//------------------------------// // Reunited // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash still shook and trembled, but little by little, the traumatizing experience of sitting in Melody’s mouth started to go away as her body purged the adrenaline from her veins. That was closer to a siren than she’d ever expected to get in her life, and was definitely not an experience she wanted to repeat. But if she got in one way, she had to get out, too… She was not looking forward to the return trip. But she was alive, she was more or less unharmed excepting the nightmares she knew she was going to have about the ordeal, and amazingly enough, the siren had told the truth. Because pressed against her, simply trying to hold on as tightly as she could, was none other than Rarity herself. Every waking moment, Rainbow had worried that Rarity must have died or been trapped beneath the tomb when the rest of the survivors pulled out. She had wondered if she’d never ever see Rarity again, if the last she ever saw of her was an uneasy smile before she teleported behind the stone door, or the bloodstains of a dying mare on a beach. “Rarity,” she croaked, pressing her weight against the unicorn. “I… I found you…” “You did,” Rarity replied, nuzzling her cheek. “You did, darling. When I woke up here, I didn’t know if you were alive or okay. I worried something awful happened to you.” “I thought we’d left you in the tomb to die,” Rainbow said. “We had to run away. There were too many monsters, too many mummies…” “Mummies?” Rarity asked. “You mean those corpses I worried would stand up and attack us actually did so?” “Yeah… yeah, it was really bad.” Rainbow shook her head. “They started attacking from everywhere. We had to leave, otherwise we would have been overrun and killed. I thought we were leaving you to die when we did and the tomb doors shut.” She pressed her nose against Rarity’s coat and inhaled, blotting out the smell of fish and siren with the scent of her marefriend. “How did you even get out of there?” “There was a cave behind the final room of the tomb,” Rarity said. “I managed to teleport out through it before Soft Step and that pirate could catch me. But I accidentally teleported my flank through a stalactite. I nearly died from blood loss after I cut myself free and escaped.” She turned her face up at the siren and smiled. “I tried to make it back to our supplies to treat my injuries, but I collapsed before I made it. If it wasn’t for Melody, I would have died on the beach.” The siren, Melody, smiled down at the two ponies. “You’re lucky I decided to investigate what was happening on the archipelago that night. At least now I know why I felt the energy shift there.” “Yes, and I think I can say we’re all happy about that,” Rarity said. After a moment, she cleared her throat and clarified: “I mean, you coming to investigate the islands and finding me, not the… energy shift that happened there.” “Yeah.” Her slitted pupils turned toward Rainbow, and even after riding in the siren’s mouth unharmed, Rainbow still shrank back from the look. “Maybe you can explain more about what happened? Rarity could only tell me a bit of what she encountered on her end.” “Well… there was a lot of fumbling about in the dark,” Rainbow began. “But after you went into the inner tomb, Rares, Soft Step and Blow Off and two pirates came down into the tomb and just… opened the door with some kind of freaky moon magic. They were enchanted or something, and when we tried fighting Blow Off and one of the enthralled pirates, they just fought like they were machines.” “I encountered Soft Step and the other pirate in the inner chamber of the tomb,” Rarity said. “They glared at me, and it felt like something was trying to grab onto my mind. But there was a flash of darkness, and I managed to escape.” She glanced at Melody and shrugged. “What I don’t get is why. I mean, they were likely enthralled by this moon god’s power, right? And I… I talked to his shade. It could control darkness at will. So why would it stop its minions from turning me into one of them? “You left with the unicorn statuette,” Melody noted. “The thralls probably can only follow simple commands, but I think it’s obvious that the shade wanted you to leave with the figurine. It wants you all to collect them all and take down the barrier.” “Wait… moon god? What?” Rainbow shook her head. “I’m… confused.” “I can explain it better later,” Melody said. “But that’s what was in that tomb, and it’s what caused those thralls and those mummies you mentioned. Some ponies that lived here tried to summon it centuries ago, but they were stopped by another group, and they basically killed themselves off in a civil war. The survivors sealed off the islands to prevent any bits of the shade from escaping and to keep the islands a secret from the outside world.” “From what Melody said, the shade needs an avatar to complete its summoning ritual or… something to that effect.” Rarity shrugged. “So long as it doesn’t get that, though, then I think we can take care of it. After all, we’ve fought worse back in Equestria before, right? We can take the barrier down and get help from home to deal with this menace.” “I think you underestimate how dangerous it is,” Melody said. “If it ever gets back up to full strength…” “It already has an avatar,” Rainbow said. “A new one, I guess. I saw it.” Melody’s beak hung slightly agape. “It… has an avatar again?” she asked. “Are you sure?” Rainbow slowly nodded. “I saw it when me and some of the other survivors were trying to fight off the swarm of mummies and keep them inside the tomb until the moon fell enough for the door to close. It was a dark green alicorn mare, with a twisted, evil horn on her head. She nearly escaped before the door sealed.” Rainbow shuddered. “If she had, I think she would have killed us all.” Melody sunk a bit lower into her pool of water and frowned. “He must have made a new one when those two thralls got into the tomb,” she said. “The mare that tried to enthrall you, Rarity… I think she’s the new avatar now.” Rarity’s faced paled. “You mean… that monster turned Soft Step into a twisted alicorn?” She trembled and let her eyes fall to the stone. “I… that poor mare…” “Yeah, I… I thought her face looked kind of familiar,” Rainbow said. “It was larger and shaped a little differently, but her eyes…” The pegasus shivered. “What do we even do now?” Melody shook her head from side to side. “I need to think,” she said. “Because this is really, really bad. I’ll… I’ll be back in a bit.” Without another word, Melody pushed off from the edge of the platform and sank back down beneath the water. Her tail briefly splashed out again as she twisted in place, but then the green siren was gone, vanished somewhere into the underwater temple. That left just Rainbow and Rarity alone on the stone, holding onto each other. Rarity swallowed hard. “What do we do now?” she asked. “Come the next full moon, we’re all doomed.” “We’ll figure something out, Rares.” Rainbow assured her. “I promise.” Looking at the beautiful mare in front of her, beautiful still even beneath the missing ear and badass eye scar, Rainbow wanted to do nothing more than just lean in and kiss her. She even started to, moving her wings out to touch Rarity’s sides. “I missed you so much, Rarity,” she murmured. Before she could go in for the kiss, however, Rarity stopped her with a dainty hoof on her chest. “You’re still covered in siren saliva,” Rarity reminded her. Smiling, she winked at Rainbow. “Why don’t you go wash off first, okay? It turns out there’s a bedroom down here, and I don’t want you ruining it after traveling in Melody’s mouth.” A grimace of revulsion decorated Rarity’s face. “How did you even manage that? Her mouth isn’t that big.” “It was scary,” Rainbow said, already moving toward the water. “I was tucked in as tight as I could mange on her tongue. And she kept moving it! I was afraid she was gonna swallow me whole!” Rarity smirked and winked at Rainbow. “Maybe I’ll have to ask her what she thinks about your taste.” She even licked her lips for emphasis. “I’m sure we can compare notes.” Rainbow couldn’t help but waggle her eyebrows. “I’ll give you another sample after I wash off.” “Good.” Then, humming, Rarity strode away from the pool and down the short hallway to the bed. “Don’t keep me waiting…”