//------------------------------// // Field Trip // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// “So you guys just like, stumbled across this thing one day?” Rainbow Dash quickly fluttered across the channel separating two of the small islands, keeping her hooves dry, while Rarity and Ratchet simply forded it. The three ponies had left the survivor camp behind them to go and see the tomb and the ruins. With the sun beginning to set, they’d agreed to go immediately to see it before what daylight they had left expired and the jungle would become more difficult to navigate at night. They’d also taken a few weapons from the camp just in case; though Ratchet was confident they wouldn’t run into too much pirate activity during the day with Squall dead and their numbers thinned as they were, it never hurt to take a few extra precautions. “At its most basic, yes,” Ratchet said. “When we started linking up, we went to the dead center of the island cluster, figuring that if any other survivors happened to be looking for us, they’d make their way further inland. It gave us a nice stronghold to defend, too. It certainly helped us when Squall and the pirates were at their most vicious.” “Did they ever try to force their way to you?” Rarity asked. “I can’t imagine she’d just let you sit there uncontested.” Ratchet nodded as he emerged from the channel, seawater dripping off his legs and tail. “They assaulted it twice. Our numbers advantage was the only thing that saved us then. We didn’t have many weapons, and they had swords and firearms. Though we took a few pirates out, they were bleeding us dry. We were down to fourteen or fifteen left when the smoke cleared from the second attack, and the pirates had only lost three or four. After that, we pulled back to find a safer place to build camp and haven’t been back since.” “And Gyro claims that the pirates still believe you’re hiding in those ruins,” Rarity remarked. “The irony must be that they never ventured back to the ruins again since that attack if they’re unaware that you’ve relocated.” “I don’t necessarily regret pulling out of there regardless,” Ratchet said. “That just means that if they do wander back there in search of revenge for killing their captain, they won’t find us. As far as they know, we’ll have just vanished into thin air.” Rainbow dropped out of the sky, her hooves sending little ripples of sand around her upon impact. “I don’t even know if they’ll be able to mount a counterattack,” she said. “We took most of their weapons and supplies. It’s not like they have a lot left to fight us with.” “You’ve given them a thirst for vengeance and desperation,” Ratchet said. “Those two things in combination can be very dangerous. Even without weapons, those pirates could kill us if they got the jump on us. I’m doubling up on our patrols for the next week or so to catch them if they try to sneak up on us. Besides,” he added, chuckling, “our ventriloquist friend could use a little help now and then.” “Does he handle that all himself?” Rarity asked. “I can’t imagine he’s solely responsible for keeping watch.” “He does the bulk of it and doesn’t complain. It’s incredible.” The chief engineer lowered his head as he passed beneath some obtrusive ferns and branches, while behind him, Rarity merely pushed them aside with her magic. “He’s one of those ponies who can function on four hours of sleep. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s perfectly fine and rested after four.” “Four? Holy crap!” Rainbow shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t feel like I’m at my best unless I get, like, ten.” “I can’t imagine how wonderful that must be,” Rarity said. “If I had four or five more hours to work with per day, I could accomplish so much. I fall asleep at my workshop often enough as is!” “He’s not the only one either,” Ratchet said to the mares’ continuing surprise. “Soft Step’s also a quick sleeper. That’s why she was up late last night when we returned to the camp, and then awake at dawn with her usual chipper outlook.” “Jeez,” Rainbow said. “Guess it’s not hard for you guys to make sure somepony’s always on watch around the camp.” Ratchet nodded. “It’s certainly had its benefits. Especially for an old guy like me. I find it harder and harder to stay up after the sun sets these days.” “I can sympathize with that,” Rarity said. “If nothing else, all this time out here with no technology, no artificial lights, no screens or what have you, has helped restore my sleeping patterns to a more natural rhythm.” “And then dealing with first minotaurs and now pirates has really messed with them,” Rainbow said. “We’ve spent so much time snooping around at night because of this that I feel like my sleep schedule’s gotten worse, if anything.” “Eventually, it simply adjusts to the mere need for survival,” Ratchet offered. He grunted as he heaved himself up a stone jutting out of the sand—a block of stone that had obviously been cut. “We’re getting close now,” he said. “Not too much further.” Rainbow helped Rarity up the chest-high block of stone with a little bit of tugging from her wings and hooves, and the two mares started to notice the scenery change around them. Daylight more easily made its way to the jungle floor as the canopy thinned, and there was a distinct reason for that. More cut blocks of stone made up cracked floors and forums, crumbling walls, and shattered columns. Rainbow immediately knew she was standing on the ruins of some great temple or ancient structure, laid low with the passage of time and the relentless, consuming march of the foliage through every inch of available space. “No wonder I couldn’t see this place from the sky,” Rainbow said, her ruby eyes wandering up and down the blocks of stone and crooked trees mixed between. “The jungle’s so thick and this stuff’s so low that it’s completely covered from the air.” “Do you happen to know what this place was used for?” Rarity asked, trotting closer to Ratchet’s side. “Apart from a tomb, of course.” Ratchet shook his head. “No, we don’t. You’ll see why in a bit.” Rarity blinked. “We’ll see why?” “Yeah. There’s a reason we used the rubble around here to hold up and defend ourselves instead of the tomb proper.” Rainbow traced the edges of an eroding block of stone with her wingtip, only for her feather to slip into a hole in the stone chewed out by a fat bullet. “Eeesh, I doubt that was fun. But being cornered in a tomb would’ve been worse.” The engineer shrugged mid-stride. “Perhaps. Regardless, we’re still here.” Then, angling his head off to the side, he maneuvered around a pile of rocks that might have once been a statue or symbol of some kind. “The tomb is down here.” “Down here?” Rarity curiously cocked her head and hurried to Ratchet’s side to see exactly what he meant. Rainbow, on the other hoof, took wing again and decided to see for herself. Just past the forum Rarity and Ratchet currently trotted across, she saw the land abruptly give way into a deep staircase carved into the earth. More than a staircase, it seemed like a ramp down into the very bowels of the earth. It was, at a minimum, fifty tail-lengths wide, and it dropped so deep down into the earth that a stone overhang shrouded a door in the back in shadow. Ratchet and Rarity stopped at the edge of the stairs while Rainbow hovered above them. “There’s some kind of temple or tomb down those stairs,” he said, pointing to the intricately decorated and chiseled door at the bottom. “We don’t really know for sure, but we think it’s a tomb instead of something else.” “And how do you suggest that without being able to get inside?” Rarity asked. “Are there any defining marks? Any evidence for that?” “Yes, on the door.” He continued to gesture at it, and Rainbow swooped directly down the stairs to land in front of the door. “You can tell by the carvings.” Indeed, Rainbow could tell at a glance that it had to be a tomb of some sort. The Ponynesians had carved dozens of little ponies into the face of the door lying in neat rows on their backs with their eyes shut. Above them, stars and clouds swirled around a full moon pierced by the horn of a regal and frightening unicorn stallion. The stallion looked the slightest bit demonic, with barely visible fangs and slitted eyes etched into his likeness. It didn’t take long before Rainbow recognized him from the sun temple they’d found Gyro in. “There’s a bunch of dead ponies underneath a picture of that moon dude from the sun temple,” Rainbow shouted out the side of her muzzle and back up the stairs. “I bet the unicorn statuette thingy is in here.” Ratchet raised an eyebrow. “What is this about a statuette? I believe Gyro mentioned something like that to me before, but she didn’t explain.” “We need to find them if we’re going to get back home,” Rarity said. “We discovered that there’s some kind of magic ward around these islands preventing us from being found. We’ll never get back home unless we take it down, and the key to doing that is to find these statuettes scattered across the four islands here. We already have one for a pegasus and one for a crystal pony. We’re missing a unicorn and an earth pony now.” “Huh.” Ratchet blinked as he turned that new piece of information over in his mind. “Well, if you think so. I’m down for anything that gives us a chance to get back home. Only problem is, we can’t open the door.” Rainbow frowned as she scrutinized the door. There weren’t any handles or keyholes to work with, and no obvious locking mechanisms like what held the sun temple’s doors shut. All there was were depictions of the unicorn and the moon, along with starlight and many nighttime motifs. But if the sun had opened the interior of the sun temple, then could the moon open this temple? She turned around and fluttered back up the steps to her friends. “It’s nearly a full moon, right?” “It should be tonight or tomorrow,” Ratchet said. “The moon’s gotten pretty large. We just couldn’t see it last night with all the rain.” Rainbow eyed the clouds sliding across the horizon with a wary look. “Well, Rares and I came from a temple that had doors that could only be opened by direct sunlight. Maybe this thing works the same?” Rarity craned her neck back to look up at the sky. “You believe the full moon will cause the door to open for us?” “I’d bet on it,” Rainbow said. “So long as those clouds stay away.” “I’m not sure about that,” Ratchet said. “It looks like they’re moving in pretty steadily.” Rainbow frowned and thought. What could she do? If the weather didn’t cooperate with her, then they might miss their chance to get the next figurine. There had to be something she could do instead of just praying for the best. And then it dawned on her. There was something she could do. She couldn’t do it before, but now she could. It was what her people were born to do. “How many pegasi are with you guys?” she asked Ratchet. Ratchet blinked. “Why?” “Because it’s important.” Rainbow had already started eyeing the clouds, starting to pick apart their patterns and prevailing wind currents based on how they moved. “I need them. All of them.” “Well, there’s Soft Step, Stargazer, and Champagne. The three of them are the only pegasi we have.” “Good. I can do with four.” She remembered Soft Step’s wing and corrected herself with a little grimace. “Or, well, three and a half. That’ll work.” “Rainbow?” Rarity asked. “What are you thinking?” “I’m thinking, Rares, that if the weather won’t cooperate with us…” A grin spread across her muzzle and she draped a wing over the unicorn’s back. “We make it cooperate with us the only way I know how.”