//------------------------------// // Council of the Survivors // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Gyro watched the camp slowly come to life from her post by the doctor’s door. As ponies slept off the horrors they’d witnessed last night, they started to move about, checking on supplies and other necessities around the camp. But nopony spoke about what they’d seen, or even about much of anything, really. It was like the survivors of the expedition wanted to believe that if they didn’t talk about it, the nightmare could remain just that: a nightmare. It couldn’t last forever, though. That much, Gyro knew for certain, as certain as the simple fact that the camp was half as lively as it was the day before, even at its peak. The signs that she was living in a defeated camp without even the tiniest spark of hope left were all around her, plain as day, from the looks on the other ponies’ faces, to the two figures behind her in Doctor Gauze’s tent. Coals was still unconscious, and she didn’t even know if Fresh Linens had died or not. Her chest hardly seemed to move, if it moved at all, and she’d lost a lot of blood from the bite to her neck. Not even Gauze had seemed too hopeful about her condition; when she asked him about it earlier, he’d simply shaken his head and fetched a clam shell to help her drink. As for herself, Gyro could feel she was getting better, but she didn’t feel better. The pain in her back had settled into an uncomfortable ache a while ago, and it only really spiked her with pain if she tried to twist or move too suddenly. The tingling in her legs intensified throughout the morning, to the point where it was almost unbearable now, but she could feel the dullest sensation whenever she poked at her flank. Her hoof even twitched with some effort, and after a few hours, she could wiggle it ever so slightly. That she even had the ability to move her legs proved that the miraculous surgery had worked. Janky as it may have been without the proper tools, Doctor Gauze and Rarity had saved Gyro from living the rest of her life a cripple. Hopefully, she could walk by the end of the week. It was already hard enough to keep herself from trying to stand and test her spine before it was even ready. The camp seemed to come to life when Rainbow returned, because Rainbow’s mere presence tended to have that effect on a group of ponies. By the look of her feathers and her mane, she’d been in the sea somewhat recently, and the sun had dried the water away, caking her coat in salt and sand. It also left her looking bedraggled and thinner than usual. Her ribs and bones poked through her coat just enough to be oddly noticeable, though she didn’t look anywhere near as bad as Gyro herself had looked at the end of her imprisonment at the sun temple. Malnutrition and the lack of a varied diet was beginning to take its toll on the athlete, but she moved with a fire and determination that seemed completely at odds with her thinning body. Stopping right in the center of the camp, Rainbow shook out her sandy wings and looked around the campsite. “We need to have a talk,” she announced, her voice just loud enough to be heard throughout the camp. “It’s about time we figured out what we’re gonna do next. We don’t have a lot of time to make a plan, and since planning really isn’t my thing, I need you all to help me.” Her voice summoned the other ponies of the camp, and they stopped whatever meaningless distractions they’d occupied themselves with to move toward her. Soon, she had a small circle to talk with, and she thoughtfully shifted over a bit so Gyro could participate as well. Awkward silence held over the group for a few seconds, so Gyro decided to clear her throat and get things started. “Your flight help you think things out?” “Eh, kinda,” Rainbow said, shrugging with her wings. “I certainly had a lot of time to think. And that’s why I think we need to figure out what our next step is.” “What are our options?” Ruse asked. “How do we recover from what happened last night?” “We don’t have a lot of options,” Rainbow said. “Basically, only two: we either post here and continue trying to find the statuette, even find some way to contain the mummies and stuff, or we retreat to a safer island and buy ourselves some time. I think we should do the first one.” The two pirates scowled at her and one another. “Doesn’t sound like two options to me,” Black Flag said. “Sounds like a good idea and a bad idea. Staying’s only gonna get us all killed.” Rainbow fidgeted in place. “There’s a chance it won’t,” she said. “We don’t know if the door will open again tonight.” “Stargazer and Jolly Roger reported that there wasn’t any noise coming from the tomb today,” Ratchet said, glancing at the two pegasi. “Everything seems dormant and still on the other side. For the time being, at least, we don’t have to worry about anything breaking out.” “It’s not going to last, though,” Jolly Roger insisted, casually inspecting his feathers. “When that door opens tonight, we’re all gonna get raped if we’re still here.” “But we don’t know if it will open,” Rainbow said. “And even if it does, if we leave tonight, we’re basically giving up. We’ll never get home. We need that statuette that’s down there.” “It’s better to live and hide than die screaming,” Flag insisted. “If we leave, there’s a chance we’ll be able to escape this madness here.” To Gyro’s surprise, the normally quiet and observant Doctor Gauze spoke up in the pirates’ favor. “There’s no sense in staying around here. At the very least, I need to get my patients off of this island. If these mummies you’re talking about break free, then they will all die. We can’t be expected to carry them to safety when they start overrunning the camp.” “I can move on my own,” Gyro insisted. “Just get me my walker thing and I’m mobile enough.” Though Rainbow seemed to be thankful for Gyro’s indirect support of staying, it wasn’t enough to silence the others. “Leaving sounds like the best idea,” Champagne said. “You said you were from a tiny island to the northeast, right? Maybe this alicorn will look us over.” Rainbow blinked and tried to sputter out a retort. “B-But we can’t just give up now!” she exclaimed. “Didn’t you hear me? We’ll never get home if we don’t leave these islands with a figurine!” “All you want,” Flag began, advancing on Rainbow, “is to find your marefriend. That’s it.” He stopped in front of her and jabbed a hoof into her chest. “And you don’t care how many of us get killed trying to find her, so long as you do.” His accusation threw a harsh silence over the camp. Everypony’s eyes looked to Rainbow, who in turn glared at Flag in stunned silence. “That’s not true,” she eventually managed, though Gyro noted it took her some effort to get the words out. “I don’t want anypony to die.” “But you don’t want us to leave until you find your marefriend,” Flag concluded. When Rainbow didn’t respond, he scoffed and looked at everypony else. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in hanging around an island filled with mummies and a supposed Nightmare Moon knockoff just to help Rainbow find a corpse to jerk off.” “Fuck off!” Rainbow shouted at him, pushing forward until she was chest to chest and nose to nose with the taller pirate. “You’re lucky that we’re even working with you instead of ending this crap once and for all! You assholes beat me for your enjoyment for a day and a half, and I put that aside in favor of trying to work together!” “Does that mean we’re supposed to owe you or something?” Jolly Roger spat, joining his brother. “Fuck off, bitch. We don’t owe you anything.” “Enough!” Ratchet shouted, forcing his way between the three. When they’d backed up a few paces and stopped bickering, he took a deep breath and glanced around the circle. “Rainbow’s right. We won’t ever get home if we leave these islands without the statuette. But if we stay here, we will die when those doors open again. We need to go someplace safe if we want to even stay alive until the next day.” He shook his head and turned an apologetic glance to Rainbow. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I can’t risk the rest of my crew in the tiniest hope that somehow Rarity is still alive out here. It wouldn’t be fair to the rest of them.” Gyro watched Rainbow try to swallow that pill, and she felt bad for her. “I can’t leave anypony behind,” Rainbow said. “It’s just who I am.” Ratchet tried to pat her shoulder, but Rainbow shrugged his hoof away. “I wish there was something I could do, but I can’t risk anypony else on this. We should just retreat to safety and figure out what to do next. You said there’s an island you haven’t been to yet, right?” Rainbow reluctantly nodded. “To the south. But I’m not leaving without Rarity. Not until… until I know.” “Then fuck it, we’ll leave, and you can come along later,” Flag said. “We’ll take your raft, and you fly back whenever you’re done. Or don’t. I don’t give a shit.” When Rainbow didn’t say anything, Ratchet slowly nodded his head in agreement. “I… think that’s the best thing we can do here. Let’s focus on loading up on our supplies and preparing to leave. That’s about all we can do.” As the circle slowly began to break up, Ratchet turned to Rainbow. “Maybe you can go and make sure your raft is still available for us?” he asked. “If Rarity didn’t make it back to this camp, perhaps she went there, where the rest of your supplies are. You haven’t looked there yet, have you?” Rainbow shook her head. “Not yet.” Sighing, she turned around and walked away, stretching her wings. “But it’s a place to start looking.” Gyro wanted to say some words of encouragement to her, but Rainbow simply took off and flew into the sky, leaving them all behind.