Our new Friends, Our new Enemies

by The Potato Guy

Chapter 13: Hungry hungry Humans

Rainbow Dash woke up with a thrashing pain in her head.

Barely capable of opening her eyes, Rainbow was left with only the feeling of a cold, hard surface encompassing her side. More noticeably however was the practically uncomfortable sense of vibration that claimed her entire body.

Opening her eyes with a painful groan, a hoof placed on the pain in head, Rainbow was greeted with an almost pitch black environment. It was then when she learned that it, whatever the container was that contained her, was the thing vibrating, and luckily not her.

Her mind then cast back to whatever she could last remember.

She and Navnløs, surrounded by a gang of aggressive Humans. Rainbow knew they meant trouble and it was this insight that probably resulted in the reason she had been hit in the head, an act still burdening and affecting her now, however long it had been since that had happened.

The pain persisting, Rainbow was left with no other option than to ignore it and try and figure out where she actually was.

With a degree of luck she could not decide was good or bad, the darkness then unveiled the fact that she wasn’t in fact alone. Sat with his back against the wall was Navnløs, simply looking upon her sorry state with unemotional eyes.

“Where are we?” Rainbow asked, skipping any pleasantries, not that she would receive any In the first place.

“Your foolish ass got up captured” Navnløs replied coldly, turning his ahead away from her, only to gaze into the darkness. “Knew you didn’t have it in you”

Already? Geez dude

Annoyed at the sudden repeat of his now infamous attitude, Rainbow was left with no option than to retaliate, pain or not.

“Oh I’m soooo sorry I actually tried to do something. Actually tried aim for something, unlike someone” Rainbow said with a vicious glare, her eyes burying deeply into Navnløs, who had turned back when he realised it was he who had been the subject of her verbal sling.

Rainbow had not finished though.

“You know, if you weren’t so stuck up maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place”

This remark seemed to have little impact on the Human, who looked to pretend he had heard nothing. This infuriated Rainbow, feelings multiplied by the frustration she felt upon realising the two were already fighting.

“Also….maybe if you had what it took maybe we wouldn’t have been captured.”

This seemed to do the trick.

Navnløs shot his head to her almost violently, Rainbow knowing his pride having been hurt. It was then he stood up, or as much as he could. Her eyes adjusting to the darkness, Rainbow could now see the two were contained in a rather small space, forcing Navnløs to nearly crouch over to her.

Stopping in front of her, rage in his eyes, Rainbow steeled herself for his retort.

“Are you fucking stupid? If you hadn’t been distracting me, I would have noticed these bastards approaching, and at least I would have managed to avoid them.”

Rainbow decided not to bend over to this aggression, no longer intimidated by her now fellow prisoner.

“Yeah? Doubt it. You have like no loyalty to anypony, you won’t make it” At this point in their travels, Rainbow had said this with no other aim than to antagonise Navnløs. To humble him almost in this desperate situation. Maybe that would knock him on his head and show that he wasn’t some all-powerful being that could act the way he did.

True enough at least, it antagonised him.

“I’m sorry?! You technicoloured freak?! I’ve made it this far in conditions you couldn’t imagine on the worst day of your life!” He was yelling now, pure anger in his words.

“I would leave you to these crazies time and time again if it meant I would live just to face another shit day. You have no idea what I’ve been through. What I continue to go through. A weak fucking abomination like you wouldn’t last even in a shadow of my life!”

Rainbow was about to yell in return, logic and argument thrown out the window for pure aggression, that was until a loud thumping sound was head to the front of their dark metal prison.

It surprised Rainbow for sure, her head and attention turning towards the source of the noise, leaving her wondering what exactly it was. Unable to determine what it was, and hearing no repeat of it, she returned her gaze to Navnløs. The Human however did not return the gesture. His attention still focused on the noise and although there were no further developments in it, Navnløs’s reaction was not as dismissive as Rainbows. His face became stern and determined, not exactly worried, more preparing, yet it was clear to Rainbow that, whatever it was, it was worthy of his focus.

“What? What is it?” Rainbow questioned, still a little anger in her voice.

Navnløs sat down slowly, allowing a quick look at Rainbow, taking the form of the side of his face sliding back into the reclusive darkness.

His anger seemed to disperse, as if he had completely forgotten of his angry exchange with the pony. In fact, any acknowledgement Rainbow was even there seemed to go.

“Hey! Hellllloooo? You still there?” Rainbow pressed, only gaining a flash of a look from his eyes in return. Never the less, Rainbow seized the opportunity.

“What’s going on? What’s gotten over you?”

She had almost expected Navnløs’s anger to return.

That never came.

“You’ve really fucked us, you know that?” the Human simply replied, his temper unusually in check. His words, less so.

“Um, what? What you talking about?” Rainbow replied, thinking Navnløs to simply being grumpy yet again.

“You’ve screwed us. The people who captured us, not exactly the people you want to be captured by”

Rainbow, still mostly stuck in the argument frame of mind, paid little attention to his warning.

“Yeah, so let go kick their flanks! They may have got the first hit, but I’ll show ‘em!”

An actual smile appeared on Navnløs’s face, yet one Rainbow knew wasn’t fully genuine.

“Stupid fuck, you really no nothing, don’t you?” Navnløs replied, strangely calm. Facing no reply from Rainbow, he continued.

“If you hadn’t noticed, these savages don’t just kill, only the lucky ones die quickly. You saw what they were wearing.”

Rainbow remembered, the horrifying look to them, but she knew Navnløs knew something that she didn’t. Realising the answer wasn’t going to be pleasant, she grudgingly waited for the answer she didn’t want to hear.

“Idiot, they’re cannibals!”

And there it was. Just like the fear she felt when she woke up in the hut, looking upon the fire, she began to fear for her life, and fear for it in the worst possible way. She feared for what they would do to her, before they took her life.

“These savage, crazy freaks are some of the Forgotten that actually need to be taken seriously. They are numerous, strong creatures that have some of the only good lands in the waste. Land they can actually create a functioning society of, shame its one in which torture and cannibalism are the main points.”

Rainbows mind began to race. Panicked thoughts swarming her mind and taking over her consciousness.

What was going to happen?

What should she do?

How could she escape?

Answers couldn’t even be formed, such was her panic. She was keeping it together, at least physically, for now, but when she was to be taken from this place, and when she saw the monsters that captured her, would her bravery hold true?

“They like to scar themselves and wear the remains of the enemies they….you know…eat.” Navnløs elaborated, much to Rainbows displeasure.

“Yeah alright I get it!” Rainbow shot out, not wanting to hear anymore.

How could things like this even exist?

“You scared?”

Rainbow, despite only just speaking, had felt she had been alone for hours, in a dark bubble with nothing but her fearful thoughts. The unfortunate truth was that she wasn’t in fact alone, and now Navnløs could be one the very few individuals to bear witness to Rainbow Dash being scared, and that thought scared her even more.

Showing true fear to any pony was bad enough, especially strangers. The embarrassment would be unforgivable, a persistent pain and burden she would have to bear for into the future. Yet the fact it was this Human in particular, when all they had basically done was fight, and that how he was the character from Rainbows nightmares, an individual worthy of no respect, the fact that he would see this rare show, it made her want to be sick and that surely didn’t help her appearance.

“What? No” Rainbow cried in reply, her raspy voice most likely adding to her nervous look.

“You should be” Navnløs replied instantly, serious eyes staring back. “We may be leaving the monotonous parts of the wastes, but these inbred abominations aint going to be pushovers. Like I said, you’ve fucked us both”

This wasn’t advice Rainbow wished to hear, ever. It was defeatist, morbid and further fuel to Rainbows soon to be revealed fear.

“Can you stop? I actually tried to save us, what the buck did you do?!” Rainbow cried out accusingly, stress taking over.

“How would you even know? Your weak ass got knocked out” replied Navnløs in a similar tone. “These are big guys, and since id be dead if I even touched my gun, slicing up two of them was a decent challenge.”

Rainbow went quiet. He was true, she was completely out, so she wouldn’t know what happened upon their capture. His remarks about killing two of them also seemed true, for she had seen what he could do anyway.

“Yeah, sliced ‘em up good. I’m sure the sudden view of intestines gave them a nice shock”

“Alright alright I get it” Rainbow cut off, feeling revolted at such barbaric actions, much to Navnløs’s small amusement.

“See, if you can’t handle a drop a blood, you won’t make it an hour alone”

Rainbow had to distract herself from the Human’s unhelpful attitude, less she truly lose it.

“Um, can we, you know, try and get out of whatever this thing is? Do we even have a plan? Rainbow asked, only just allowing herself to emerge from the pure panic and focus on an escape, for now.

“Ha! ‘We’. Who said anything about ‘we’?” bellowed out Navnløs. “If I actually manage to get out of this mess you caused without getting my flesh nibbled off, there won’t be a ‘we’.”

The look on Rainbows face was an obvious disapproving one, and one to force Navnløs to half-heartedly hold up his hands in defence.

“Hey, you never know. These guys are cannibals, they eat Humans. Maybe they’ll find your meat not tasty, maybe they’ll only use your fur as---“

“I don’t wana hear it!” blocked Rainbow, not wanting to hear any of the Humans’ extremely dark jokes, if he could even call them that. “And whatever dude, I’ll show you. I made it this far, even when I don’t even know where I am, how I got here, and in a world I never knew existed, so yeah, I think I’ve got it” Her final words were condescending to the extreme, not a drop of niceness in them, but while Navnløs simply shook his head in disbelief, Rainbow was left with the thought of the true meaning in her words.

Indeed they were used as she meant them, to prove Navnløs wrong, but as she said them an odd feeling manifested itself within her, a feeling that told her she was not only saying this for its obvious reason, but for a hidden and developing kind.

She did not like this Human, not a single bit, but the longer she spent with him in this truly unforgivable world, the more she felt the need to perhaps prove herself to him? Maybe this was just to gain the vain satisfaction in telling him ‘I told you so’, to spite him with her continued survival. Or maybe it was a show of fearlessness that was born of the necessity to maybe impress the Human? To show him she actually had what it took to survive, and had was strong enough to stand beside the Humans tormented but adventured soul.

Rainbow didn’t want to believe it, but curiously, she didn’t dismiss it completely.

Navnløs then spoke up.

“And we are in one of their vehicles by the way. Those black rumbling things, so unless you want to be ran down as soon as you get out of here, be my guest”

Rainbow hadn’t yet given up hope though.

“But you’ve got a plan right? When we stop, to kick their flanks or whatever. Just an idea how to get away” Rainbow only then realised she sounded to be pleading, desperate basically, and she knew Navnløs wouldn’t approve of such a thing.

“A plan? You think I’d have made it this far around the world if I had a plan? Plans, which fail all the time, just like a plan to save this world? No, plans are useless, I just survive, no matter what”

This was enough to set panic in Rainbows heart again, a lack of any idea on how to live, to let pure chance dictate their survival, but, as she had learned earlier, Navnløs was speaking again of his lack of goals in life. The fact he essentially lived for no other reason than his own life. It was selfish for sure, definitely and greatly so, but even more it was evidence he was a lost soul, tormented with no ambition or reasons to truly and fully live.

And it probably started with the fact he had no one to be loyal to.

“You know you can’t keep living like that. Loyalty to something can be good, it can-“

“I’ve kept living like that for this long, in situations lesser men have died in the thousands, so please, shut the fuck up and know I’m doing just fine, ok?!”

Rainbow wanted to protest his points for as long as her voice would let her. Her life had basically revolved around loyalty, and the great tests she and her friends had been through further cemented that her element was important, and for as long as she lived, she’d remain loyal to her element of loyalty, and never give up on it and spreading it to the world.

“Well you should know-“Rainbow began, only to be cut off by a tsunami of blinding light which flooded her prison.

Her eyes now unadjusted to the light, the light was blinding, and it forced her eyelids to cover her eyes, and a hoof to her face.

The light almost hurt, but far more worrying, and worse on the highest levels, was the fact they had stopped.

They were here.

---

The uncomfortable blinding next made the next few moments a disorientating blur.

Seemingly grabbed and forced out of the darkness, to be thrown onto the hard ground all happened within a split second.

Rainbows head was left spinning from the less than delicate throw, but other worries were far too pressing than this moment of dizziness.

Her eyes adjusted to the daylight once more, revealing the abominations that called themselves Humans.

Tall and strong, barbaric features looked down upon her with inquisitive eyes, or what rainbow thought were eyes.

It didn’t take much prior knowledge of imagination to know what happened to these savages’ victims. Navnløs said they were cannibals, indicating they consumed Human flesh, but it was now evident nothing was wasted.

A sick variety of past Human features and parts were on full display on these people. From crude bone armour on the least frightening individuals, to Human skin garments that clad others. Yet the ones closest to her were the most terrifying. Patches of their bare skin showing only self-mutilations on the worst kind, the rest of their body covered with a Human skin leather, but crafted in a most terrible way.

There were faces on their ‘clothes’.

The poor past victims must have suffered an experience that struck a degree of fear and disgust into Rainbow which she never knew was possible.

Death it seemed was the most merciful thing to occur the victims here, and the hundreds of Human teeth that adorned the ‘leather’, almost as they were multiple strips of metal zips, made it as if the darkest of nightmares had manifested in this world.

There was no way around it.

Rainbow was terrified. Terrified of the likes she had never been before.

“You guys see her too huh?” suddenly Navnløs cut in. Rainbow had never felt so relieved and thankful for a distraction, anything to deviate her attention from the living monstrosities towering above her.

“I suppose maybe you are real”

Navnløs wasn’t helpful. Citing this horrifying moment as a sick chance to tell and teasing joke, it ensured Rainbow wasted no time in snapping.

“ARGH! BUCK IT!”

Adrenaline fuelled every part of her body. Fear and desperation mixing with disbelief at Navnløs’s joke and anger at him, all to create a simple mind-set focused on survival above all.

“ILL TAKWE YOU ALL ON! ILL SHOW YOU WHAT A PINY CAN REALLY DO!”

Rainbow shot up, using her still weak wings to propel her up into a fighting position. Thrashing out at any Human close enough to her, pure rage and adrenaline consumed her, the old Rainbow a mere shadow at this point.

Her vision went red, and her mind became a blur, her body focused only on fighting and survival. She felt her hooves collide with both soft Human flesh and hard Human bone. Not even the crack of past victims bones did anything to stop her beserking rage. Crying out to the point of her voice cracking and her throat feeling as if it was about to bleed, her relentless onslaught of rage continued, despite hardly knowing where her hits were being placed.

All she knew was it took these Humans by relative surprise, and a defensive encirclement had now surrounded her, but alas she continued fighting relentlessly. Nothing mattered now but her attempt at living, even her life and friends back in Equestria were a mere side thought in comparison to this fight or flight feeling.

At first, rainbow felt confident in her rage. That this almost crazy act was preventing the Humans from predicting her movements so that they may retaliate, not that any return hits would do anything to stop her. She was prepared to fight to the end right now.

Yet a mere voice put an end to all that.

The voice wasn’t meek or soft however. It boomed from the distance. A deep and demonic quality accompanied it, and it cut her little act short like a parent scolding their filly.

It sounded angry, and the authority it carried ensured all present simply froze, and then Rainbow understood why.

A gigantic figure strode towards her, effortlessly parting the large other Humans. This Human stopped but a foot away from her, and towered at least 7 foot over her. Rainbow hesitated in labelling this figure as a Human though, and she knew she would be understood.

His large body was covered in the horrible Human skin garment like the others, yet this one seemed to have been crafted with extra horror. Dead faces screamed out of them, the final moments of poor Humans who had been butchered by these monsters, moments now frozen in times and sewn into other skin. Aside from that , once skin belonging to the arms and hands of various Humans seemed to extend from his back, as if they were grasping onto his torso in their final moments, at least a dozen of these shown in a disgusting show of insanity and cruelty. Human bone armour covered his arms and legs and arms in a frame like fashion, presenting Rainbow with the idea that this Human may be the leader, such was the ‘quality’ of the bone armour, at least compared to the others.

In the centre of his body pointed hundreds of Human teeth. Rainbow stared at this light void, a portal lie appurtenance made of pure horror, and with the longer she gazed at this evil creation, the more panic and fear manifested inside her.

Looking at the face showed a heavily, self-inflicted, scared look. Set in a tribal tattoo like look, cuts and other scares covered the horrifying face, with what seemed to be sharp splinters of rib bone sewn through his skin around the eyes, almost forming a half mask.

Rainbow felt her legs shake.

“What is this?” it asked, the nearly demonic voice cutting right through Rainbow, “Mmmm, spoils are surprising today. The detour through the village did not prove satisfying enough, too skinny and bony, but this? Very…interesting.”

The deep voice was less booming now, but it had not lost any of its authority. Replacing the boom however, was a curious but sinister sound to it, an almost intelligent quality to it, but in a cruel and psychopathic manger.

The Human, with his bald head and dark sunken eyes, reached out to touch her, and Rainbow went into full panic mode.

Flinging her hoof in front of her, trying to bat away the hand, she retreated into a wall of other Humans, preventing her from escaping. It reminded her she was surrounded, and her mind raced to think of an escape plan.

It couldn’t think of one.

“Mmmm, a feisty thing indeed. Who knew the wastes held such odd secrets. “His voice was plain creepy now, a look from his eyes that wasn’t aggressive, but worse.

Hungry.

They hungered for knowledge of her, a sick and cruel curiosity to them, but also a hunger of a type Rainbow really didn’t wasn’t to dwell on, they were Cannibals after all.

“Get away! Freaks!”

Her words surprised the Human, but almost in a happy way.

“Ahh, it speaks! What a delicious turn of events.” He then turned to face one of his comrades. “Where did you find this morsel?”

A second Human, covered almost entirely in bone, with a pyramid like helmet covering his entire head stepped forward.

“The Empty Sea, we were patrolling like we were told to”

The larger Human snapped his head to face with bone glad individual, his brow becoming burrowed as he did so.

“Were you? Because food is so common out there…” he said sarcastically, ushering in a tense moment of silence.

“Well? Do you actually think that wasteland is a decent hunting ground?”

The mention of hunting, thus the hunting of living, intelligent Humans, turned Rainbow’s stomach, but the silence that this Human so easily created with just a question was worse. It suggested he was feared among these Humans, and only a miracle would save them should they upset their leader.

Maybe it was because of this no reply came from the bone covered human, but this proved to be the worst mistake he could make, for the question from the leader was thus proved right.

“Hmm, disobedience. Huh….”

The leader turned away from the bone clad Human, but only for a second. A feign occurring within a split second, the leader then unsheathed an extremely brutal looking blade appeared, the around three foot vicious looking tool was akin to a cleaver, its gruesome intent clearly meant for butchering. Yet it was also a blade meant for horrific injuries. Sharp teeth like protrusions showed themselves towards the blades end.

Rainbow was then left in a state of horrific stunned shock when the leader turned back around and began to use his blade, on the bone clad Human.

With abnormal strength and speed for something that big, the leader again and again slammed his savage and crude blade into the Human.

Nothing could withstand such barbarity, the thick bone armour splintering and cracking within the first few hits. No one could do anything but watch the gory and terrifying spectacle that now befell them.

Each swing was nearly lazy. A simple cleave down with little effort apart from strength. There was no skill or technique to the slashes, just pure brutal strength. Rainbow was almost forced to watch as the bone Human first got gored and broke by the swings, before then collapsing into a pool of his own blood and flesh but still being alive to witness himself become pulverized and literally destroyed by his leader.

Rainbow felt bile rise. This was far worse than Navnløs’s work on the raiders. This brutality was cold and evil, Rainbow seeing no need for this than to inspire more fear. Unlike Navnløs also, who seemed to favour, while still gruesome, quick and efficient kills. This Human simply hit and hit the other until there was nothing left. Rainbow, horrifyingly, was reminded of the crushing and cutting of garlic for a meal, watching this. By the end, the now dead Human had literally been cut up, such was the strength and cruel brutality of the leader.

She couldn’t help it.

Turning her head away in desperation, her mouth involuntarily opened and outcome untold amount of vomit, more coming as her eyes were stained with images of this sickening display of death.

She heard snickering from various Humans in her ears, yet she couldn’t care less. If they were so proud of this horrible act, even didn’t care about their opinions. These were not people she wished to emulate in any kind.

However, momentarily looking up after she thought she had finished, she saw Navnløs, who had been forced to his knees, staring at her. Contrary to every other time, he didn’t appear annoyed at her. This time, he looked serious, and if she had to guess, somewhat concerned.

“Fine. Don’t ask why he was out there, knew you lot weren’t very bright”

Rainbow wanted to smack him for this antagonising and completely unnecessary act. His jokes were never appreciated, and using them to only piss these monsters off wasn’t going to end well. Unfortunately, she couldn’t protest, as when she raised her head farther, she saw the disgusting mess if red in the corner of her eye, and then her head bent down again and she continued what she had started.

Her vomiting was loud in this tense silence, yet the heavy footsteps of the leader weren’t moving towards her, but Navnløs instead.

“Mmmm, I don’t care what you think. I just care about how you’ll taste”

Rainbow finally finished vomiting at this, seeing the massive Human looming over Navnløs, a red blood dripping blade still in his hand, as he let it casually hang by his side.

“You look healthy also. Plenty of muscle. Not like the sticks in the village we just visited.”

Rainbow actually felt worried for Navnløs, even he not deserving such a horrible death these Humans would defiantly deliver.

“How is it a man, found in the Empty Sea, can be such a specimen? Where are you from?”

Navnløs seemed unintimidated.

“East…and then down. Far down.”

Navnløs’s response actually seemed to surprise the massive Human, his demonic cruelty replaced momentarily with genuine curiosity.

“The Tunnels? Doubt it. No one ever escapes them, and those that do aren’t even human anymore. Someone like you is what we call a liar”

Navnløs then looked to be angry. Rainbow couldn’t say why, but she knew, whatever his younger life was like, that it was a traumatic experience and one she couldn’t even imagine, at least from what he had described it as. Though she wouldn’t out it past him that, like the leader said, he was a liar.

“I got out, I went North West through the mountains, into the great plains of the Collective, before just moving from place to place”

The large Human paused, considering Navnløs’s words. He didn’t call him out on them, suggesting Navnløs may in fact, be telling the truth.

“Hmm, then let me introduce you to my humble tribe. The Skera. I’m Kyrl and I’m-”

“I know who you freaks are, and judging from the distinct lack of any turns we took in your tin cans to get here, and looking at the thin but actual healthy grass here, I’m guessing we are somewhere near Salutis, perhaps to the south east?”

The monster Human now known as Kyrl blinked in surprise, obviously not expecting Navnløs to, as Rainbow presumed anyway, correct guess their location. None of it matter much to her, she wasn’t home and right now was surrounded by Human eating monsters, so the exact location didn’t do much to help her feel safe.

“Hmm, very good, but is it surprising that one of the Militia of Salutis knows its bordering regions?” Kyrl said, tapping the jacket Navnløs was currently wearing with his bloody blade.

“It’s not mine” Navnløs simply responded.

“No? A lot of you Militia have been wandering in our lands of late, undoubtedly because of the audacity of your Lord Vanquisher…”

Navnløs kept his response muted, for whatever reason. It was reasoning lost on both Rainbow and Kyrl, who, obviously the one holding the cards at this point, took the silence with less than appreciative emotions.

“We’re going to eat you.” The cannibal stated plainly. “We’re going to rip your entrails from your belly and skin every bit of pink off you. You will be in a lot of pain, and you will beg for death. Whether we grant that to you or not depends on if you give answers so just know, if you keep that mouth shut, we are very good and keeping people alive, even when they experience pain no other Humans have felt” Rainbow didn’t consider his threat to be idle or empty, not with his bloodied blade pressed against Navnløs’s neck.

Rainbow wished it weren’t so, considering the situation, and that Twilight would probably have a few choice words with her if so, but seeing Navnløs in this position, finally not the one calling the shots and acting all high and mighty because of it, she almost felt a degree of satisfaction, amusement in seeing the Human finally on his knees, literally and figuratively.

“It’s not mine, considering the man whom it belong to is now in some ditch at the South Shore, without a head”

Rainbow grimaced at the thought of this, but mostly focused on her dissatisfaction with the fact Navnløs hadn’t fully submitted. Such a thing wouldn’t help their situation one bit, probably even proving to be quite the opposite, but Rainbow felt an annoyance building within her. It was an annoyance that surprised Rainbow who, despite ever being competiveness to the point of pettiness even, never expected herself to find glee in another individual suffering.

Perhaps it was a sign of what this world did the anything with a heartbeat. It made them savage, careless and the bane of friendship. From Navnløs to her captors, to the desperate and savage Forgotten she had previously encountered and probably every other Human in this forsaken world, all seemed to be long lost to the way of this terrible world.

This worried Rainbow. She had not been through and learned every one of her hard learned lessons of friendship back in Equestria, and she had not built a life full of joy and the best friends a Pony could possibly as for, just to be consumed by this world like Navnløs had undoubtedly had been. Rainbow was competitive. A fighter even. Loyal only to the greatest causes of good, and she wouldn’t stand her, panic and fear taking her, while she could fight against this land.

She knew she didn’t really want to see Navnløs in any pain, however annoying and a lost cause he may be, and she wouldn’t allow herself to let such thoughts take her.

“The South Shore? You are saying you were in that battle, just one moon back?” Kyrl asked, prompting Rainbow to focus ounce more on the physical world.

“You fought with those fools against the Militia and the full might of Vanquisher? Those unorganized vermin couldn’t unite against a rogue dog. All of Salutis’s neighbour tribes will fall, so why can’t you see this?”

Rainbow detected a hint of possible desperation in Kyrl’s voice. From what it sounded like, it seemed this Salutis, its Militia and Lord Vanquisher were not pushovers, and it didn’t seem to please this tribe, especially if their lands were being invaded by this unknown force.

“You think I fought against the Militia because of some misplaced loyalty to those pathetic tribes who cling to their independence, their way of peace and friendship like it was their happy ever after? No, they offered me tribute, items I could trade for weapons and clean water. The young boy who owned this jacket had no real loyalty to Salutis other than that was where he was born and that it was the hand that fed him, The only difference between me and him is that I’m not afraid to cut a few strings that tie me into some idiotic bond of loyalty….and that I wasn’t the one who screamed and begged for his life while plunged a machete into his skull.”

Navnløs proceeded to shrug, a true uncaring look now on his face.

“Of course what they paid me wasn’t enough. They were poor fucks, and I couldn’t exactly take what I wanted if they won could I? So I did some token fighting, killing enough Militia to show that I was some ‘saviour’ to those people, then I got to sit back, relax and watch while the Militia picked the tribesman off, one by one, so then I could swoop in and take what I could”

Rainbow had only just exiled the dark and pointless thoughts she had just been thinking, but upon hearing this, she felt them cascade and flood back into her.

She knew Navnløs’s wasn’t a good Human. She knew he didn’t really care for the qualities of Pony kind, but hearing this, hearing that Navnløs had only faked his loyalty to these tribes people, who from the sound of it, were a small beacon of hope and good in this dark, dark world, only so he could use them for money and goods? It was sickening.

Rainbow hated to think about it, but she didn’t need to wonder if this tribe was still around. If most Humans in this world were as bad as she thought, then survivors wouldn’t be a common sight,

“The families…the young…oh sweet Celestia…”

Rainbow hut her eyes. She couldn’t think about that. Not one bit.

But it was true. Navnløs had allowed them all to die just so he could gain materialistically. It was a cold, evil act Rainbow never expected even from him. Not only he had again showed that loyalty was quality he spat on, which angered Rainbow more than enough, but the fact he had feigned loyalty only to break it and scavenge the pain it then brought to honest Humans, this was too much. Navnløs didn’t deserve freedom. Whatever these Skera were going to do to him, he deserved it. Every bit of it.

“YOU BUCKING MONSTER!” cried out Rainbow, pushing herself with all the power her wings could muster, through various Skera, all to deliver an almighty hit on Navnløs.

She succeeded, actually knocking the human over. In a blind rage, Rainbow pounced upon him, furiously flailing her hoofs down upon the Human, who, only further angering her, uncaring and plainly protected himself with his arms.

“ILL KILL YOU, YOU DISLOYAL DISGUSTING HUMAN!!”

Rainbow had never threatened to kill somepony. It was a totally foreign and unjustified wish that any pony should feel ashamed to want. Yet this Human, who had only shown the worse something living could show, Rainbow felt no shame or regret in her words. She would say them again if she could, were it not for her wild shouting.

When strong hand were then felt upon her body, and she knew the Skera were pulling she and Navnløs apart, much to her dismay.

“NO, NOOOO!! LET GO, ILL KILL HIM!” Rainbow protested to her captors.

“Ha!” boomed Kyrl, a mighty grin on his horrific face. “So this creature not only can talk, but it can hate and fight. Such fire!”

“ILL SHOW YOU FIGHT!” cried out Rainbow in response, her anger now directed at the ones who were preventing Navnløs’s justice.

If Rainbow were in a calmer mood, and if her mind was not so illogical from her rage, she knew she would never escape the strong grip she found herself in.

“I’m sure you would” Kyrl said, walking up to her. “ I’d let you show us, but you end up killing our dinner, and cold dead meat loses its taste, but by all means, hit him again while we peel your skin off. Mmmm, I saliva at such a tasty thought”

Rainbow was reminded of the reason of her capture. Never had such an extreme anger be swapped with extreme realisation. Anger went, and in came the hang over.

“Take them to the prep area, the meat is feisty and alive! Let’s not waste this opportunity. And someone fetch me my filleting knife, my stomach grumbles”

The crowd of Skera then proceeded to let out an almighty cheer, and Rainbow knew why.

Dinner was about to be served.

Author's Note:

Oops, but of a wait for this one.
rest assured I have zero intention of cancelling or ignoring the story, I've just been a little busy with work recently so I hope you understand
Anyway, some lovely images portrayed here so apologies to the screamish among us :'D
I wasn't trying to create a horror piece here (although the Skera are pretty horrifying), instead I like the idea of Rainbow and Navnløs adventuring around even though none of them want to be with each other.
Points to those who know which duo in the world of TV Rainbow and Navnløs are most like :)

Comments

[Just Sandy]

how did rainbow get there again? i forgot how

[The Potato Guy]

8573928
There as in how she is in the Human world? As of now , all that has been explained is that there was a flash of light and some sort of magic, so basically a portal. She doesnt know whast happened so thats an explanation that'll be revealed in a later plot.

[Bespawlercaster]

Love the details of the story, I must say it was very impressive for you to make a such high quality details for this story.I'm still looking for the feelings and relations between Rainbow and Navlos. If you know what I mean

[RDDash]

Can't wait to see when ponies finally figure out that Dash is gone, I think it's been like a few days.