//------------------------------// // Now that That's Taken Care Of // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// “What the fuck is that?!” Black Flag stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky. A rainbow ring of light sliced through the clouds above him and his crew, destroying them and briefly intensifying the rain over the island before it stopped entirely. What it left behind was a clear view of the night sky, complete with the full moon hanging almost directly overhead and a seemingly infinite expanse of stars arranged against the black backdrop of space. “A Sonic Rainboom?” Jolly Roger asked. “No way. That’s unreal!” “That’s that Rainbow Dash, right?” Hayseed said in her gruff voice. “Why did she do that?” “It got rid of the clouds,” Black Flag said, pointing toward the sky. “There’s no way that wasn’t intentional.” “But why are they getting rid of the clouds?” Roger asked. “Do they hate the storm that much?” “I think they have another goal in mind.” Black Flag continued to creep forward through the jungle until he found himself at the edge of a channel that offered him a clearer view of the sky. The ring of colors slowly faded away on the distant horizons, and when they did, there wasn’t a cloud in sight. The rainboom had completely destroyed the storm sitting above the archipelago. The only question that remained was why? “They obviously don’t give a shit if we know where they are,” Hayseed said. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have done that.” “So they’re armed and dangerous,” Jolly said. “Tough shit. So are we, and we know what we’re doing.” “They have more weapons and more ponies than we do,” Flag cautioned the other pirate. “We can’t win a stand-up fight with them. But if we know where they are, then we can whittle their numbers down some.” “And just where are they, exactly?” Hayseed said, her magic idly toying with one of her pistols. “I just want to taste some blood!” Jolly Roger shoved her across the beach with a wing. “It’s obvious, you stupid cunt. They’re at the temple. That rainboom was right over it. They’re trying to do something there, that much is obvious.” “Do something there?” Hayseed momentarily faltered. “They’re not trying to open the stupid thing, are they?” “I don’t know how a rainboom would go about doing that,” Black Flag said. “But if they are, we might not have to worry about them ourselves for much longer.” He started across the channel, the other two pirates watching him with confusion. “Wait, you want to go toward the tomb? Toward that cursed thing?” “I want to see what they’re doing,” Black Flag said. “We’ll worry about curses later. Right now, knowing what our enemy is up to is our best chance for survival.” And then he slipped into the next patch of undergrowth, leaving his crewmates to warily follow him across the channel and toward the tomb. ----- Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but celebrate and show off a little bit. After all, the adrenaline still roared through her veins; why stop now? She’d just pulled off a Sonic Rainboom and destroyed an entire storm with it. She was entitled to a little celebration and flair, right? Well, even if that answer was ‘no’, Rainbow still intended to do just that. She kept her speed up as much as she could, barely doing more than twitching her feathers to change course and adjust her heading as she pulled off loops and twirls and stunts. Every single inch of her body, every single hair on her coat, felt alive and awesome. This was what she was meant to do. To fly and be awesome. It was just an added bonus when it turned out that was also the best way to be helpful. Of course, she had to remind herself that she still had a job to do. The rainboom was only to clear the skies so the moon could hit the temple, and she’d definitely done that. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the full moon shone down on the tomb below. Rainbow figured they’d have several hours before any new clouds came back into the area, which was plenty of time to explore the tomb and at least get a sense of where this figurine was supposed to be. At any rate, she knew she wanted to leave one of her teammates above ground to keep an eye on the moon and the clouds so that the rest of the expedition could get out before they lost moonlight over the tomb again. But on the bright side, that meant she could explore the tomb herself and it’d be more than just Rarity, Ball Bearings, and Blow Off who had to shoulder that burden. Wheeling around, Rainbow set her sights on the tomb below. As she watched from afar, she saw the massive stone doors sliding open of their own volition, so she adjusted her course accordingly. That would be a good rendezvous point to meet up with her friends. She could already see the other three pegasi fluttering down from the cloudless night sky, and with a flourish of blue feathers, slotted into position on their right and joined their descent. “How was that for a show?” she asked them, casually rolling over and gliding to the ground on her back. “That was amazing!” Soft Step proclaimed. “I’ve never seen one of those in person before! It’s every bit I had always hoped it’d be and more!” “Think you can teach the rest of us how to do that?” Stargazer asked. Rainbow laughed and shook her head. “Sorry, you guys are great and all, but you aren’t as awesome as I am. The Sonic Rainboom is like, twenty percent speed and eighty percent sheer awesomicity. You gotta be born ready to do one!” “I’m sure there’s a way to do it,” Stargazer insisted. “You just have to show us how!” “Yeah, yeah, as soon as you beat me in a race, I’ll teach you how to do a rainboom.” The four pegasi came to a stop at the top of the stairs leading down, where Rainbow caught sight of Rarity and the two stallions picking their way out of the temple ruins. Grinning, Rainbow fluttered over to Rarity. “Did you guys see that? It was awesome, right?” “Yes, I did see it, and it was quite stunning.” Rarity smiled at Rainbow, making Rainbow return the gesture. Then her alabaster hoof roughly slapped Rainbow across the muzzle. “It was so stunning I’m sure everybody on every island could see it! The pirates, the minotaurs, even the siren probably saw it! Now everypony knows where we are!” Rainbow rubbed her muzzle and frowned. “Relax, Rares, we’ll be fine.” “We were safest when nopony knew where we were!” Rarity huffed and jabbed her hoof into Rainbow’s chest. “Just why on earth would you even think that was a good idea?!” “Because the clouds weren’t breaking!” Rainbow protested. “They weren’t natural clouds, they were magical clouds!” Rarity blinked. “Magical clouds? Whatever do you mean?” “I mean that they were summoned by some magic or something,” Rainbow said. “Me and my team could hardly touch them. So if we couldn’t clear them out ourselves, they I figured I had to use some awesome magic to do that. And what better magic than the Sonic Rainboom?” Rarity frowned and thought for a few moments. “Okay,” she said. “So you did what you had to do. But now we’ve likely got pirates and who knows what else bearing down on us, and we’ve got an entire tomb to explore. What now?” “What now?” Rainbow echoed. “I mean, that much should be obvious. We go and explore.” Rarity eyed the yawning black entrance of the tomb with suspicion and just a little bit of worry. “But how, Rainbow. We don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into. We’ve got the tomb open, so that’s a start, but let’s try to be safe and smart about this next bit.” Rainbow shrugged her wings. “Okay, yeah, sure. I was thinking that I leave one of my team back here at the entrance to watch the storm and keep an eye on the moon. We’ll need some warning if we’re about to lose moonlight so we can get back out. I’m not sure if the temple will stay open if we lose the moon.” Rarity nodded in agreement. “We didn’t do anything on our end to open the temple,” she said. “It opened on its own as soon as the moonlight hit it, so I would assume it will close on its own when it loses sight of the moon.” “Right, good thinking.” Rainbow turned around and pointed out Champagne. “You’re gonna keep watch up here, okay?” she asked the Prench mare. “If you see the clouds getting close to the moon or the moon getting low in the sky, come and get us. We need as much warning as we can to leave.” Champagne nodded. “I can do that.” “Good.” Rarity likewise stepped forward and picked out Blow Off. “Stay up here with her, will you?” she asked the stallion. “Two sets of eyes are better—and safer—than one. If we have any uninvited guests, we’ll need to know as soon as we can.” Blow Off shrugged. “Whatever. I wasn’t too keen on going down into the tomb anyway, so that’s fine by me.” “Good,” Rainbow said, somewhat relieved that Rarity had made the irritating stallion stay above ground on watch. “The rest of us, let’s get going. We’re wasting valuable moonlight up here!”