//------------------------------// // The Art of Making Friends // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// The pair of gunshots echoing through the night had surprised Black Flag. They both sounded like they came from the same place and fired nearly at the same time somewhere among the temple ruins. That worried him, because he didn’t know who shot those guns or why. Did his brother run into trouble at the ruins? But he shouldn’t have been on the ground, he was supposed to be in the air providing overwatch and trying to flank the survivors. So what were the survivors shooting at? “The fuck is going on over there?” Hayseed growled, her horn occasionally flickering as she maintained the invisible shield around herself and Black Flag. “They finally snap and start fucking each other up?” “I doubt it,” Black Flag said. “They’re cohesive enough to last this long. If there was any tension between them—” A shrill mare’s scream splitting the night in two cut the pirate off. Pure terror and horror practically dripped from the cry, thick enough to stop the two pirates in place. The skies shifted and the moonlight flickered as hundreds of bats began to swarm around the temple, squeaking and shrieking as they descended onto the ruins. “There it is again!” Hayseed cried, pointing directly at the shifting swarm of bats. “I saw it again, I know it! What the fuck is going on?!” Black Flag squinted at the swarm of bats. He couldn’t make much sense out of their shifting numbers, but occasionally, they would align into something resembling a face or a pony. The images disappeared as quickly as they appeared, and he didn’t know whether he was actually seeing something or if that was just his mind playing tricks on him because of Hayseed’s paranoia. But wraithlike monsters or not, there was absolutely nothing natural about what was happening at the ruins. “They’ve done it now,” Black Flag murmured to himself. “I didn’t really think this curse was real, but…” His words trailed off as he stared in horror at the spectacle unfolding in front of him. He couldn’t bring himself to advance another step on the tomb. He simply knew that something horrible awaited him and Hayseed if he did. “What the fuck do we do?” Hayseed asked in a worried voice. “We can’t go near that shit. We’ll fucking die!” The stallion swallowed hard. “Whatever is happening over there is bad news. Let’s find Jolly and get out of here. I don’t want to hang around longer than we have to.” As soon as he said that, he heard feathers fluttering down towards him. But the rhythm and noise of the flapping wasn’t that of Jolly Roger’s. Whirling around, he spotted a mare with an off-white coat landing several paces away from him and Hayseed, panic and worry in her eyes. “A survivor?!” Hayseed barked, surprised. She immediately drew her weapons and pointed them at the strange pegasus. “You got a death wish, lady?” The mare retreated a few steps and pitifully lowered herself to the ground, her wings outstretched but feathers fanned over the mud. Swallowing hard, she flicked her eyes between Black Flag and Hayseed. “I… I know we hate each other,” she said in a thick Prench accent. “And I know we’ve been killing each other for the past month… but please, I just saw something I can’t even comprehend, but I know we need to stop if we want to live.” “Fuck off!” Hayseed shouted at her, advancing a few paces. “Whatever you fucks did is your own fault! I should fucking flay you for dooming us all!” “Hayseed!” Black Flag shouted, making the mare stop. “I think we have bigger things to worry about right now. Stand down.” The pegasus mare’s eyes watched Hayseed with worry as the pirate growled in frustration. Ultimately, Hayseed holstered her weapons and stepped back, glaring at Black Flag. “We should fuck her up now,” she insisted. “Even the odds a little bit.” “We will not,” Black Flag said. Advancing on the cowering mare, he pointed a hoof back in the direction of the temple. “What the fuck happened over there? What did you idiots do?” “We needed to get inside of the tomb,” the pegasus said. “We needed to get something out of it if we’re ever going to get back to Equestria. But then two of you showed up, and two of my friends shot them… but they got back up. They said something about a seal on the tomb and freeing somepony. And then all the bats showed up and Soft Step started screaming, and…” The survivor fell into a series of trembling shakes and shudders as her words trailed off. Black Flag and Hayseed glanced at each other, and the pirate captain advanced on the survivor again. “Two of us? What do you mean?” “There were two of you pirates moving on the temple,” she said. “But there’s something wrong with them. They… they were like zombies! I didn’t realize until I saw them get shot and stand back up, and then they did something to my friends. Something’s not right! This isn’t good at all!” “You think she’s talking about Matchlock and Scabbard?” Hayseed asked. “We never found out what happened to them.” Black Flag nodded. “And I think we just did.” He regarded the survivor for a moment, then took a step back. “Why did you come to me instead of finding the rest of your friends? We’re enemies.” The pegasus nodded. “We are, but whatever happened at the tomb scared me more than you do,” she said. “I have a feeling that if we don’t work together, we’re all going to die. So we need to stop fighting each other and start fighting whatever is happening at the tomb.” Hayseed sneered at her and drew her weapons again. “If you think we’re going to fall for that stupid bullshit—!” Black Flag stopped her with an outstretched foreleg. “Hayseed, shut up,” he ordered her, silencing the fuming mare. Eventually, after much thought, he offered the cowering pegasus a hoof to help her stand. “I don’t like this, but I don’t like the sound of what you’re talking about even more. If there’s actually some evil spirit or something trying to get into this tomb, then we’re all going to have to work together if we’re going to stop it.” Then, sighing, he admitted, “Besides, you’re looking at two of only three of us left. If we’re going to live, then we need to work together. But if you betray us, we will drag as many of you down with us as we can.” The mare nodded and gingerly took Black Flag’s hoof to stand. “I think we have more important things to worry about than stabbing each other in the back,” she said. Then, flashing an uneasy smile at the pirates, she slightly bowed her head. “I’m Champagne.” “Black Flag and Hayseed,” Black Flag said, pointing to Hayseed when he said her name. “Now if we’re going to stop whatever’s happening at the tomb, we’re going to need reinforcements first.” Champagne nodded. “I can rally the other survivors. Hopefully that will be enough.” Black Flag looked in the direction of the temple ruins, where the bats were beginning to disperse again. “I don’t think it will be,” he said. “But it’s not like we’ve got much of a choice otherwise, do we?”