Rainbow Dash twisted and contorted herself to get her hooves under the edge of the first mechanism. On the one hoof, the enormous locks had been shaped such that Rainbow and Stargazer had a place to push from and help lift it. On the other, it meant awkwardly crouching with chilly, stagnant water up to her neck and her forehooves placed above her head and under a protrusion on the lock. It was hardly comfortable, and as an athlete, Rainbow worried that she would hurt her back from this position.
At her side, Stargazer mimicked her position, even using his long wings like extra legs to stabilize him. Rainbow couldn’t get as much leverage from that with her much shorter and quicker wings, but she was also protective of them and didn’t want to risk damaging them by doing something like that. Besides, she was still freshly healed and hadn’t strongly reconditioned her wing yet… although the Sonic Rainboom certainly put it through its paces there.
She also couldn’t believe that she’d only been flight capable for four days. It felt like it was a lifetime ago.
“Alright!” Rarity yelled, moving into position next to Ball Bearings. “We’re ready over here. What about you two?”
“Ready!” Stargazer grunted back, shifting a few more times to try and get the optimal position.
“Just don’t drop this on us, Rares,” Rainbow said. “It’ll be hard for me to sex you up when I’m flat!”
She heard an offended splash come from Rarity’s direction. “Rainbow Dash, now is not the time for this!” Rarity shouted.
“You’re right, that’ll be after. Think we can have raft sex when we’re done with this?”
“Do we get to watch?” Ball Bearings asked. He immediately yelped as Rarity slapped him across the face.
“You most certainly do not!” Rarity cried, raising her hoof and threatening to hit him again simply because once wasn’t enough.
Rainbow chuckled and shook her head. “Take it easy on the poor dude, Rares. He’s just teasing.”
“It gets lonely out on the island,” Ball Bearings protested, rubbing his smarting cheek. “We gotta find ways to entertain ourselves somehow, right?”
Rarity huffed and pointedly moved a few feet away from him. “Right,” she muttered. “In any event, can we get started on this lock, please? I’m furious enough that I might simply lift it myself if I have to deal with this pubescent behavior any longer!”
“Yeah, it’s probably a good idea if we get started on this before Rarity rips Ball’s balls off,” Rainbow quipped.
“I will rip you in half, Rainbow!” Rarity growled, shaking an angry hoof in Rainbow’s direction.
Chuckling, Rainbow tensed her legs and put some gentle pressure on the lock. “Alright, let’s do this,” Rainbow said. “On three! Ready? One! Two! Three!”
Rainbow grunted and heaved against the stone locked, gasping as she threw all the force she could muster against it. Stargazer did the same at her side, and with Rarity and Ball Bearings helping with their magic, Rainbow felt herself slowly begin to rise as the lock shifted.
“Come on!” she grunted, shifting her hooves slightly to try and get a better angle of attack. “Come on! Push!”
Inch by inch, the stone lock rose up along its groove, ancient rock grinding against itself as it moved. Rainbow and Stargazer soon found themselves directly underneath the heavy end of the lock as they continued to push, making slow but steady progress. It wasn’t exactly the best position to be in, Rainbow quickly realized; trapped between the door on her left and Stargazer on her right, if either Rarity or Ball Bearings let their magic fail, she’d be squashed flat before she could even jump out of the way.
“Just a little bit more!” she shouted, heaving and straining. “Come on! Push!”
She was rewarded with grunts of exertion from her companions, and then suddenly the weight of the lock seemed to vanish. She and Stargazer both stumbled forward as the mass of the lock pivoted about its axis and the massive stone mechanism slammed against the wall with a thunderous boom. The four ponies collapsed onto the ground, trying to recover their breath and give their sore muscles and minds a quick rest before moving onto the next one.
“That… wasn’t so bad…” Rainbow said between gasping breaths. “One down… one to go!”
“My poor horn has seen so much use on these islands,” Rarity said. “It’s a wonder it hasn’t split again.”
“I felt like mine was going to break off just from that alone,” Bearings said. He shot a weary glance at the other lock on the other side of the door. “I’m not exactly looking forward to the next one.”
“Well, we just gotta do it,” Rainbow said. She reluctantly forced herself to stand, taking advantage of the impetus to get out of the stagnant and clammy water she’d been sitting it. She shook out each of her limbs one at a time, cracked her neck, and was the first to take up position on the other lock. “Come on, let’s get this open while we’ve still got adrenaline going!”
A chorus of reluctant groans answered her, but her companions started moving anyway. In short order, they’d set themselves up in the same arrangement again, and Rainbow even pressed her head against the underside of the lock to try and use her spine for a little extra leverage. “Alright! Everypony ready?”
“Ready!”
“Ready!”
“Ready, darling.”
“Good!” Rainbow tensed her muscles again and got ready to push. “Again, on three! One! Two! Three!”
Again, they heaved and struggled, and again, they were rewarded with the huge lock lifting up excrutiatingly slowly. The four ponies lifted and hefted, and bit by bit, they finally forced the lock up and back. With one final burst of effort, they managed to tilt the lock back far enough that its own weight opened it the rest of the way.
Once more, Rainbow fell to her haunches and held her trembling limbs out in front of her. But she still managed a smile at her friends. “See, that wasn’t so hard!” she said. “Easy as pie!”
“I am going to have a killer migraine tomorrow,” Rarity grumbled. Ball Bearings merely nodded in agreement.
“Well, we’ve got the locks open,” Stargazer said. “Now what?”
“Now we catch our breath, and then we get started on the door,” Rainbow said. She casually regarded the stone door beside her and frowned. “Anypony see a door knob or anything?”
“I imagine that we simply have to give it a push,” Rarity said. “Or a pull. One of the two.”
“It’d help if the people who built this clearly labeled their stuff,” Bearings said. “Definitely not safety compliant.”
“See? That’s what I said at the sun temple!” Rainbow proclaimed. “What is with these ponies?”
Rarity rolled her eyes and let her horn glow a little brighter, and a swatch of her magic covered the seams of the doors. Her face screwed into effort and exertion, and soon the doors began to creak inwards. “Looks like we just have to give it a little push,” Rarity said. “One more time, I suppose.”
Rainbow rolled to her hooves and put her shoulder against one of the doors. “Yeah. One last push! Come on, everypony, let’s do this!”