Rarity’s heart raced. It pounded in her chest so hard she feared it’d try and escape between her ribs. Her muddy coat stood on end, and her hooves tingled under her adrenaline-sharpened senses. This had all gone so wrong, and now here she was, staring certain death in the face.
The sands waved and shifted around Squall, animated by her horn, tendrils coiling and unfurling like serpents ready to strike. Rarity had little doubt in her mind that the pirate captain’s magic made them exceptionally lethal. A quick count led her to conclude that Squall could only easily control four at a time, judging by the number she held around her head. But what about the sand around her hooves? Rarity didn’t know what to expect, other than she was hopelessly outmatched.
Outmatched, but maybe not outsmarted…
The first tendril of sand lashed out at her, and Rarity scrambled to the side, barely managing to slide out of the way. The sand slammed into the ground, where it dissipated into its surroundings, only for Squall to raise another one by her side. Rarity staggered back onto her hooves, never losing her grip on the knife, knowing that she’d probably need it sooner or later. In the meanwhile, she continued to buy time, pacing backwards and trying to figure out some way to neutralize Squall. To do that, she’d have to get past the animated sand—somehow.
Squall giggled and laughed. “I’ll admit, beating and torturing your friend has been fun, but nothing gets the adrenaline moving better than a fight.” Her hooves paced forward one at a time, each one deliberately placed to feel intimidating. “It’s been a little while. I almost wish the other survivors hiding on these islands would come at me just so I can fight again. I’ll admit, that’s who I thought originally set this up. I was expecting three or four ponies to attack my camp, not one.”
She was talking instead of fighting; Rarity decided that was a good thing. It gave her time to maneuver around to the lean-tos and look for something to attack Squall with. “I didn’t even know there were other ponies on these islands apart from your crew until today,” she admitted. “I thought it was just you pirates when I found your camp last night. Your crew couldn’t catch me.”
The pirate captain paused and cocked her head. “You were at my camp last night and my crew didn’t tell me?” She shook her head. “Disappointing. I might have to discipline them when I’m done with you.” Her horn surged, and two vipers of sand lashed out at Rarity. The fashionista yelped and scurried away, dodging one, but not the other. It blasted across her back, scouring mud and coat from her now incredibly raw skin. Rarity tripped and fell onto her side, but immediately rolled back onto her hooves when the sand around her began to shift. Spikes appeared from where she’d lied moments before, missing her soft white body by little more than inches. But again, Rarity found her hoofing and readied her knife, for all the good that would do her.
She’d managed to maneuver herself around the campsite so that she was near the lean-tos, if not yet within distance to do anything with them. Swallowing hard, she spared a moment to glance into the nearest one, spotting a bundle of swords wrapped in fabric. A desperate thought quickly tore them out of the cloth, and soon Rarity had four cutlasses and a knife in her magic to match Squall’s sand serpents.
“Do you even know how to use those?” Squall taunted with a laugh. “They’re tools for big mares, not dainty fillies like yourself.”
“Fencing is a common sport among the nobility,” Rarity answered. “I may not be among the nobility, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn how.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it wasn’t quite a lie either. While Rarity had taken a few fencing lessons, they were so few and long ago that she’d nearly forgotten all of them. But maybe some muscle memory would come back to her, or at the very least, whatever Rainbow had taught her about sword fighting the few times they’d practiced on their home island would help her out here.
Squall immediately tested her with another two sand tendrils. They lashed out at Rarity, one high and one low, and she moved her swords in response. Thankfully for her, she had one advantage she hadn’t expected; years of dressmaking had left her horn so precise and finely tuned that she had complete control over where she moved the weapons in her grasp, and she was able to intercept the sand before it struck her. The simple cutlasses split the sand apart, and whatever magic Squall used to animate them dissipated as it mingled with steel and Rarity’s own magic. Though Rarity took a nervous step back during the attack, her success at blocking it instilled a little confidence into her.
Rarity capitalized on her mote of newfound bravado by advancing two steps, her weapons circling around herself as she readjusted her stance. “I’ve fought off a changeling swarm during the invasion of Canterlot years ago. A single, cocky pirate shouldn’t be that much different.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Squall said, her grin widening along with the positioning of her legs. “I haven’t even gotten started.”
Rarity swallowed hard, but nevertheless readied herself for the next attack. “Shall we dance, then?”
-----
Rainbow watched the scene unfolding before her with an icy fist of fear squeezing around her gut. Not fear for herself, but fear for Rarity. She knew Squall was just toying with her right now, but it’d only last so long before the pirate captain decided she was bored of the game. Rainbow had to get out there and help Rarity before it was too late.
Growling in frustration, she returned to working on her own bindings. She’d managed to saw halfway through the ropes around her legs, but she still had a ways to go. Thankfully for her, the ropes began to fray and split apart on their own now that she’d reached their core, so it wouldn’t be too much longer before she was free.
A finger of dizziness and nausea probed her mind, but Rainbow shook her head and forced it out. She could hear the sounds of sand and steel meeting just outside her lean-to as Rarity tried to parry Squall’s onslaught. She didn’t dare look for too long, otherwise she knew that her worry for Rarity would end up distracting her from her own task. She just had to cut through the ropes and make herself useful as fast as possible. If she waited too long, either Squall would kill Rarity, or the other two pirates still nearby would return to camp and help Squall kill Rarity. There wasn’t any time to lose.
A snap suddenly issued forth from between Rainbow’s legs, and the ropes binding everything together loosened. Grinning, Rainbow pulled her stiff legs apart, pure ecstasy flowing down her limbs as she finally moved and stretched them for the first time in a day and a half. Her legs trembled as she flexed and relaxed them, and with shaky hooves, she managed to crawl to a standing position.
Out in the center of the camp, Squall continued to pursue Rarity across the sands, but Rarity had maneuvered herself to a position where Squall’s back was turned to Rainbow, intentionally or not. Rainbow wasted no time springing into action now that she had the element of surprise. Snatching the length of rope she’d just broken free from in her teeth, she spread her wings and charged across the sand at the pirate captain, the rain and wind immediately drenching her to the bone. She managed to close the gap to about fifteen feet before Squall suddenly turned in place and sent a tendril of sand lashing out at Rainbow.
Eyes widening in alarm, Rainbow immediately used her wings to hurl herself to the side, barely skirting past the sand snake before it could connect with her chest. She struck the wet sand once and carried her momentum back onto her hooves, using her wings to balance her landing, and slid about three or four inches across the ground. Rarity immediately rushed to her side, and though both ponies wanted nothing more than to hug and hold each other after their time spent apart, they still had a rabid pirate queen to deal with. They only spared each other a nod and a smile before shifting their attention back to Squall.
Squall’s grin simultaneously widened and took on a furious edge. “Two against one? That hardly seems like a fair fight,” she spat, rain beginning to waterfall off her tricorn hat as the storm redoubled in intensity and the thunder began to boom louder over the islands. Wet sand clung to her legs and her thin silk blouse, the water making it nearly see through against her blood-red coat. The sand had spattered up into her face, staining her cheeks and the hair around her muzzle in thick, grayish globules.
Rainbow’s eyes shifted to the sand Squall animated at her sides. Blinking, she realized that they didn’t seem as light or agile as they were before. In fact, they looked muddy and heavy, and realization dawned on her. “Can’t work the sand that easily in the rain, can you?” she taunted Squall. “Pretty soon it’s gonna be too wet for you to do anything with.”
“You underestimate my power,” the pirate hissed, and she attacked in a frenzy, whipping sand tendrils at Rarity and Rainbow both. Rarity held her ground and cut through the tendrils flung at her, while Rainbow used her wings and her mobility to evade the two thrownin her direction. But almost as soon as Squall’s attacks failed, she raised more sand and continued to press the onslaught, keeping Rainbow on the move and forcing Rarity to yield ground to compensate. Rather than stay out in the open, Rainbow immediately sought the nearest structure and landed behind it, sheltering herself from the sand as Squall railed against the hut in a series of attacks. That all but confirmed to Rainbow that the rain had made the sand too heavy for Squall to animate and lift into the air higher than her horn.
Thankfully for her, Rainbow still had her rope. Taking a moment to sit on her flanks, Rainbow quickly tied the loose ends around her forelegs and made sure it was taut at a shoulder width apart. Then, spreading her wings, she flew straight up into the night sky, using the low clouds and the darkness of the night to shield herself from the camp. Now effectively out of range of the sand and Squall’s senses, Rainbow hovered and chose her moment carefully.
Which infuriated Squall. “Running away, are we?” she spat, though she doubled her efforts on Rarity, who’d given up on trying to parry and block the attacks and was now fleeing for her life between the buildings. “Come back and fight me, mare to mare! You don’t have the ovaries to fight me face to face, do you?”
Rainbow stopped herself from responding to Squall’s taunts; so long as Squall didn’t know where she was, she had an advantage that she couldn’t afford to squander. Repositioning to the other end of the camp, Rainbow set her sights on the pirate below, folded her wings, and let gravity do its work.
The pirate didn’t hear her coming until the last moment, but by then, Rainbow already had the rope aimed at Squall’s neck. Twisting her body as she passed, Rainbow managed to loop it around the pirate’s neck, just below her jaw, and used her momentum to drag them both to the ground. Squall hissed, spat, and sputtered as Rainbow tried to tighten the makeshift garrote around her neck, but the larger and stronger pirate never stopped bucking and flailing and kicking. Her horn burned red and magic started clawing at Rainbow’s back, searching for something to grab onto before it locked around her wing and started to pull. The sucking pain in her shoulders built up more and more and more until it was almost unbearable, and Rainbow screamed in pain and exertion as she tried to withstand Squall’s magic while keeping the garrote tight around the pirate’s neck. “Rarity!” she wailed, “Do something!”
Rarity galloped out from behind the lean-to she’d been using as shelter and launched herself at Squall, knife at the ready. Before she could get in close and drive the knife into Squall’s ribs, however, the pirate flopped to the ground and rolled, taking Rainbow with her and putting the pegasus between her body and the knife. Rarity immediately pulled the knife away and halted her charge so as not to hurt Rainbow, yielding her initiative and allowing Squall more time to act. The pirate’s horn surged again, and Rainbow cried out in agony before surrendering her chokehold on Squall’s neck. Now no longer locked to the pirate’s body, Squall’s magic merely flung Rainbow across the camp instead of tearing her wing from her socket. The pegasus instead impacted the side of Squall’s hut and crashed straight through it, the palm frond walls and roof no match for her sudden weight.
Squall coughed and clambered to her hooves, where she immediately used the wet sand to deflect stabs from Rarity’s swords and knife. Frothing at the mouth, she slammed her hooves onto the ground, causing a showering cascade of sand spikes to erupt out of it in Rarity’s direction. Rarity staggered backwards, narrowly escaping the attack, but not before two or three could shallowly pierce her skin and send fingers of salty pain into her chest.
Whatever amusement the pirate captain might have had toward the fight was gone. She practically frothed and foamed at the mouth as the sand spikes receded into the ground. “Playtime’s over, you cunts! I’ll rip you to pieces and shit on your corpses! You’ve overstayed your welcome, so die!”
The sand around her practically erupted as she channeled a new surge of energy into it. Rarity squealed and rolled for cover behind one of the lean-tos, while Rainbow darted out of Squall’s hut before the sand swallowed it whole. Once more taking wing, she managed to avoid the worst of the blast, instead only ending up showered with debris and sand that burned her skin and rubbed it raw.
She swallowed hard and gained altitude, working out the soreness in her wing. “Here goes round two…"