//------------------------------// // The Grand Finale // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// The pirates’ campsite began to pool with water. Rarity’s dainty white hooves splashed across shallow puddles as she and Squall traded blows. Their swords cried out into the night with the desperate shrieking of pained metal locked in a struggle of life and death. The dance of death continued, and Rarity could tell that it was moving into its final act. All three combatants were exhausted and wavering, and the mistakes were beginning to pile up for all parties involved. Despite her grievous injuries, Squall managed to keep pace with both Rarity and Rainbow. The two friends tried to attack her from different sides constantly, but Squall merely fetched her second sword and kept both at bay from a defensive stance. She’d planted herself near the dying fire, using it as an obstacle to prevent Rainbow from attacking her hurt side, and her quick and strong magic kept up both her defenses while her eyes darted back and forth to keep track of both her opponents. Rarity didn’t know how the pirate didn’t make herself dizzy from doing it. Though Rarity and Rainbow weren’t as exhausted or wounded as the pirate, they still lacked the raw skill needed to break through her defenses, even two on one. And even then, they weren’t without their own injuries and handicaps. Rainbow’s wings were by now so sand filled that she couldn’t use them for lift at all, instead relying on them for balance and the occasionally dirty trick. Rarity, meanwhile, was beginning to feel a sharp and cracking pain in her horn from the chip in it she’d received the day before. On top of that, her missing ear was beginning to severely discombobulate her. To her, it sounded like somepony had put a pillow over the right side of her head, muffling the noises her ear could hear, while her left still picked up sound as well as ever. The conflicting sensation had left her with a growing sense of dizziness and vertigo that was becoming harder to compensate for, not to mention the constant, throbbing spikes of pain shooting into her skull whenever she tried to move and point an ear that wasn’t there. Squall fought like a caged beast, and the ferocity and viciousness of her fighting soon began to worry and frighten Rarity. Every lull in their attacks she would capitalize on, forcing one away with a dangerous flurry of attacks before she’d have to defend herself from the other. The pain and handicap she had to be suffering from the wounds Rainbow had inflicted on her didn’t seem to affect her at all. After almost five minutes of fighting the pirate by the campfire, Rarity started to wonder whether it was actually physically possible to defeat her, let alone kill her. Squall’s horn surged, and she pulled out two of her three remaining loaded pistols. Rarity and Rainbow immediately bolted for cover behind one of the lean-tos just as the bark of one of the pistols joined the thunder in the night sky. The bullet tore through the fronds right between their huddled figures, thankfully not hitting either of them as it spun wildly off into the foliage around them. Rarity took the moment to catch her breath. “How are we going to beat this mare?” she wheezed at Rainbow between pants. “We can’t even get close to her!” “She’s literally too angry to die!” Rainbow bemoaned. “I almost cut her leg off and she acted like it’s nothing! She a crazy friggin’ psycho bitch who won’t give up!” Rarity’s remaining ear perked at the sudden silence that had fallen over the camp, devoid of the pirate queen’s taunting or haggard breaths. Moments later, a pair of swords ripped through the frond walls of the lean-to, nearly splitting both ponies open. Rainbow and Rarity immediately scrambled in opposite directions, and Squall burst through the gap a split second later, bloody lips stretched wide in a gory smile. “It’s not nice to talk about ponies behind their backs!” she spat, and her second pistol poked through the gap as Rainbow and Rarity tried to escape. Rarity threw herself onto her side and slid around the corner of the lean-to as the second gun fired, and she heard the bullet whizz past her ear. Heart pounding, she swiftly picked herself back up onto her hooves and glared back at the pirate. “Stop shooting at me! I’m growing dreadfully sick of it!” Squall sneered and drew her final loaded gun. “Stand still and I’ll stop!” she spat, taking aim at Rarity. But before she could, Rainbow tackled her from behind, barely missing Squall’s neck with her sword as the pirate instinctually dropped to her side and rolled across the sand, trying to shake Rainbow off of her. The two tussled and grappled on the ground, and Rarity immediately galloped back toward Squall to try and end it before she could escape from Rainbow’s weight. Yet the pirate continued to struggle, and with a crimson glow of her horn, flung Rainbow off of her and over the lean-to, nearly hitting Rarity in the progress. Rarity’s horn surged blue, and her three swords briefly floated into the air before she stabbed all three of them down at Squall, who still had her back in the sand. The pirate hissed, and her two swords spun over her head, parrying all three attacks and forcing them to bite harmlessly into the sand at her side.  Before Rarity could pull them out and attack again, Squall rolled to her hooves and started slicing at Rarity’s face. One slashed across her nose, making her snort and drawing her head back in shock, and the other cut down over her brow, nearly costing her an eye. Blood seared her eye, already still sore from the hot ash Squall had flung into it earlier, and half-blinded Rarity right in the middle of Squall’s onslaught. A telekinetic shove knocked Rarity onto her back. She gasped as cold sand touched her shoulders, and with her heart racing a million miles a minute, she tried to locate her swords through the red staining her vision. She was defenseless and helpless, and she saw Squall looming over her, swords raised for a killing blow. Her red magic pinned Rarity to the ground, preventing her from moving, and she smiled, blood and spittle dripping from her split lips onto Rarity’s face. There weren’t any witty comments. There was only hatred and rage. Her horn surged, and Rarity knew it was the end. At least, until a wooden board with nails sticking out of it clubbed Squall across the cheek. The squawk of genuine pain and surprise sounded wholly unnatural coming from the rabid pirate, and it caused her to drop her swords before she could stab at Rarity. One spun wildly off into the dark jungle undergrowth, and the other buried itself in the sand some distance away from the two of them. Rainbow Dash snarled as she pulled the plank out of Squall’s face, and once more she fell on top of the pirate. They struggled and writhed in the sand, each trying to kill the other with their bare hooves, while Rarity forced herself to sit up. Rainbow Dash had saved her life again, and now Rarity needed to return the favor. But more than that, she needed to end the fight now. Her and Rainbow couldn’t afford to let this fight go on any longer. Her eyes fell on Squall’s gun, not too far away. It was the last one Squall had yet to fire; she could still see the ruby in the side glowing faithfully, waiting for a pull of the trigger. Snatching it in her blue magic, she pointed it at the pair of grappling ponies and swallowed hard, looking for an opening. She knew if she fired at the wrong moment, she could just as easily hit Rainbow instead of Squall. She needed to make sure that wouldn’t happen. At first, it looked like Rainbow had the upper hoof. She sat on top of Squall, using both her forelegs to force the pirate’s muzzle into a shallow pool of water in an attempt to drown her. Though Squall fought and sputtered, she only had one foreleg to try to fight Rainbow off with, and it simply wasn’t doing the job. But then her horn came into play, and pushing against Rainbow’s face, she managed to buy the space she needed to get her muzzle out of the water. Sucking down deep breaths, the terrifying fire in Squall’s eyes burned with renewed hatred. The direction of her magic reversed, and suddenly Rainbow’s face slammed into the water instead of Squall’s. The pirate captain rolled onto Rainbow’s back and used her weight to pin Rainbow to the ground, slowly choking the life out of the pegasus at the same time. It was the opportunity Rarity had been waiting for. She aimed, squeezed her eyes shut, and pulled the trigger. The pistol’s recoil nearly threw itself out of her magic, and the bang was like a hammer applied directly to her already aching skull. But there was a rough cry of pain from in front of her, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Squall collapsed on the ground. Rainbow rolled away from Squall as fast as she could, taking shelter at Rarity’s side and wiping mud and muck off her muzzle. Both ponies panted in silence, and Rarity dropped the gun from her grasp. They watched Squall’s limbs twitch once, twitch twice, twitch three times… “Friggin’ die,” Rainbow breathed. “Just friggin’ die…” To their shock and horror, Squall started to rise again. Both mares tensed as the pirate started to climb to her hooves. Her blood was indistinguishable from her coat, and one shaky hoof at a time, she slowly turned to face Rarity and Rainbow. They drew back in shock and fear as Squall stared them down. The pirate opened her mouth to say something, coughed… And then her eyes rolled back and her legs collapsed beneath her. Squall fell to the ground like a sack of flour, limbs twitching once more as she deflated like a balloon. Rainbow and Rarity watched in disbelief, expecting the pirate to jump up again at any second. But she didn’t. Nearly a full minute dragged by, and Squall remained down for the count. Her hooves, about the only part of her they could still see beneath the foliage in the darkness of the night, were dead still. Rarity let out a sigh of relief and hugged Rainbow, nuzzling the pegasus’ wet neck. They’d done it. Somehow, they’d finally done it. It was over.