Rainbow Dash perched on top of a broken column, watching the moon slip beneath the sea with sleepy eyes. With the tomb sealed once more and no signs of it opening again, the expedition had taken some time to rest, recover, and let tempers cool off before venturing back to camp. Where the other five ponies had gone, Rainbow didn’t really know, nor did she care. She was already feeling down enough as it was.
Her wings sagged at her sides, the tips hanging loosely over the edges of the broken column, and she dejectedly sighed. After the harsh words directed at her, she didn’t want to move or do anything. The worst part was that they were right. The expedition was her idea, hers and Rarity’s, and now it had gotten so many ponies killed or turned or whatever. She didn’t even know if Rarity was among their number or not. After the verbal lashing she received for her failures, she started to imagine Rarity had fallen prey to that dark alicorn, whether her worries were warranted or not. She already blamed herself for getting so many other ponies killed or worse, and if Rarity joined them, she knew she’d never be able to forgive herself.
Despondent as she was, she wasn’t going to give up until she saw a body, however. But that was the problem. If there was a body, it was either buried deep in the tomb with all the mummies and monsters, or someplace she’d never find it. What would she do if Rarity didn’t return soon? What if days, weeks, even months passed with no sign of her? Would she finally admit to herself that Rarity was dead? Or would she continue to hold out hope that she was still alive somewhere?
She swallowed through her tightening throat and laid her head on her crossed forelegs. Again, she felt the overwhelming urge to fly far, far away, curl up in a ball, and pretend that none of this happened and nopony could blame her for anything. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it, not now. She was simply too tired to fly and too lethargic from the crushing failure of an expedition to even work up the willpower to try. She just wanted to be left alone and sulk, devoured from the inside out by the spiteful words thrown at her.
Of course, that meant that she couldn’t be alone for too long. It didn’t take all that much time before she heard hoofsteps approaching from below. Frowning, she tried her best to ignore them, even when the pony cleared his throat in an effort to get her attention.
“How are you feeling, Rainbow?” Ratchet ultimately asked her when she did not respond. “You alright?”
“Go away,” Rainbow grumbled, burying her nose into the crook of a foreleg. “I don’t need this right now. Just let me be.”
But Ratchet would not let her be. She heard him sigh and sit down at the base of the pillar; she was glad he wasn’t a unicorn or pegasus that could figure out some way to get up to her and bother her from even closer. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you friggin’ sorry?” Rainbow muttered.
“For lashing out at you,” Ratchet said. “For all of us lashing out at you. I spoke with Ruse and Champagne. They… regret what they said to you.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Rainbow grumbled, noticing that it was still only Ratchet beneath her. “It was nice of them to tell me in person.”
“They’re keeping an eye on the pirates. Now that we’re not tearing through a tomb, I don’t know what Flag and the other are going to do. But I don’t want them slinking off into the wilderness on their own.”
“Uh huh.”
She heard the older stallion sigh and scratch at his neck. “Nopony blames you for what happened down there. Tensions were running high, and of course the pirates were going to chew you out like that. They’re pirates. We were never on friendly terms with them to begin with. You especially, given what I know about your time with them.”
Rainbow Dash remained silent, her eyes still glaring at what was left of the setting moon.
“So again, I’m sorry, and I’m sorry on Ruse’s and Champagne’s behalves, at least. I know you’re worrying about Rarity, and rightfully so. But none of us could have expected what we’d seen down there, and so we reacted accordingly.” After a moment of silence, he added, “At least it was for a good cause.”
“Was it?” Rainbow asked.
“It’s better than what we were doing before.” Rainbow raised her head a little, just enough to look down and see Ratchet sitting with his back against her column. “We were in a war with the pirates, just fighting and senselessly killing each other for no reason. We were dying for nothing. At least tonight… well, those who died, they died trying to get home. They died for a reason. Don’t underestimate that.”
“They still died.” Rainbow frowned and went back to staring at the moon. “Just because they died for something else doesn’t change the fact that ponies are dead because they tried to do what I wanted them to do.”
“They wouldn’t have done what you wanted them to do if they didn’t believe in you.” Ratchet shifted below her, and Rainbow was certain that he was looking up at her. She didn’t want to check and show that she was actually interested in what he had to say. “You couldn’t have forced any of us to help you with this temple business if we didn’t think you were onto something. All we were accomplishing here was surviving in the barest sense of the word. We didn’t have much hope that we were going to last a month, let alone make it back to our families.”
“Some of them won’t be making it back to their families,” Rainbow muttered. “We won’t even have bodies to give them.”
“Rainbow Dash.” There was a marked shift in the stallion’s tone. Once supportive and apologetic, it had taken on a firmer, no-nonsense candor. It was enough to make Rainbow raise her head and look down the column, where her eyes met Ratchet’s. “I understand that you’re blaming yourself for this,” the engineer said. “Blame yourself all you want. But don’t mope. We don’t need mopers here, on this island. Mopers aren’t going to get us home. We need strong and determined ponies, like the Rainbow Dash who led us out to this temple in the first place in the hopes of getting home.”
He nodded back toward the temple. “What happened down there shouldn’t have happened. Nopony could have predicted that. But here we are, beaten but still standing. We lost a few, and we won’t forget them. But we owe it to them to make their deaths worth something. Otherwise… what was the point? Of any of this?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t respond. She could only watch him with a speechless look.
Shaking his head, Ratchet stood up and stretched aching limbs. “I’m going to go rally everypony for the march back to camp. There’s nothing we can gain by standing out here any longer, and we need to get our sleep while we can. Come tomorrow night, I don’t know what will happen. But I don’t think we’ll be safe trying to sleep through it until we know for sure that we can. Now you can either walk back with us, or fly back on your own. You know where the camp is.”
Then, nodding once, he turned away and walked back through the ruins, towards the jungle surrounding them. Rainbow watched him go, watched him vanish behind some toppled stone, and swallowed hard. He was right, after all. Though tonight had been a disaster, what was she going to do about it? Wallow in her misery? Or continue leading the charge?
It didn’t take her long to spread her wings and drop out of the column, flapping them a few times before touching the ground. Then, groaning, she set off after Ratchet, ready to rejoin the crew once more.