Gyro did her best to ignore the sounds of Doctor Gauze frantically working on his patient behind her. She didn’t want to pay too much attention to it, because she knew it’d just get her worried and worked up about something she couldn’t help with. Instead, she kept her focus turned to the moon, watching its pale glow retreat bit by bit, minute by minute. She knew if her friends didn’t make it back soon, then they could’ve very well been trapped within the tomb with those other moonstruck and enchanted ponies.
Hopefully they wouldn’t end up like them…
While Gauze was the only pony at the camp who was actively busy and working, that didn’t mean anypony else (with the exception of the unconscious Hot Coals) got any rest. Not even Stargazer had taken it easy, and had instead resorted to pacing until he’d carved a shallow trench out of the sand with his constant nervous back and forth walking. By now, excitement and anxious worrying had chased away all of Gyro’s exhaustion, and she knew she wasn’t going to be sleeping for another several hours. She definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep calmly until Rainbow and Rarity got back and she heard from them what the situation was.
As she waited, however, Doctor Gauze surprised her by trudging out of his hut. His white coat was stained with drying blood for the second time that night, and his eyebrows had knitted themselves together in a pensive expression. Swallowing hard, Gyro looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Is she going to…?”
Gauze sighed and sat down next to her. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ve done my best to stabilize her, but she’s very, very weak. The next twenty-four hours will be crucial to her survival. If she doesn’t show signs of recovery by then, she won’t make it.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Gyro asked. “She’s just… lost a lot of blood?”
“I had to stitch her carotid artery back together,” he said. “She’s suffered severe blood loss, and I’m worried that it might have given her brain damage.”
“Coals also had blood loss,” Gyro said. “But he’s not going to die, right? You’re saying that Linens’ was worse?”
“Much worse.” Gauze nodded. “Hot Coals had a deep puncture wound in his torso, but Rainbow did right to not remove the bullet until he could be treated. That stopped him from losing more blood. But Linens was bleeding profusely from her neck until she could finally be brought to me.” He shook his head. “She lost a lot more blood, and she’s straddling the line of life and death. I don’t expect her to recover.”
Gyro blinked. “But… how can you say that?”
“Because I’m a doctor.” Gauze stood up, grunted, and blew air out his nostrils. “I’ve done all I can for her, and it likely won’t be enough. But maybe through some miracle she’ll make it. Until then…” He shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully everypony else will come back to me just fine and I won’t have to treat even more wounded.”
“Hopefully,” Gyro said, echoing his sentiments. “But I have a feeling it’s not over yet…”
-----
Rainbow only had a minute at the absolute most to ready herself for a fight. The zombies and mummies moved slow, sure, but they crept forward at an inexorably constant and steady pace. Soon, they’d be on top of her and the other survivors, and soon she’d be fighting for her life. But it was something she had to do if she was going to keep everypony else safe.
It was strange to imagine herself in a stand up fight like this. The closest she had to compare to was the fight against the changelings during the wedding, but even that had been a mad and manic rush to get to the Elements of Harmony with little time to think or fight for fighting’s sake. This was different. With five other ponies at her sides, the only thing she had to do now was hold the line. No matter what, she had to repel the zombies long enough for the moon to disappear and the doors to close. But given that she had a horde slowly shambling towards the exit, she wondered if she’d even manage to hold them back for a minute.
“Can you hold them back with your magic?” Rainbow asked Ruse, already eyeing the first zombies shuffling toward the door. “That would make this a lot easier.”
“I can put up a wall,” Ruse said, his horn flaring to life, “but sooner or later, they’re going to push through it with sheer force alone.”
“It’ll slow them down,” Rainbow said. “That’s all we need right now. Just to slow them down.”
A shimmering wall of nearly translucent magic appeared across the corridor, blocking the advance of the mummies. But as their numbers grew, they threw more and more of their snapping jaws and bony hooves against the wall of magic, beating and banging on it as much as they could. Cracks began to develop in the shield, and Ruse strained more and more to reinforce it and keep it up. He kept at it for almost five minutes, but finally, with sweat pouring down his face, he could only croak out a warning to his companions. “It… won’t be up… much longer!”
Almost as soon as he said that, the shield collapsed in a shower of glittering sparks, and the zombies began to march forward. They moved about in straggling numbers as they fit through the door, which was good for them, Rainbow realized. If they’d moved as one army, then the six of them couldn’t possibly hold them back. But like this, they had a chance.
“Shoot!” Rainbow shouted, reaching for her own pistol. “Thin them out!”
Several puffs of smoke erupted from the pistols the ponies carried on them, and the heavy lead balls shattered bone and mangled the mummies marching on them. But it was barely more than a gentle shove against their advance, for they continued to close in, missing limbs and heads or not. Soon, they were within cutlass range, and Rainbow switched weapons to her sword to try and fight against them and poke them back.
Though the six ponies stood strong through the first assault, shattering limbs and heads to render the zombies incapable of moving or pressing onwards any more, Rainbow knew it was a lost cause. Little by little, they found themselves being pushed away from the entrance, everypony backing up the stairs one at a time to get a little more room against the horde. Before Rainbow knew it, they were a quarter of the way back up the stairs, and the mummies kept coming.
That was when Champagne cried out and pointed. “The moon! It’s almost gone!”
Rainbow blinked and saw that she was right. There was only a little sliver of moonlight left on the arch above the tomb doors. They just had to hold on for another minute. “Push!” she shouted to her friends, renewed vigor empowering her limbs. “One last push! Get them behind those doors!”
Her companions answered her rallying cry, and together, they fought back against the zombies, hacking and slicing with renewed vigor and trying to push their clumsy, shuffling bodies back down the stairs. They slowly advanced, inch by inch, dropping one body at a time and then immediately stepping in to fill the space before a new one could take it. The stench of blood and death reeked and nearly made Rainbow sick, but she pushed on, knowing that she needed to get to the door.
A boom of stone shook the ground, and Rainbow saw the stone doors begin to slowly move. The moonlight had finally disappeared from the face of the tomb, and now the doors were sealing. Soon, they closed enough that the zombies could hardly get through, and her companions all tightened their ranks to stop what few there were.
But just before the doors closed, however, Rainbow thought she saw something. Moving through the back of the zombies, a tall figure with a long, sharp horn tried to push its way to the front. She saw wings unfurl at its sides, and slitted eyes seemed to glow in the darkness within. It hissed at her in frustration, revealing numerous sharp, white fangs. With a flap of its wings, it lunged for the gap in the doors…
…only for them to barely slam shut in its face. The temple shook with the resounding boom, and the hissing and moaning of the mummies and zombies suddenly fell silent. With the doors sealed, even the mummies and corpses still writhing around outside on the stairs fell still and dead. Rainbow expected them to move again at any second, but they remained motionless, lifeless. Whatever had been controlling them earlier, sealing the doors had severed that magic and returned them to lifeless corpses.
Her friends immediately cheered and embraced, though the two pirates stood off to the side. But while they celebrated their victory, Rainbow could only stare at the seam in the doors and try to process what she had seen.
If it was what she thought it was, then she knew they’d only put the nightmare on hold. They weren’t out of the woods yet.