//------------------------------// // Survival of the Fittest // Story: Stranded // by OConnerGT-R //------------------------------// Chapter Seven: Survival of the Fittest A makeshift rag was wrapped tightly around my hoof as I stepped back into the garage where I had left my stuff. Rage coursed through my veins so quickly that I could feel my blood boiling over with adrenaline soaked vengeance. Upon entering the room, I found Not Important still working on the car without a care in the world. “I’m taking my weapons back,” I spoke firmly and without question. “Care to tell me what’s wrong?” Not Important asked with some concern written on her face as I started holstering my weapons on my body. Part of me wanted to go into detail, but I didn’t have the time. For every second that passed I knew that it was a wasted moment that could be spent finding Brave Day, as well as hanging that stallion from a tree with his own balls shoved in his throat. “My sister was foalnapped,” I spat at her, only to catch myself after the fact. Taking a brief moment to calm myself, I focused on my bow, examining it for any signs of damage. As my mind straightened itself, I sat the bow on the table and explained everything. With a low sigh, Not Important levitated my makeshift weapons from their holsters and tossed them in the trashcan while she listened. I tried to stop her, clutching to the bow as best I could, but she gave me such a stern stare that I let go and backed off. Still staring at me, she opened one of the cabinets with her magic and levitated out a shotgun. For a moment, I was worried she was going to blow my head off, until she opened more cabinets and pulled out rifles, shotguns, and pistols of all kinds. “If you’re going to go after a hostile cannibal, you’re going to need more than toothpicks and a fishing line,” she muttered coldly, without a hint of remorse in her voice. As the weapons were set along the counter, each with a small clip of ammo, my jaw dropped. The Badlands was known to have deadly weapons, but deadly didn’t even come close to what I was seeing. “Take this one, it’s one of my favorites.” Not Important moved a fifty caliber pistol over to me then levitated a long sleek bow. Her bow made mine look like a store bought piece of crap a foal received on their birthday. “I don’t have any arrows to go with it, but that thing will stop a bear in its tracks, with what you got, and think twice before charging again.” I took the bow from her, pulling back the string a few times before truly giving it a good pull. Feeling the tension tug on my hoof, I let the string go and watched the bow jerk from the force. It was beautiful, almost as if it had been crafted by Princess Luna herself with Celestia blessing the very string that connected each end together. To shoot such a weapon had been one of the very few dreams to become a reality for me. The sudden realization that a complete stranger was helping me out washed over me. “Say, why are you helping me out anyway? You don’t even know me,” I stated with every ounce of remaining logic, as my mind clinged to the image of me ripping out the cannibal’s balls and feeding them to him. There was a slight smile tugging at the edge of her muzzle, but it was replaced with a calmer expression when she sighed. “What can I say, when I see a pony struggling with hardships, I can’t help but offer my hoof to them. No matter who they are or where they come from.” We both looked out the window as a flash of lightning struck something off in the distance. We shared a long moment of silence together as I geared up, holstering the fifty caliber pistol as good as it would fit. I held onto the bow for a moment longer before strapping it to my side. It began to sprinkle against the window, each droplet sending out a loud “rap,” as I strapped another holster to my body for the sawed-off double barrel shotgun. Not Important stared out the garage tossing up a pair of keys in her levitation field. “There’s going to be one hell of a storm tonight,” she muttered almost to herself. “You can say that again,” I said to her while getting ready to put my tracking skills to work. I had used these skills to hunt ponies a few times, but the most memorable event was when Brave had tried to run away from home. It didn’t take long to find her attempting to break into a car at a poorly secured impound lot. Her magic slowly brought the keys to her hoof, then Not Important gave them to me. I paused for a moment, thinking that this was some kind of joke. She smiled at me then pointed at the road just outside the window. “Follow that road. You’ll find Soothing’s cabin just off a branching path not too far from here near a hunting goods store. Can’t miss it.” There weren’t any words I could use to describe how grateful I was. This pony was my savior sent by Celestia herself, at least, that’s what I was going to tell myself. “Thanks. What are you going to do?” Silence fell on the mare again. Each of the weapons that I hadn’t taken from her were levitated back into their holsters before they were all strapped around Not Important. “The weather should clear up soon, hopefully. I can use my boat to get in touch with the local law enforcement on the other islands a few miles out, I know a pony that owes me a favor so that shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll get you the rescue you need then you can get on with your life.” A frown formed on her face, but her calm expression returned shortly after. Before I could ask another question, she galloped off. I turned back to the Corvette with a smile on my face. It was as beautiful as the bow hanging on my side. The only thing that could have made this moment better was if it were that classic Stingray I took for a joy ride. I pulled the door open, checking out the roll cage, which I noted could take massive punishment from a roll, maybe even take a large truck dropping on top of it and still be usable. After all, an off road vehicle was supposed to be put through hell and expected to keep on going. “Let’s ride,” I said as the engine started up with a whine. *** *** Turing the engine off, I heard a timber wolf howl overtop the screaming wind. I couldn’t tell how close it was, but for its sake it better not have been close. I stepped out of the corvette, feeling the rain sprinkle down on me with an icy cold touch as my hoof felt each holster making sure everything was strapped tightly to me. Each step I took towards the front door sounded like thunder in its own right. When I stood before the door, my heart beating strong, I gave it a swift knock. No answer. I knocked again, harder this time. Still no answer. The doorknob jiggled as I tried to open it, but the door wouldn’t open. “Alright, fine, have it your way.” I slid into my transparency spell, viewing each lock’s mechanism. Focusing as best I could, I telekinetically began twisting each lock until each one let out a gentle clicking sound. It didn’t take long for me to show myself in. My shotgun levitated up next to me, going in first to strike fear into whomever was waiting on the other side. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anypony inside waiting for me. Instead I walked into a dimly lit den whose only light source was from a roaring fire. The decor around me made me want to puke. Ponies should never hunt unless they were forced to, but from the looks of this place, Soothing hunted animals on a regular basis. All around the room were various heads belonging to different animals, some of which were admittedly impressive. I found myself admiring his ability to take down a bug bear as well as a hydra—but—this was for sport, not defense. Each head was hung up like a trophy for the world to see. “You sick bastard,” I muttered coldly to myself. I was relieved to discover that Brave’s head wasn’t hanging near what resembled various pony skulls. Walking around a bit more, my hoof brushed up against a light switch to a pair of deer antlers that served as a chandelier, allowing me to see every single trophy hanging. The light also made another door and hallway visible in the room. Passing through the door, I stepped into the next room, and found a rather large fridge positioned next to a small table. Without a second thought, I opened it. Meat piles stacked upon meat piles, each slowly dripping with blood, littered most of the inside, which only served to make a chill run up my spine. Then, I recalled what Soothing had said. “It was…fish…right,” I muttered quietly. When my brain made the connection to what I might have eaten, my hoof knocked the table back as my insides hurled themselves into the closest trashcan I could find. Once I finished, I walked back into the den noting the place was still empty, but then I noticed another door in the the hallway, just shy of the den. It was easy to miss, but when I opened it, it lead straight down. Before I descended, I noticed a thick padding on the other side of door that was also on the staircase walls. The first thought that came to mind was that I was going down into a freezer and it seemed that way when I went down with large carcasses of cows piled up on top of each other. With a lack of cold air it was clear it didn’t seem the case. I hid next to the carcasses, doing my best not to hurl at their horrendous smell, thankfully, my insides had already been thrown out for the night. A low screech caught my attention causing my ear to twitch in its direction. Crouching down, I moved behind the large tables that stretched over to a staircase leading up to what I assumed was the kitchen. Every little movement I made felt like a symphony being played for all of Canterlot to hear. It was at this moment that I desperately wished for Not Important’s ability to sneak up on somepony. “Hmm,” echoed a familiar mad pony’s voice. “Perfect.” A few of the tables were obscured with cloths hanging from them, which were dark enough to hide behind. I moved under the table, taking cover, while quietly sliding into a transparence spell to see through the cloth. I watched as Soothing set down several large sets of knives near a grinding stone. “I’ll be back for you,” Soothing cooed to my sister who was tangled up in chains hanging her from the ceiling, causing my heart skipped a beat causing the spell to fade away. At the heart-stopping sight of my sister hanging there, I almost missed the cannibal walking up the stairs to the kitchen. Once I was sure he was gone, I bolted from under the table, my heart racing faster than any car I had ever driven. “Brave…” I muttered to her. My hoof went right to her forehead, feeling for any signs of a fever. Thankfully, she was no longer burning up, but she was unconscious. Next to her were a few different bottles of medicine. “I guess even a cannibal doesn’t want to take the risk of catching what his prey has.” Hanging from the table was Brave’s combat knife, which I took along with its holster. My hoof ran along the chains, searching for something I could unlatch, but came up empty hoofed. From what I could tell the chains were locked in place with two padlocks that needed a key. Without having to look around too much, one sat next to the medicine. Placing the shotgun down I switched my focus on the key and shoved it inside one of the locks and turned. With a click the lock sprung open. “Thank Celestia,” I muttered to myself. Levitating the key into the last lock, I noticed the Rune Inhibitor placed around Brave’s horn with its all too familiar magical nulling rune. “Interesting that these damn Magic Tricks seem to find us when we are in trouble,” I muttered as I looked the rune over before removing it. “Not as interesting as having both you and your sister for dinner,” said the mad cannibal pony himself. His voice sent a large shiver down my spine, but it wasn’t enough to strike fear in me. Fear was dead to me now, the only thing his voice could do at this moment was push my rage further past its boiling point. I faced him, spotting the pistol pointed right at my head and took a side step in away from Brave as I went to pull the...trigger? The gun followed, moving its aim away from her while I remembered about putting the shotgun next to the medicine. I took note of the table he had put between us to keep a safe distance. We locked eyes as a wicked smile spread across his muzzle. I needed to buy some time. “What kind of a pony eats and hunts another for sport?” “Wouldn’t you do anything if it meant surviving, after all, that is why your sister is still alive, right?” His voice echoed around the room while I noticed my shotgun pointed mostly in his direction. He kept his eyes on me, never once allowing me to draw another weapon or even take hold of the shotgun. “Wouldn’t you eat another if you had to? Even if it was your sister?” His words stung me in my heart. I might be a killer, but I wasn’t a cannibal. “I would never kill my sister if it meant surviving. I would die by her side,” I growled at him as I worked on what I needed to do. A large creepy grin stretched across his bearded muzzle as if someone had told a sick joke that only he understood. His eyes met mine. “You know, I said the same thing about my step brother,” he said softly. Soothing eyed my sister, then me. “We used to do everything together, then one day we fell down a hole while rock climbing. Broke our radios with no other contact to the outside world. Wouldn’t you know it, the hole was so perfect we couldn’t climb out. So we waited,” he muttered coldly with his eyes on my sister. I looked over to the shotgun and tapped it enough to aim in his direction, before he turned his attention back to me. I had my plan. There was a pause. Soothing just stared out at us. “We waited but no help ever arrived. Then I figured that only one of us would make it out, so I did what anypony would do with a decently sized rock in their possession. I kept my stomach quiet,” his voice echoed around without a hint of sadness. “Eventually, a storm hit, and the hole filled with water letting me float right to some vines I could use to climb up.” I shook my head in frustration, anger ready to explode from my veins. There wasn’t a single word in the dictionary that could come close to describing the hatred coursing through me. “You turned on your kin, your family!” I yelled at him feeling the adrenaline pump in my veins. “That doesn’t excuse the fact you’ve eaten hundreds of other ponies.” The smile on his face never faltered. “Awfully quick to judge. How was the fish?” Soothing squeezed the trigger as I used my magic to flip the table over in front of him. I took hold of the shotgun, engulfing it in the magical field and discharged a round only to have it burst the table apart. His gun clattered to the ground as he scrambled up the stairs to the kitchen. He disappeared before I could finish him off. “Alright,” I said looking at Brave. “Let’s get you down.” Once I unlatched the last lock from the chains, I set her down making sure she hadn’t been shot by mistake. Relieved to find that she was okay, I scrambled up the stairs after the stallion and burst through the door taking me into the kitchen. A moment later a sharp pain shot through my stomach making me kick at nothing. I looked down to find a knife had been levitated into my side. As I pulled it out, Soothing swung at me from the other side of the door with a butcher’s knife. I rolled towards the table, avoiding the attack, but felt part of my tail get cut. Ignoring the pain from the wound with all the adrenaline pumping through me, I jumped onto the table, with my shotgun locked onto Soothing. I went to pull the trigger. Soothing sprawled to the ground, kicking one of the table’s legs so that it collapsed along with the entire table. I fell forward, hitting the ground as my shotgun clattered across the floor. Groaning out in pain, I scrambled back to all fours in time to eat a well-placed kick to my stomach that propelled me right through the door and into the den. My hoof shot to my side as it finally registered how hard I had been kicked. I let out a cough before spitting some blood on the ground. Rolling back onto all fours, I ducked a punch from the stallion, countering with a successful uppercut to his chin. I swung again, but missed as he took a step back to avoid me. Soothing rose up on one hoof, then kicked me square in the face, knocking me into one of the chairs that slid back until I hit the ground. I stood up. In another attempt to hit him, I swung a strong right hook, which he caught with one hoof before jabbing my throat. Stumbling back, I levitated out my pistol while I spat more blood out. The sight put a red dot right on his head. Soothing dove into the kitchen, telekinetically closing the door behind him, as I unleashed hell. I pulled the trigger five times letting each shot ring out before the bullets tore the door apart. The gun clattered to the ground once I was sure it had an empty clip. With two weapons left in my arsenal, I chose the high caliber bow as my next weapon, drawing back a makeshift arrow from my quiver. My hoof knocked the remaining portions of the door open, but there wasn’t a body to be found. Clip-clopping from a set of hooves drew my attention. As I turned, a butcher’s knife lodged itself into my shoulder while I let an arrow rip into the attacker. Soothing stumbled back with an arrow stuck in his shoulder. His hoof wrapped around it then pulled it out before throwing it in the fire. I ripped the butcher’s knife from my shoulder, noting that my bow had taken part of the impact serving as a shield. Thankfully, the attack had only done some damage, which meant I could still fight, however, blood still oozed down from my wound. The bow had only a large scratch across it. With long range no longer an option, I dropped my bow switching it out for my knife. I kept it levitated next to me while Soothing rubbed his head. It was then, I noticed his horn was broken. From the looks of it one of my bullets grazed his horn enough to break it. I swung my knife at him, but he ducked, delivering two quick powerful jabs to my stomach. I spun around, pushing the edge of the knife with my hoof to put more force behind it. Soothing ducked that too. He rose up on one hoof, then kicked me once again with his leg. I stumbled back into the wall, knocking a painting down. Pain rose up through my body as I found my knife shoved into my forehoof. I yelled out in pain as I kicked Soothing into the couch while I rolled to the kitchen door. Stumbling, I tried to get up, but felt a buck to my neck that knocked me against the doorframe. Soothing worked at pulling my shotgun over to us, his hoof was planted firmly down on my neck to keep me still. With what little magic he could actually use with a broken horn, Soothing lifted the shotgun up then aimed it right at my head. “Another trophy for my wall,” he muttered with his creepy smile. The gun went off. To our surprise, the barrel of the gun had lifted up at the last second, wrapped in a blue glow of magic. My attention was drawn to the exhausted looking mare standing next to us in between the doorframe. Brave cracked both her hooves. “Let’s kick his ass,” she said coldly before delivering a mean left hook to his jawline. I got up, slamming a quick two punch combo to his stomach. Soothing stumbled, letting the gun clatter to the ground, while he scooped up Brave’s knife. He swung at me, but Brave blocked the attack then used an uppercut against his muzzle. With her horn lit up, my sister telekinetically took the knife from the cannibal, leaving him defenseless. I slammed another two punch combo into Soothing’s rib cage as he went after Brave. When he went for me, Brave intercepted the attack before countering. My sister swung at him again, but missed, this time Soothing kicked me against the wall while arrows fell out of my quiver. Brave swung a punch, but missed as the stallion kicked her the same way he had kicked me. Once he was sure Brave was done for a moment, he levitated up my bow along with an arrow, then let it fly right into my shoulder. I stumbled back into the wall feeling lucky that Brave had tackled him just before the arrow was shot, otherwise it would have been a headshot. Blood dripped down from where the arrow hung. My breathing rate began to slow as my vision started to blur and the stab to my stomach became overwhelming. I could only watch while my sister continued to fight Soothing Tone one on one. To my fortune, she was holding her own, in fact she was doing better than that, she was kicking his ass. All I could make out now was Brave Day bringing her knife across Soothing’s face, leaving a nasty scar along his muzzle. Then all I could see was darkness. *** *** When I opened my eyes, wires had been draped over my body. I didn’t have a clue how they got there, nor the safety restraints holding me to the stretcher, but I was thankful for the oxygen they supplied to my battered body. I ran my right hoof, thankfully free of anything reading my vitals, over my body feeling several bandages covering my wounds. I turned to the sight of Brave Day staring off at something next to the helicopter we were in. Low beeps escaped from a machine next to me, which started to annoy me, but I didn’t say anything about it. Brave looked down at me with a tired smile as her hoof gently cleaned the blade of her knife until it was no longer coated in dried blood. She tossed the rag down. “Looks like it was my turn to take care of you this time,” she said with a chuckle. “You doing okay?” My voice didn’t want to speak. I, along with the rest of my body, didn’t want to do anything at the moment. With what strength I could muster up, I gave her a nod with a small smile. Something caught Brave’s attention and she began to leave, not before bumping my shoulder which made me wince. “Don’t get too comfortable,” she said with a wink then left the helicopter to talk to a pony in a police uniform. It was time to go. “You can do this,” I incomprehensibly muttered to myself quietly. Pain shot throughout my body as I rose up from the stretcher. The wave of nausea passed, then I went to carefully pulling off the wires and IV attached to me. As I stepped outside, I took a look around spotting all the cops and the keys to the Corvette on top of one of the machines. Without hesitating, I took them and placed them inside one of the holsters that had been removed before strapping the holster to my leg. Looking around again, I took in the sight of the house that we had fought valiantly in, well, that my sister fought bravely in. All I could recall was getting my ass kicked around by a more experienced hunter. Getting Brave’s attention, she quickly trotted over. “Took you long enough,” she said as we began to walk away from the chopper. “There’s pigs everywhere.” As we tried to leave a cop pulled us to the side. Brave began to curse but as the cop got closer I noticed she wasn’t wearing a badge, which I found odd. “You two should feel proud of yourselves,” said a familiar voice. I tried to get a look under the mares cap, but she pulled it down keeping her eyes covered. “I hear the Chief of Police in Canterlot wants to speak with you both about something important. You might want to hang around,” she said then tipped her hat. The mare started to walk off, but I wouldn’t let her go that easily, so I tugged her forehoof enough that I guided her to the Corvette, leaving some space between Brave and us. “So what’s with the getup, Not Important?” I asked with my worn voice as the mare in question raised her cap up just enough for me to see her eyes. She was surprised, but not unhappy. Not Important’s eyes scanned around with mine to make sure the cops were all doing their own thing. Most of them were too busy questioning Soothing Tone, who was strapped down to a chair, to notice us. “Let’s just say, I’m not a cop anymore, and it would be best that I leave before somepony notices I’ve been in the area.” She got ready to walk off, but stopped. “You did well, by the way. I took my stuff back, which, do you have any idea how difficult that was with all these cops around?” I chuckled with a nod. Oh, I knew about taking things back from cops, I understood where she was coming from. “Thanks for the weapons, listen if there’s anything I can ever do for you feel free to ask,” I said earnestly. “So…what’s your story.” Without taking a chance, Not Important looked around again, almost like clockwork, to ensure we were still alone. It was then that I could see her pistol strapped closely to her. “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me, plus I’d have to kill you or least bribe you to stay quiet,” was all she said before I blinked. When I opened my eyes, she was gone. I noticed somepony else ditching the cop outfit for something else a moment later, but when I went to pursue Brave nabbed me and began to pull me away. That was the strangest pony I had ever met, but I’d be damned if I was going to let something stop me from helping her if she needed it. I owed her a lot for preparing me for what was one of the toughest fights I had ever been in. “Brave, this is for you.” Reaching into my holster, I pulled out the keys and gave them to my sister. No words could describe the look on my sister's face when she found out I had given her the car of her dreams. *** *** The cops had stopped us in our escape attempt and once they found out who we were, and being in the state I was in, as well as Brave looking exhausted from the fight, we were in no place to fight back. They had kept us separate at the hospital until the doctors were sure we were fit to be questioned by the police. Once we were, the cops asked a series of questions, most of which involved the plane crash, and how we had survived on the island for as long as we had. Brave told them everything, I wasn’t in the mood to give them the information, which eventually got a salvage crew out to where our plane had sunk. There was a bright side though, because we led the cops to Soothing Tone, and that Brave didn’t kill the stallion, we were set free with a pardon, but given a warning to stay out of any more trouble. We were reminded that pardons weren’t easy to obtain and that if we went back to our old ways we would certainly be thrown in Tartarus. I stood outside the hospital alone, taking off the last of my bandages before throwing them right into the trash. Brave have bolted the moment they had set her free. I on the other hoof had to stay until my stomach had fully healed. I didn’t feel like talking to them just as much as the cops so I might have kept myself in longer than I had to. My only problem now was finding a ride to Canterlot. “Well, I guess I’m taking the train,” I spoke to nopony just as a red Corvette drove around the corner, coming to a stop right in front of me. The window rolled down to reveal my sister in the driver seat. I bent down and looked inside. The roll cage was still inside, but the exterior was modified so that her Corvette now resembled a street car rather than an off road vehicle. We made eye contact. “What the hell are you waiting for. Get in!” she yelled at me while revving the engine. I climbed inside the vehicle, unsure of why she was picking me up. “I thought you...how’d you know I was getting out today?” “Just because I wasn’t there doesn’t mean I can’t pick up a phone. Besides, I needed to get this bad boy ready to pick you up in.” I chuckled for a moment then became serious. “You do realize they offered us a job interview right. To work with the police force?” I questioned her very carefully. Brave rolled her eyes, obviously not wanting to take the interview. With a sigh, she shook her head. “Look, I’m never going to be a pig, but this is what you want and it’s a long way to Canterlot,” she said full of enthusiasm. “Humor me, please, now let’s get you there.” I smiled at her. “I love you, little sis.” “Love you too big sister best friend for life,” Brave said while nudging me.