//------------------------------// // Cannibals // Story: Fun Bug // by HJSDGCE //------------------------------// It was one hour before sunrise. Indigo and Saddy were just finishing packing up their supplies for the long journey to Appleloose. Saddy took off his bandages and replaced it with new ones. Indigo, on the other hoof, sharpened his wing blades while waiting for Saddy to finish up. Once they were finished, off the both set on their long journey through dangerous lands to reach the Resistance. Indigo carried Saddy for half an hour till they reach far enough from the city. They landed on a piece of land just a few miles from the edge of Manehattan. Once they took a little rest, they started on walking to Appleloosa. Indigo and Saddy had a little makeover just before they left. Saddy wore an ammo vest, with a black T-shirt under it. He carried a pink schoolbag with him to put all the necessary supplies. Inside, there were some medical supplies, some ammo and loose bullets, food and other materials in case they needed to use it. He still had a bandage wrapped around his forehead though. Indigo instead, wore a leather jacket with an undershirt. He carries a sling bag, filled with bottled water, some matches, a grind stone for his wing blades, and a picture with a frame, though the picture isn’t clearly seen. “You know, this is probably going to be a long walk for us, huh?” said Saddy. “Yeah, it is. But just imagine what we will be doing when we get there! We get to fight for the Resistance! A group of survivors waging war against the Pinkies! We get to shoot some pink beasts! And this time, we ain’t gonna be alone! We might actually SURVIVE!” shouted Indigo, proudly. “Yeah, but still…” Saddy paused. “What if they don’t take us? What if they decline our request to join?” “They’ll take us.” said Indigo. “They have too. The Resistance is the last hope for Equestria. They’re the only ones fighting to reclaim our home. They need all the help they can get.” “But what if we never get there? Never get to Appleloosa? That place is pretty far away… And were just walking there! We’ll probably reach there by two weeks! And the chances of us to survive out here for two weeks is really slim. With the Pinkies out there, the chances are even slimmer! We even only have food and water to last for 5 days!” panicked Saddy. “We’ll find food and water on the way. Besides, there are worst things than the Pinkies…” Indigo explained. “What could be worst than getting killed by Pinkies or dying of thirst and hunger?” asked Saddy. “Well, there are the cannibals…” Saddy looked at Indigo, his face filled with fear and sweat. Indigo looked at Saddy, seeing that his friend is extremely terrified. “But, we MIGHT not meet any cannibals at all!” said Indigo to Saddy, trying to calm his friend. They continued walking along, through the hazardous land, avoiding anything that moves, and shooting anything that is found hostile. At night, they would stop at somewhere that has shelter. Trees, broken buildings, even dig sites. As long as there is a roof above their heads, and no Pinkies or cannibals in sight, that’s where they would rest for the night. It has been 3 days since they left Manehattan. They got enough food and water to last them for 4 more days ever since they found that hidden storage under the broken house. They’re also lucky since they didn’t stumble upon any Pinkies or cannibals on their journey. But their luck started to change when… “Hey, look at that! There’s a garage over there! Let’s check it out!” suggested Indigo. “Woah! Wait! We can’t just go there like a bunch of filly scouts! What if there are…” Saddy paused, gulped and continued “Cannibals?!” said Saddy with a tiny eeep afterwards. “There isn’t going to be any cannibals.” said Indigo, reassuring his friend. “Besides, if there is going to be any, we’ll just shoot them.” “Yeah, like that will work.” Indigo had to drag Saddy to the garage since Saddy didn’t want to even be near there. When they reached the garage, Saddy was so terrified that he could have peed in his pants. If he had any pants, though. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” said Indigo, giving out a smile. Suddenly, a rattling sound came from inside the garage, scaring both Saddy and Indigo. Indigo leaped in fear into Saddy’s hooves, weeping in fear. “Speak for yourself.” Saddy teased. They slowly walked into the garage through the back door. Saddy cocked his gun, ready for firing and Indigo opened his wings, ready for slicing. They looked around, examining the room, trying to spot any hostiles. They then walked out of the garage through the front door, opening it and quiet as possible. They looked outside, moving their heads left to right. “Maybe they left?” suggested Saddy. “Nah, they wouldn’t leave just like that. They have to be around here somewhere.” Then, the rattling sound came again. This time, they knew exactly where it was. It was at the other side of the wall in front of them. They searched for an entrance, making a plan and when they were ready… “Shaka maka buey!” screamed Indigo out loud as he broke down the door, leaped through the air, ready for battle. Though, his scream made the strategy fail as a mysterious pony punched him right in the face, throwing Indigo across the room, breaking the wall he crashed into. Indigo fell out cold and Saddy rushed to his best friend’s side. The mysterious pony stood there, his face hidden with a cowl, his body blanketed with a cape, and his right hoof covered with leather straps. “Dude! You broke my friend’s face! You probably gave him brain damage as well!” said Saddy. “Well, he shouldn’t have tried to kill me while screaming a ridiculous war cry.” said the mysterious pony. “Besides, what are you wannabes doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” “We were on our way to Appleloosa. Why did you ask?” wondered Saddy. “Huh, I guess it’s your lucky day. I’m going to Appleloosa myself.” said the mysterious pony. “Wait, really?!” asked Saddy in surprise. “That means you can come with us! Awesome!” proclaimed Saddy. “Sorry, can’t do that.” said the mysterious pony. He then points at something with his left hoof. Saddy followed him to check on what he was pointing at. As Saddy looked closely, he saw something very familiar. “A jeep! I think it's a jeep. It might just be a modified car though.” Saddy went back into his mind while examining it. The mysterious pony nodded in agreement. It was a simple jeep. Like the ones they use in survival shows or going through thick forests. But this one was fortified. The body was covered with pieces of scrap metal, nailed and welded in place. The hood of the jeep was open, and for a good reason too. There was no engine in it, but there were advance technology and contraptions inside. At the back of the jeep, there was a mounted turret. It had three barrels, an ammo case, a small motor and other requirements of a shooting weapon. “Nice, isn’t it?” said the mysterious pony. “Yeah, I built it myself. The jeep was just the frame but everything else was built from scratch. Right now, it won’t move cause I don’t have the last part that I need to make it work.” “Well, what do you need then?” asked Saddy. “I need a very rare, energy core that can only be found at the Crystal Empire. But since the Fun Bug started, I suspect that it’s not there anymore. It was actually used to power sentry bots and cybernetic ponies built by the Crystal Laboratories.” “Oh! I know what it is! It’s a Crystallion Dynamo Core! Or CDC for short.” said Saddy out loud. The mysterious pony, now surprised, just nodded. “Good, then you know what I’m looking for. If you could find one for me, I’ll give you and your brain-damaged friend a free ride to Appleloosa.” said the mysterious pony. They both then shake hooves and Saddy went to Indigo, who is still unconscious, to tell him of his new plan. --------------- “WHAT?!” said Indigo furiously. “Yep, that’s what happened.” “DUDE! YOU CAN’T JUST MAKE DEALS WITH PONIES YOU BARELY KNOW! HOW CAN YOU EVEN TRUST HIM?!” “Well, I made a deal with you. And I didn’t trust you.” said Saddy. “That’s different! Besides, where are we even going to find this ‘core’ anyway? He said it himself! It’s pretty rare!” said Indigo. “We’ll find one. Besides, they’re usually found in sentry bots or cybernetic ponies. Those things can’t be that hard to find!” “They probably are! I mean, we live in a post-apocalyptic world! Where are we even going to find one of those?!” asked Indigo in distress. Saddy then pointed his hoof towards a tree. Indigo focused his eyes on it and saw something .They both went closer and examined the object. “Found one!” said Saddy happily. It was a broken sentry bot, stranded on the tree, hanging by its vines. Its hull torn apart and the wires inside, seen. The propeller was bented and the lens were still usable, but they didn’t need it. All the need was the CDC, which was linked on top of the sentry bot. Saddy gave Indigo his schoolbag and slowly climbed the tree with a small pocket knife in his teeth. He reached the top with ease and found himself a good spot to balance himself on the tree. “You know, I could have just flied up there!” shouted Indigo, making sure that Saddy heard him. Saddy just ignored him and crawled carefully, making sure he didn’t step on the wrong branch, and reached the sentry bot. He took his pocket knife and, with his left hoof, tried to slip it into an opening under the propeller. With his right hoof, he pulled the propeller upwards and, slowly opening the top cover of the sentry bot. “There it is…” said Saddy, proudly. It was the CDC, a cylinder-shaped power core, its casing made from reinforced fiberglass and titanium frame, inside having multiple metal wires made of copper and zinc, all going straight to the middle, a small but rather destructive energy crystal, packed into shaped by extremely large amounts of pressure that could break every centimeter of a femur from an earth pony’s legs. “What a beauty…” said Saddy. “What?! Did you say something?!” shouted Indigo. Saddy, again ignored Indigo, took the CDC from the sentry bot. He then drops his pocket knife, that nearly fell on Indigo, and slowly climbed down from the tree, his right hoof holding the CDC. He jumped from 4 feet and landed safely on the ground, with the CDC safe. “Tada!” said Saddy, as he showed the CDC to Indigo. “That’s what we’ve been looking for? A cylinder-thing? Well, that was a waste of time.” said Indigo, his face in disappointment. “Dude! This cylinder-thing has enough energy to power a 2-story building for 25 days! It’s really powerful!” said Saddy. “Not to mention unstable. This stuff was actually banned from 15 cities. And so was the sentry bots. They had to remodel the whole thing. What a waste of money…” “Well, good. I don’t want some flying cake with eyes following me around and is about to explode.” said Indigo. “Now lets get out of here before we run into more trouble.” “What trouble?” asked Saddy. “Well, like I said before, there are cannibals. And that guy you made friends with is probably a cannibal himself.” said Indigo. “Yeah, I don’t think he is. Besides, if he was, he would have eaten you when you were in a comma.” teased Saddy. “What’s this? A sudden bravery against cannibals? Wow! I’m quite surprised!” said Indigo, sarcastically. “Oh, shut up.” said Saddy with a frownish smug. The duo had a short laugh, then carried on to the garage, with the CDC in Saddy’s schoolbag. Then silence broke in. They looked from afar and saw a young mare, in crutches, lying on the hot, burning land. “Hey, we should help her.” said Saddy. “Dude! What is with you and helping strangers in the middle of nowhere during a post-apocalypse event?!” Saddy ignored, again, and went to help the mare. He ran straight to the mare, ignoring everything around him. He then grabbed the mare and lifted her, and went on walking while only using two legs. The mare was asleep, or out cold. But he wouldn’t care. He kept on walking, while carrying her and the CDC. HE walked passed Indigo, his face expressionless. “You know, you look just like one of those heroes in the movies.” Indigo complimented. Saddy, with the mare and CDC, and Indigo, then walked back. As they walked back, the lens of the sentry bot started to move. It zoomed in towards Saddy and Indigo, focusing on them. Meanwhile, in Canterlot’s Castle Dungeons… “Huh, it seems that even thieves have hearts. Except that they have no brains. Stupid enough to not know that was a trap. Ha! I guess my kind is doomed after all. Oh well! At least it’s not my fault! HAHAHAHAHA!...” Back at the garage… “Finally! We made it back here! And not a scratch at all! Dude, we’re the luckiest ponies ever.” claimed Indigo. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Hey Indigo, could you find me anything that’s soft around here? I need to put here someplace.” asked Saddy. Indigo went into the garage and searched through the boxes and containers. He then found a few soft objects that can be used as a bed; a blanket, a half-torn pillow and a whoopee cushion. He went back to Saddy with the objects and dropped them on the ground. “Will these do?” asked Indigo. Saddy nodded and they both carried it to a better and more spacious area, where Saddy then placed the soft object carefully on the ground, except for the whoopee cushion which he just throws away, despite arguing with Indigo. Saddy placed the mare on the soft object and laid rest on the concrete floor. “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” said Saddy, giving a small smile. “Well, she still might be a cannibal. I say, we shoot her head in her sleep.” suggested Indigo. “What?! No! NOO! JUST NO! DEAR CELESTIA, NO!” shouted Saddy. “We are not murderers. We are sane stallions. And killing one makes us lose our sanity.” “Where did you get that theory? Nopony loses their sanity by killing ponies.” said Indigo in disapproval. Saddy looked at the sleeping mare, ignoring Indigo again. He carefully examined her. She had a long, brown mane with a yellow body color. Her cutie mark looked like a dissected frog, so Saddy could have guessed she’s good with anatomy. Her right hind leg was broken, which would be the reason the crutches were there. On her right eye was a scar, more like a burn mark, covered her eye, having no hair there at all. She slept soundly for a while until she woke up, her face scared. “Woo!” screamed Indigo. “She’s awake! Hurray! That’s good right?” “Yeah, it’s good I guess.” said Saddy. “Could you go find that mysterious pony? We already have the CDC for his jeep.” Indigo gave a salute and left, searching for the mysterious pony that punched him in the face across the room till the wall broke. Saddy stayed with the scared mare and tried to calm her down. “Its OK… I’m a friend… I can help you…” whispered Saddy. But before he could say anymore, the mare got up, despite her injuries, and grabbed a nearby kitchen knife from the shelf. She swings the knife at Saddy but misses, as Saddy was fast enough to see that. She swings again but this time, Saddy caught her hoof and held it tight. “Im not going to hurt… You can trust me…” She desperately tried to escape, mocking Saddy in a language he had never heard of before, but failed to free herself. She gave up, fell on her hind legs with Saddy holding her hoof. He let go of her hoof, but took the knife from her. “See, that wasn’t so bad…” said Saddy. Just after that, a window broke and a dart was hit on Saddy’s neck. “What the heck?!” said Saddy, as he pulls out the dart. “What’s going on?...” Saddy walked slowly to the mare, his vision blurring and fell down to the ground. He desperately tries to stand up, but to no avail. He sees his friend entering the room, screaming something, but was then also shot by a dart. Saddy fainted on the cold, hard ground, with the yellow mare as the last thing he saw. --------------- Saddy woke up, not knowing where he is, and not knowing the sounds he’s hearing. He looked around and saw ponies with masks dancing around him. He saw his pink schoolbag at the side with Indigo’s sling bag. At the back, he saw an old gray pegasus, his mane green in color, sitting on a throne which seems to be made of white twigs, drinking some soup. Or that’s what he thought at first. “Oh no… Cannibals…” said Saddy. Saddy tried to move but he couldn’t. He was tied to a wooden pole, with his friend Indigo, still fainted from the dart poison. Under the pole was a bonfire, as he would have known that they would cook them first. Around the bonfire were canisters, probably filled with oil, as it seems that the bonfire was strong enough to reach them. Indigo then woke up, still not knowing what’s going on. “Huh… Where am I?” said Indigo, still half asleep. “What’s that smell? Hmm… It smells so good…” “It’s us, dude. We’re being cooked alive.” said Saddy. “Huh? What?” said Indigo in confusion. “Wait, what?! We’re being cooked alive?!” Indigo went on screaming like a little filly, begging for mercy and praying for Princess Celestia to save him. The cannibals all laughed at him, teasing the princess, and saying that he will be cooked to perfection. Both Saddy and Indigo tried to escape, but the ropes were too tight, and Indigo’s wing blades seem to have been taken off and now being used as a large kitchen knife. “Why are you doing this?” asked Saddy. The cannibals then laughed but was shunned to silence by the old gray pegasus, who lifted his hoof as everypony obeyed. He then slowly walked to Saddy and Indigo, with the help of another pony holding him up. He then sat down on the cold sand and spoke; “We're cannibals.” "You don't say?" All the cannibals cheered at him, their spears held up high. “But you don’t have to do this. We’re all ponies. And ponies eat vegetables, such as carrots, long beans, tomatoes and broccoli.” said Saddy. “Especially broccoli.” replied Indigo. The cannibals went around, their faces filled with disgust, booing them and throw rocks. “Look around you, the world we all use to know is gone. Everything is gone. Some must die for others. As for you, you will die for our kind to live longer. It is a sacrifice we must take.” said the old pegasus. “But no worries, we won’t start with you. We will start with her” He pointed his hoof to the young mare that Saddy saved. The cannibals then dragged the mare into a small shack, her face filled with fear and her body trying to escape. The door then closed, the mare and the cannibals inside. Afterwards, a short scream could be heard, and then it was silence. “Oh Celestia…” said Indigo, now his face filled with fear. The cannibals continued dancing around the bonfire, the old pegasus got up and walked, with the aid of the pony, to the throne which was actually made of bones, and Saddy and Indigo kept on trying to escape, even though the chance of them to escape is from one to nil. “You know, it’s nice knowing ya.” said Indigo, as tears go pouring down his face. “It’s nice knowing you too, bud.” said Saddy, trying to smile even though he cried. One of the cannibals then picked up a canister filled with oil, ran towards Saddy and Indigo, who closed their eyes, not wanting to see it, and threw it into the bonfire. But then, suddenly… BAM! BAM! Two gunshots were heard and the bonfire didn’t even grow. Saddy opened his eyes and couldn’t believe what he saw. The canister was shot before it reached the bonfire, and the cannibal was also shot as well, straight through the eye. The others gasped in fear, wondering who would have done this. They looked around, searching for the shooter. Saddy also looked around, examining everything. Then suddenly, somepony had landed on the throne’s backside. It was the mysterious pony! “Missed me, colts?” said the pony, still wearing a cowl to hide his face. He jumped off the throne and landed near the bonfire with only using his two hind legs. He then lifted his right hoof, which was still covered with leather straps, ready for battle. “Bring it on, you meat-eating piece of meat.” taunted the pony. All the cannibals then lunged at him with their spears and swords made from what was left of their dinner, attacking the pony. “You might want to close your eyes, little colt” said the pony. Saddy followed what he said and closed his eyes. He tried to ignore the screams and shouts from outside, but he couldn’t cover his ears. The battle went on for a few minutes until it all went silent. “Is it over yet? Are we burnt alive yet? Cause I still don’t smell delicious.” said Indigo. Saddy and Indigo then opened their eyes and was shocked to see what was left around them. There were bodies everywhere, some ripped apart, some even sliced and some looked like they were crushed. Saddy then noticed the mysterious pony, holding the cannibal’s spear, now standing in front of the old, grey pegasus. “Your time has ended, old one. Your teachings will die and the world will be brought to peace. There will be no more cannibalism, not on my watch.” said the mysterious pony. “You might think so, but I am not the only one who follows this path. There are other, stronger than me, younger than me. My death will only slow down the inevitable. Till we meet again, Iron Hoof.” The mysterious pony then stabbed the old pegasus through, piercing his heart, and letting the blood flow out. The leader of the cannibals was dead. He then came to Saddy and Indigo, cutting down the rope, letting them go. Saddy and Indigo fell down into the bonfire, which was now left ashes, and cleaned themselves up with some cloth they found lying around. They went to the mysterious pony, who was searching Saddy’s schoolbag for the CDC, and thanked him. “Thanks for the help.” thanked Indigo. “Yeah, we couldn’t have done it without you!” thanked Indigo. “No problem. Besides, you got me what I wanted, now I’ll return the favor.” said the mysterious pony. “Let’s head back to the garage. I’ll give you both a ride to Appleloosa.” “Sounds good to me!” said Indigo. “By the way, what’s your name?” asked Saddy to the mysterious pony. “My name? Well, it’s Haven. Judge Haven to be exact. But my friends call me Haven.” “Well then, nice to make an acquaintance with you, Haven.” said Saddy. Saddy, Indigo and their new friend, Haven, walked to the garage, getting ready for their long trip to Appleloosa.