Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus


Temple Ritual

Climbing the stairs felt like a much better idea before Rainbow started.

She’d barely made it halfway up and her legs were already screaming in protest. Even though she had more endurance than Rarity, it seemed that she’d found her limit. Still, she’d gotten this far; what was a little more?

The last few steps were a nightmare, but she soldiered through them. Finally, after so much effort that she could hardly feel her legs, Rainbow hauled herself to the top. She immediately collapsed on the landing, leaving her lower half draped across a few stairs while she collected her breath. But at the very least, it offered her a good position to survey what was in front of her.

The dim glow of twilight exaggerated the shadows of the stones around her, but a little light from the moon helped to outline what she was looking at. The stairs ended at a flat terrace that reached to the north and south edges of the mountain, where they abruptly fell away into nearly nothing. The western end rose almost perpendicularly to the terrace, and Rainbow could make out some columns and crumbling statues of faceless ponies carved from the rock. An impressive stone arch had also been carved into the center of the far wall, framing a set of large doors carved and decorated countless ages ago. The doors were closed, but Rainbow could tell just from looking at the structure that they were merely the entrance to an ancient temple. A temple that her and Rarity happened to be looking for.

The sight was enough to get a little pep back into her legs, so she forced herself to stand and move closer. There was just enough light to make out the scratch marks on exposed bits of stone that cropped up here and there, evidence of the rock being worked with tools. Once more Rainbow found herself looking across the terrace, and then up to the top of the temple where the mountain abruptly started sloping again. Did these ponies level off half of a mountaintop to build their temple? She couldn’t imagine the time and effort it took to do that. It must’ve taken generations of constant work to quarry the stone and build such a grand temple. But to what end?

She supposed it didn’t really matter now, though. They were all gone, and now the island belonged to the minotaurs.

Raised mounds of stone jutted out from the terrace here and there, and only upon closer inspection did Rainbow recognize them as the shattered remains of equine statues. Much like the statues carved in the far wall, these seemed to have been shaped from the very stone that once made up half of the mountain peak. The craftsmareship and skill it must’ve taken to carve them in one whole piece must’ve been astounding. One little mistake and the whole thing was ruined. Sure, it could’ve been replaced later, but it wouldn’t be perfect if it wasn’t chiseled from the same stone of the rest of the mountain, and Rainbow knew that once upon a time, all of those statues were perfect. But a combination of simple time and perhaps the tools of minotaurs had broken them down into unrecognizable mounds of rock.

Then she found herself in front of the temple doors. They were at least fifteen feet tall, maybe more. They towered over Rainbow like imposing guardians of the secrets that laid within the mountain itself. All sorts of ancient symbols and runes had been carved across their faces, worn down through the passage of time but still legible enough to be read—presumably. They certainly weren’t in any language that Rainbow knew or recognized, but they were distinct enough for her to easily trace their shapes with her eyes. They were also massive; she saw two of them that looked like a sun and a horseshoe right next to each other, and she instinctively placed her hoof over the shoe.

The doors remained impassive.

Frowning, Rainbow took her hoof away after a few seconds. “Feh,” she grumbled to herself. “Thought that would do something for some reason.”

She took a thoughtful step back and surveyed the situation. As far as she could tell, there wasn’t another way in, or at least not one she could reach from the ground. Maybe if she could fly she could’ve done a little more scouting around, but as it was, she was grounded and in no position to start climbing around the peak. The front doors were all she had to work with right now.

Blue hoof tapped a blue chin. Well, how hard would it be to get them open?

Five minutes of heaving and shoving later, Rainbow fell to the ground, panting and sweating. She couldn’t tell if the doors were just too heavy for her to move or if they were locked. All she knew for certain was that she wasn’t opening them herself, especially not as tired as she was. She’d need Rarity’s help; maybe her magic could find a way in.

That was when her ears twitched at a murmuring noise behind her. Spinning in place, Rainbow saw the glow of torchlight starting to illuminate the stone around her. The murmuring—no, chanting—of many voices grew louder by the second, accompanied by the clopping of hooves on stone. There wasn’t much doubt about what that meant.

Rainbow swore as she looked around the terrace. There wasn’t anywhere good to hide. What were the minotaurs doing here, anyway?!

In desperation, she turned to the face of the temple and scrambled behind one of the statues carved from the wall. There was a little alcove around it just barely large enough for her to squeeze into and hide behind the statue’s pedestal. Thankfully she was as sma—compact as she was, otherwise it wouldn’t have concealed her that well. As it was, she struggled to keep her colorful mane and tail hidden behind the stone.

Moments later, a hulking figure crested the steps, a torch held in one hand and a vicious-looking bone spear in the other. His chest was covered in tattoos and scars, and he wore a large skull of some kind on top of his head. Rainbow just hoped that it wasn’t a pony skull, though she had a feeling it probably was.

Behind the minotaur followed a procession of others carrying torches and wood. Rainbow watched in horror as first ten, then twenty, then fifty minotaurs crested the stairs, with more coming by the second. It seemed like the entire population of the village below was climbing the stairs up to the terrace. She had a feeling that she was probably right.

The minotaurs arrayed themselves in the half-circle in front of the doors, while who Rainbow assumed was their leader strode up to the doors and turned to face them. The chanting stopped, and after a few seconds, the minotaur began to speak. His voice rumbled like a rockslide, and every time he moved his arms, Rainbow could imagine them bending steel like it was rubber. She hunkered down further behind her statue, praying that no minotaurs would look in her direction and catch a glimpse of her huddling right in front of them.

As their leader spoke with passionate fury, whipping the crowd up into a frenzy, another terrifying realization dawned on Rainbow. Rarity was still down there in the ruins of the city, sleeping in a building just off of the main road. What if some of the minotaurs found her? Rainbow suddenly felt guilty for not being there to protect Rarity, and she silently cursed at herself. She should’ve just waited until daytime to explore. Now they were split up, and a horde of angry minotaurs stood between them.

Their leader shouted some more, and then he grabbed his necklace and held it aloft for the crowd to see. They all bowed their heads, and then their leader turned around and reached for the door. Rainbow couldn’t see what happened next, hidden as she was, but she heard something shift inside of the stone. The mountaintop rumbled, and heavy stones slid against each other. With one final cheer, the crowd stood up and began to crowd around the door. Then Rainbow noticed it thinning as, to her surprise, they vanished inside the temple through the now open doors. They left behind a pile of wood and several baskets of fruit and jugs of drink, and apart from the noise echoing off stone walls inside the temple, the terrace once more grew quiet.

As soon as she was sure they weren’t about to come back, Rainbow darted out of her hiding space and galloped across the terrace. She stopped only long enough to nick a basket of some kind of bready material and a jug of what she hoped was water. Then, glancing over her shoulder to make sure nobody was following her, she scrambled back down the stairs.

This was bad.