//------------------------------//
// Taking Care and Staying Safe 
// Story: Surviving Sand Island 
// by The 24th Pegasus 
//------------------------------//

Within half an hour, Rainbow and Rarity had organized their expedition to the tomb for that evening. Apart from the pegasi, which Rainbow more or less recruited through sheer force of will, they’d picked up two volunteers to join them on the ground and provide security: Ball Bearings and Blow Off, the two other engineers in the camp. While they set off on an expedition to the tomb, Ratchet kept the other four ponies back at camp to keep it secure in case of pirate attacks.

The seven ponies who had gathered to go to the tomb that evening started trudging through the undergrowth as the rain began to drizzle down. Rainbow already knew her team of four was going to get quite the workout tonight trying to clear a gap in the sky for the moonlight to hit the temple. But if her time on Ponyville’s weather team had taught her anything, it was how to manage a gap in the clouds with only three or four ponies. Hopefully they’d be able to keep the sky clear in that localized area long enough for Rarity to figure out how to keep the tomb open on the ground.

When they finally approached the outskirts of the temple ruins, Rainbow stopped their procession to brief them all. “Alright, so here’s what’s gonna happen,” she said, after forming her followers up into a rough circle. “Me and the other pegasi are gonna get airborne and work on clearing the clouds over the temple here. We’re gonna try to get the moonlight to cover as much of it as we can. While we’re doing that, you three on the ground are gonna look for anything that seems affected by the moonlight. You’ll probably hear it before you see it, so try not to make too much noise, okay?”

“Why do we even have to open this tomb?” Blow Off asked, frowning at Rainbow. “We’re dangerously exposing ourselves out here. We’ve split our camp into two while there could be pirates about.”

“Because we need to get what’s inside this tomb if we’re gonna go home,” Rainbow said. A part of her regretted letting Blow Off join them for this excursion. The stallion was irritable and not fun to work with, and she knew the only real reason why he volunteered to join the expedition was to get away from the camp and Gyro. Even with Gyro confined to the doctor’s hut, it seemed like the two couldn’t stand being in close proximity to each other.

“You and Rarity and Gyro came here on a raft,” Blow Off said. “We should be using that to evacuate from these islands while we can instead of lingering here and risking running into the pirates.”

“That raft isn’t going to get us back to Equestria.” Groaning, Rainbow rubbed at her face. “Look, are you gonna cooperate, or are you just here to complain? Because I don’t want to deal with it, and you can go back to the camp otherwise.”

Though Blow Off continued to frown at her, he at least kept his mouth shut. “Any other questions?” she asked. “I’m hoping we can figure this out before dawn.”

“What should we do if we’re attacked by pirates?” Ball Bearings asked. “I know we brought weapons, but do we stay and fight, or should we run away?”

Rainbow and Rarity glanced at each other. “Uh, I mean, what do you guys usually do? We’re not really familiar with how you do things.”

“Yes,” Rarity said, “Far be it from us to change your standard procedure. We only just arrived yesterday, we don’t want to tell you how to do everything now.”

“If we had the jump on the pirates, we’d usually attack,” Blow Off said. “If it was the other way around, we fled. The one thing we have that’s more important than weapons or food is each other, and we can’t afford to lose ponies fighting a battle we’re not ready to fight.”

“Alright, that’s pretty simple then,” Rainbow said. She used one of the cutlasses she’d carried under her wing to gouge a notch out of a nearby tree. “If the pirates show up, we fall back to this tree and rally here. We’ll figure out what to do next. But keep your weapons ready, just in case. Me and Rares stole what we could from them, so they’re probably hurting on weapons, but we’re really well armed.”

The other ponies at the group nodded, and Rainbow ruffled her wings. “Right. I think that’s about it. Standing under the rain here is getting annoying. Let’s get started, shall we?”

The other six ponies vocalized their agreement, and Rainbow led the expedition deeper into the temple ruins. The slowly mounting rain had turned the dirt in mud and made the stones slick with moisture, and Rainbow was half tempted to flutter a few inches above the ground so she didn’t have to deal with it anymore. But eventually, her small party made it to the entrance to the tomb, where the intricate doors remained sealed shut.

Rainbow raised a wing to shelter her face from the worst of the rain and squinted at the clouds. “The clouds are moving west to east and slightly north,” she said, stating her observations. “We’re gonna need to get set up further southwest and start clearing a zone there. If we work at it, we should have a skylight within the hour. Then we’ve just gotta maintain it.”

“And what do you want us to do in the meanwhile?” Rarity asked. “It’s not like we can help from the ground.”

“Stay low, stay out of sight, and keep your ears open. As soon as we get moonlight on the temple, start looking for any entrances. But mostly for now, just make sure no pirates will see you if they happen to investigate the tomb tonight. If they’re looking for revenge, this is probably the first place they’re gonna hit.”

Rarity nodded and started surveying the ruins around them. “Alright. You two, let’s go this way. We should have a good line of sight on the surrounding jungle from on top of this pile of rubble.”

While they began to move out, Rainbow turned to her team. “Alright, follow my lead. We’ll start flying up and getting things cleared.” Her eyes turned to Soft Step and she took a worried step closer to the crippled mare. “Can you fly up to the cloud level? You can stay on the ground with Rarity if you want.”

Soft Step forcefully nodded. “I can make it up there,” she said. “I’ll just need to rest for a few minutes when I do. But so long as I’m standing on the clouds, I can help you out fine.”

Rainbow smiled. “I like you, girl,” she said. Then, spreading her wings, she launched herself into the air. “Alright, everypony, on me! Let’s remind the weather who its masters are!”