Rainbow Dash completed her tenth lap around the second-floor balcony. After discovering the mass grave in the central room, she needed some time to clear her head. It seemed like the longer her and Rarity spent on these islands, the more horrifying details they discovered just below the surface. And the more she learned, the more Rainbow wanted to get back to Equestria as soon as possible.
What had happened to all those ponies? It was a question Rainbow wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to. What had happened to Steam Valve was obvious enough; she doubted that the minotaurs had brought all the food they ate that night up the mountain with them. Why they would starve a pony to skin and bones before eating them, she didn’t know, but the stallion was just bits of bone and rotting flesh now. That much, for all the good it would do, had been easy to figure out.
But what about the other skeletons? Rainbow didn’t know anything about forensics and that stuff, but she could at least tell that the other bones were old. They were spotless and yellowish, having been picked clean by scavengers long ago. They’d been sitting in that dark room for who knew how long. But why were they there? Were they also victims of the minotaurs, carved up for meat like Steam Valve? Or did something else happen entirely? At the very least, she felt like she could rule ritualistic burials out. If that had been the case, the skeletons would’ve been preserved and arranged nicely around the room, not just thrown in piles on the floors.
Rainbow sighed and shook her head. So much mystery surrounded these islands, and she doubted she’d ever solve any of it. Besides, it wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was getting back home.
Her eyes wandered over to Rarity, who sat beside the statue of the sun god on the first floor. The poor seamstress wasn’t ready for any of the trials they’d suffered since washing up so long ago. Even though she’d proven remarkably resilient and focused to their survival, Rainbow didn’t know how much more she could take. Her hysteria at seeing the bones was more frightening to Rainbow than the bones themselves had been. Rarity seemingly breaking and giving up at that sight wrenched her heart in ways she didn’t expect it to. And the only thing Rainbow could think of to snap her marefriend out of it was to slap her across the face. She already felt like a horrible pony for doing it.
A blue hoof stomped on stone in frustration. “Fuck this place,” Rainbow swore, glaring at the stones around her. How much more would they have to see before they were found? How much more would they have to endure? Though Rainbow felt confident that she could suffer even the worst to survive, she worried for Rarity. Rarity, so delicate and proper, so pretty and ladylike. A lady shouldn’t have to deal with the things they were dealing with right now.
Getting back to Equestria in one piece was no longer the most important thing for Rainbow. Getting Rarity back home safe was much more important. And if she had to, Rainbow would gladly do anything to bring her back.
A deep note of rock striking rock boomed around the chamber. Blinking, Rainbow whipped her head around, looking for the source of the noise. Down below, Rarity did the same, crawling to her hooves and searching around. Her blue eyes lifted toward the balcony where Rainbow stood. “Did you hear that, darling?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. The ground began shaking as something heavy moved across it, accompanied by the heavy grinding of stone against stone. That was when she looked to the right and saw a circle of radiant sun striking the golden face of the sun door. “Hey! The door!”
Rarity’s ears perked and her head turned to the side. “Celestia, it’s finally happening!” Her white head tilted back and she shielded her eyes with a hoof. “The sun’s just overhead now!”
Sure enough, the statue of the sun god was bathed in brilliant sunlight, and the disk on its back redirected some of that light toward the sun door at the far end. As Rainbow watched, the door began to slide back into the wall and rotate to the side, revealing the interior chamber. She couldn’t see much of it from up here, but what she could see glittered like gold in the light.
“I’m coming down,” she announced, spinning in place and finding the nearest staircase. She had to be careful with her descent; the stairs were just a little too far apart for her, and she worried that if she took them too fast, she’d fall flat on her face and break her teeth. Why were Ponynesians so tall?!
She made it to the first floor with a little effort, but thankfully her teeth were all still where they should be. By now, the golden sun door had completely retracted into the wall, baring access to a chamber that seemed like it was painted in liquid gold. Even from where she stood, Rainbow could see how the insides glowed in the reflected light.
Rarity stood in front of the open door, peering into the chamber with eyes wide. She seemed almost surprised when Rainbow walked up alongside her and brushed her side with a wingtip. After flinching away from the sudden touch, Rarity shook her head and beamed. “It’s beautiful!”
And Rainbow had to admit that it was. Beyond the sun door was a spacious chamber with a ceiling that rose up to the floor of the room above it, giving lots of open space to the inside. Here, golden statues of pegasi were regularly spaced along the walls, each one with a fire bowl resting at its hooves. Three altars had been placed in the room, carved from the same stone as the mountain’s guts, with the largest and grandest altar sitting in the middle of the back wall. Stone pews gilded in gold were arranged on both halves of the room, and a walkway of pure gold stretched from the door to the main altar. Even the sun door itself hardly seemed out of place; it’d been perfectly carved to slide into the wall, where it simply decorated the stone as an enormous golden sun, perfectly mirroring a second fake door resting in the wall to the left.
Both ponies slowly advanced into the chamber, their mouths open in awe. “There’s millions of bits worth of gold in this chamber alone,” Rarity said. “And I don’t think it’s been touched in ages!”
“The minotaurs were probably too stupid to figure out how the door worked,” Rainbow said. She could still see the circle of sunlight on the far wall, interrupted by two equine shadows. “We’re the first inside since Ponynesia vanished.”
“Amazing,” Rarity breathed. “Absolutely stunning!”
Rainbow nodded along and turned her eyes toward the back of the room. A golden box rested in the far wall, with all sorts of sun motifs worked into the metal. Grinning, she swiftly trotted toward it, skirting around the enormous altar just before it. She raised onto her hind legs and opened the box, cheering when she found exactly what she expected inside.
“I found it!” she exclaimed, pulling a little statuette out of the box. It depicted a pegasus standing on one hind hoof, wings outstretched as if he was taking off into the sky. It was nearly the exact same size and shape as the crystal pony figurine that had been left back at their home island.
Rarity squealed and bounced from hoof to hoof. “We did it!” she exclaimed. “We found it! Heavens, I didn’t think we’d actually be able to do it, but here we are!” Her magic snatched the statuette out of Rainbow’s hooves and brought it closer to her face so she could see it. “We’ve already found two, and now that we have this thing, we can leave this island behind!”
“Heck yeah! We showed those stupid minotaurs who’s boss!” She extended her hoof for Rarity to bump it. “We’re the best!”
Rarity responded by kissing Rainbow instead. She set the figurine off to the side as the two ponies drew up into each other’s forelegs, using their partner for balance as they stood on their rear hooves. “And now we’re one step closer to Equestria,” Rarity said, fluttering her eyelashes at Rainbow. “One step closer to home.”
Rainbow kissed Rarity again. “You said it,” she said when they parted. Falling back onto all fours, she pointed her wing at the statuette. “Now come on, let’s grab this thing and go back to Gyro. After all, how much you want to be that door’s gonna close when the sun dips out of sight again?”
“Good point,” Rarity said, plucking the statuette off of the altar. Together, both ponies trotted out of the room with a hurried spring in their step, not wanting to be trapped inside. But once they were outside again, Rarity smiled and closed her eyes. “Two down, two to go!”