the car. Without so much as a word, she continued going about a few checks to make sure it was working properly. “This island used to be host to dozens of off road races. Ponies and griffons alike would come out here just to catch a glimpse of the insanity,” she said with the hint of a smile on her face. “But this place is home to its own insane weather, so naturally a storm became so violent it ripped every settlement right off the island and everypony just up and deserted it. Still is actually and makes for the perfect hiding place.”
“Wait, what do you mean this place is deserted?” I asked in a panic. Normally, I wouldn’t believe a pony I just met, let alone talking to them this much, but this mare didn’t give off a feeling of discomfort. “I just talked with a stallion and he said this place had medicine.”
Leaving the wrench on top of the engine, Not Important took a piece of paper and a pencil in her levitation field. It took her only a moment to make a crude drawing of a pony skull. “Was this his cutie mark,” she asked bluntly while I nodded. “This belongs to Soothing Tone, if you haven’t heard of him, he’s a cannibal that escaped from prison a few months ago. I guess he choose the right spot to hide out from the authorities.”
My heart slowly began to sink into depths that would make even the ocean curse at me. I didn’t cover my tracks, I led him right to my home. A cannibal nonetheless.
I got up, bolting into a panicked charge out the garage door without saying a word to the mare, who had unknowingly helped me figure out that my sister was in danger.
Tree branches broke from underneath me, one after another, leaving large scratches along my hooves until one inevitably left a fore oof bloodied up. Wind howled around me like a timber wolf stalking its prey. Each time it whipped past me my mane was sent into a frenzy around me.
Eventually, I ran into the cave, calling out my sister’s name over and over again until I came to where she was supposed to be sleeping. My heart violently ripped in two. She was defenseless. Easy prey to a hunter. “Brave Day!” I called out at the top of my lungs.