Not Alone
Plan of action: Check for injuries. Take an inventory of current supplies. Attempt to locate either the downed chariot and if possible locate the missing Pegasuses of their team
as well in a timely fashion. Something shot them down and no doubt it would have sent scouts in order to confirm the body count; Who knows how much of a head start these scouts
have had thanks to being knocked out on landing?
When you're out in the field, the only ponies you can depend on are your crew and yourself. Good explorers don't leave their teams to uncertain ends!
I'm thinking that she should try to get a higher vantage point before it's dark. Though it wouldn't be nice to her strained wing muscles and it could be dangerous if there's still an anti-air presence around, getting a better look over the dunes could help them navigate and find the temple if they really are close to it. It could also help them find the downed chariot, if it hasn't already been raided by whatever brought it down in the first place. And on that subject, they need to think about defense.Without the majority of their supplies, setting up a shelter of any kind will be difficult in the middle of a sandy desert. It would be helpful if they could even get their hooves on just one supply box that got lost during the attack. They'll need to find shelter, whether it be in the temple itself or just a tent made out of that raggedy old coat;
it gets cold in the desert at night, and whatever brought down their ride might still be around.
Daring's talent is Navigation, right? Then maybe she should try using her compass along with Pineapple's map to find out just where they are.
Well the practice thing would be to assess the situation. Check for injuries. Take an inventory of current supplies. Determine location. If possible make contact with the rest
of the squad. But that is about as fun as it sounds.
“Ugh,” Pineapple said, looking around for himself, “So... what do we do now?”
Daring shook her head. Stranded again. So much for being well-prepared. “You're not hurt?”
“Nah, these old bones have seen worse landings.” Pineapple glanced away for a moment. “Thanks, by the way.”
“Good, so, what do we have left? What have you got in that backpack of yours?”
Without hesitation or ceremony, he took the backpack off and dumped all the contents out into the sand.
Daring winced. She knew everything was bound to get sandy sooner or later in this environment, but she would have preferred later. It wasn't promising. They had the map and Pineapple's old compass, at least, so they wouldn't be lost. She spotted a pair of binoculars – cheap little ones, but they still might be useful. A coil of rope, that was good. But the rest... a now-cracked mirror, a shabby old wide-brimmed hat, a bottle of suntan lotion, reading glasses, and a snow globe... it wasn't exactly encouraging. Her face scrunched up. “What did you even bring a snow globe for?”
“My ex-wife gave it to me, just before I left her.”
“But I thought you hated your wife? And why did you–” Daring shook her head. “It doesn't matter, anyway. Do you have any water?”
He patted down the pockets of his coat. “Nope. I've got a pack of gum though.” He used his magic to pull out a piece, and he popped it into his mouth. “Want one?”
Her shoulders slumped as she let out a heavy sigh. She really should have left him back at the university. “No thanks.” She patted down the small pockets on her own vest. Her little first aid kit was still there, as well as her pocketknife. Again, the pocket where her goggles should have been was empty; hopefully there wouldn't be a sandstorm any time soon. They had to find their supplies, or they'd be done for, and she should try to find the two pegasus stallions as well.
She pointed a hoof at her uncle. “Get that stuff back into the bag, and try to figure out which way the temple is. I'm going to climb to the top of one of these dunes to try and find Speed Breeze and Sunbeam... and maybe our supplies, too.”
He nodded and started fishing the supplies out of the sand.
Daring Do grabbed the binoculars and resolutely stepped off toward the top of the nearest dune... only to have her hoof sink deep into the hot sand. She groaned. This was not going to be fun. She tucked them under her wing and trudged on anyway. She prided herself on being unstoppable, after all.
She reached the top of the dune, sweating and panting. Next time, she promised herself, next time she'd go someplace cool and refreshing. Plopping down on the crest, she took a look around. The direction she had come from – the direction where the supplies and pegusai should be – she could see only sand. Her ears drooped. Nothing ever came easy, did it?
She made a slow circle around her... still, nothing but endless waves of sand. Finally, almost directly away from the direction she'd come from, she spotted just a tiny bit of green poking up above the dunes. She brought the binoculars up to check. Yep, definitely palm fronds. Hopefully, that meant there was some kind of oasis ahead. Finally, a lucky break.
Now, if only she could find her missing pegusai, this day wouldn't be so bad after all. She kept scanning the desert around her, nearly completing her circle before she spotted a dark dot on the dunes, coming her way. Good, that would probably be one of them. Another dot crested the far away dune. Now that was lucky, to have both of them already–
A third dot appeared, and a fourth. Wait... Daring whipped the binoculars up, just in time to see a couple more crest the ridge. Hyenas.
Ponyfeathers! They had hyenas on their tails!
She rushed back down the dune, hoping they hadn't spotted her. Even if they hadn't, they were still heading this way. They would have to get moving, and fast. Thankfully, going down the dune was much quicker. She slid most of the way down.
Professor Pineapple still dithered over his map, right where she had left him.
“Have you figured out which way the temple is yet?” she asked.
He squinted up at her. “Now, don't rush me, Daring. Navigating's a tricky art, and I can't afford to–”
“Oh, give me that.” Daring snatched the compass away from him
“Daring Do! I haven't finished calibrating the–”
“Hush!” She lined up true North and took in the direction of eighty-five West, the heading they had been on before they crashed. Good, it was the same direction as the oasis.
“Daring!” Pineapple stomped his hooves down – which, in the soft sand, wasn't all that impressive of a gesture. “This is absolutely unacceptable. Crash or no crash, you have to respect my–”
“Hyenas are going to be crawling all over this dune soon. We don't have time for you to waste fiddling with the map!” She pointed a hoof toward the oasis. “The temple is that way, now come on, we've got to move!”
“Hyenas?” Pineapple trembled on the spot. “What are we going to do?”
“I just told you. Now move!” Daring began pushing her way up the dune again. Hopefully, Pineapple would get the idea.
When she looked back, he was indeed following her, not as quickly as she had hoped, but at least he was coming. His big grey coat flopped up and down with every step.
The two of them pressed on, slogging up the dunes, and sliding or tumbling their way back down, over and over again. At the top of each dune, Daring Do looked back the way they came. Every time, the hyenas loomed closer.
Finally, as Daring crested yet another dune, she could see the oasis laying out below her. Nothing but a wide, low expanse of sand separated her from it now. She gasped for breath and dearly wished they had brought a little water with them. Sand mixed with sweat clung to her everywhere. She turned to see how Pineapple was faring.
He had fallen behind again; he was still trudging his way up the dune, barely half way up.
As she looked back, though, a worse problem appeared. A hyena's head popped up above the nearest dune. He wore the thick face paint traditional to his people, and strapped to his back was a long, thin spear.
“Uncle, move!” She shouted down.
Pineapple looked behind him and saw the same thing. He redoubled his efforts in climbing the dune.
Behind him, the hyena began sliding down the opposite dune, and another one popped up at the top. She knew they could travel faster in the sand than ponies could, but she hadn't expected them to catch up so quickly.
As soon as Pineapple made it to the top of the dune, Daring grabbed him and flung both of them down the other side. Not a moment too late – the first hyena arrived just as they began to tumble down.
She scrambled down, dragging Pineapple along with her. She could only hope that they would be able to lose their pursuers somehow once they reached the oasis. There sure wasn't anywhere to hide out here in the sand.
With a final crunch that knocked the wind out of her, she landed at the bottom of the dune. She wasted no time in getting up and shaking the sand off of her.
Groaning, Pineapple rose to his feet as well.
She looked up. The hyenas were closing fast, tumbling down the dune themselves.
“Come on, Uncle. We've got to move!” She dragged his hoof along to get him started and began slogging her way through the wide, low expanse of sand. The sand was different here, lighter colored and even softer. Daring was sinking down to her hocks on every step. She thought about just using her wings, but that would leave Pineapple behind, at the mercy of the hyenas... and hyenas weren't known for their mercy.
She glanced back. Strangely, the hyenas had all stopped at the bottom of the last dune. They were unwilling to go into this extra soft sand, for some reason. Well, that was good. At least she knew she could lose them. As she watched, a few of them peeled off from the group and ran along the border of the softer area, going in each direction.
So, they were going around were they? Slightly less good news. It meant the threat from them wasn't over. But at least now, she had a good chance of being able to lose them once she made it to the oasis. She and Pineapple were already nearly halfway across the–
Something brushed up against Daring's back legs.
A sinking feeling hit her in the gut. There was probably a very good reason why the hyenas didn't go here.
Off to the left, a fin popped up in the sand, traveling around them and leaving a little furrow in its wake. Another popped up ahead, circling the other direction.
“Daring!” Pineapple cried out, “Sand sharks!”
“I see 'em.” She stretched out her wings, and she winced from the pain. No, she would have to save that as a last resort. “Run!”
Pineapple whirled to face her, his eyes wide. “Can't we fly away?”
“If they get close, kick them. Now run!” Daring took off as fast as she could in the soft sand.
The two of them made the best time they could, making great sloppy leaps through the sand. It was pitifully slow going.
More and more shark fins appeared out of the sand. Daring lost count of them. They circled and slid alongside, and they constantly edged closer and closer... but so far, none of them made a direct approach.
Another one brushed up against her front leg. She winced. There was no way they were going to outrun these things, but they had to try.
Just ahead of her, one of the circling fins turned inward. The attack had begun.
She watched it carefully. This would take split-second timing, or she'd be done for. Just as it got close, she reared up and kicked a front hoof out.
The shark shot out of the sand, its mouth opened like a flower, revealing rows and rows of needle-like teeth. Its worm-like body stretched out towards her.
Her hoof caught it just below its mouth, deflecting it away.
It fell back to the sand with a seething hiss. As it laid there on the sand, the ring of five dorsal fins around its midsection were clearly visible, but its back fins were still under the sand.
Daring jumped over the writhing body of the sand shark, already on the lookout for another attack. There had to be dozens of them around her, and the one she kicked was already slithering back down into the soft sand.
She glanced back at Pineapple. “Whatever you do, don't–”
Another one stalked directly toward him from behind. She was sure he couldn't see it.
She winced. There was only one thing she could do. She spread her wings and made a leap for him.
“Don't what?” he said, as she latched on to him.
She took off... or tried to. With her flight muscles as sore and tired as they were, she struggled to gain any altitude. Still, she managed to get just above the sand, skimming along the surface much faster than they had been moving before.
The sharks kept pace.
Daring lurched to the side as Pineapple threw his weight to the left, avoiding a lunge from one of the sharks.
“Can't we go any higher?”
“No,” Daring grunted. She could already feel her wings giving out, and they still had some distance to go before they reached what she hoped was safety.
Another shark shot out of the sand, worm-like, and nearly clipped Daring's left wing. Her hold on Pineapple's backpack was slipping.
Pineapple screamed, and Daring felt a sudden, extra weight. They weren't moving anymore.
“My tail! It's got my tail!”
Daring looked down. A shark had its mouth latched onto Pineapple's tail, and it was slowly inching its way upward.
“Daring!”
Not wasting a moment, she slipped the little knife out of her pocket, and let it drop. “Catch!”
Pineapple grabbed the knife with his magic and slammed it into the sand shark's head. The little knife barely made a scratch on the thick, leathery hide, and the shark continued devouring Pineapple's tail, inch by inch.
“Uncle, cut your tail!” Daring strained her wings, but still couldn't make any progress with that worm hanging on. She gulped as she saw two more closing in ahead of her.
The knife shot downwards, sawing at Pineapple's tail, just above the shark's mouth. In just a moment of desperate sawing, they snapped free of the shark's grip and shot upwards, just in time to avoid the two coming in from the front.
Daring got in a few more flaps before her wing muscles cramped up entirely. They fell from the sky.
She landed hard, taking a blow from hard-packed clay on her left side before sliding along the ground for a moment. She ended up with a face full of thin, wiry grass.
She thanked her lucky stars to have made it to the edge of the oasis before her wings gave out. She led a dangerous life, she knew that, but of all the ways to go, being slowly torn to shreds by sand sharks was just about the least appealing she could think of.
“Did we... did we make it?” Pineapple asked from beneath her.
She peeled herself off of him, and rose up to her feet. “Yeah... I think we did.” She looked out across the low expanse of sand they'd just crossed. The sand sharks wove back and forth just a few yards away, right at the edge of the hard clay she stood on now. On the other side, she could still make out a few hyenas watching her. One of them shook a spear.
She turned back towards Pineapple. He was just rising to his own feet. “You still have my knife?” she asked.
“Um... no.” He glanced around at the ground. “I think I dropped it when we landed.”
A quick search of the area revealed her knife, tucked under a tussock of dry grass. She slipped it back into her pocket.
Already, the sun was dipping down and the Western sky began to take on the tones of sunset.
“Okay, uncle, we've got to find some shelter soon. It's going to get cold at night... and it should be someplace well-hidden, in case those hyenas come around in the night.” She looked around the oasis. A tall stand of palms stood up ahead, with the vegetation getting greener and greener the closer it came to that place. Large stones littered the area, sticking up out of the clay. “Come on, let's go.”
Pineapple looked back at his much-shortened tail and sighed. “Okay.”
* * *
“Daring, over here!”
She followed the sound of her uncle's voice through the thick stand of trees, and she hopped over the little stream that ran through its center. She had been glad to have found that and been able to quench the thirst she worked up in the sand. She still wished she had some way to carry it with her, though.
After a moment, she found Pineapple. He stood pointing at a huge boulder. It had a perfectly square hole cut out right in the middle of it, with a yellow gemstone set in the middle just above it. Hieroglyphs surrounded the door's opening.
“I think it's the entrance to the Temple of the Sun God!” He darted inside. “But it's all closed up. Still, we could use the entrance as a shelter.”
She eyed the stone at the top. “Hm... that looks like a... Uncle, give me that mirror.”
“Huh?”
“Come on, give me the mirror, the sun's almost gone!”
Shrugging, Pineapple slipped off the pack and fished out the cracked mirror. He handed it to her. “I really don't know what you think this is going to–”
Daring rushed to position it correctly. She finally managed to catch the last rays of the setting sun and bounce them up into the gemstone. A crack resounded from inside, and a blast of cold, foul-smelling air rushed out from the entrance.
She handed the mirror back to her speechless uncle. “Come on, let's go.”
“Wait, wait, wait! Did you even read the glyphs on the door?”
Daring sighed. As much time as she spent in ancient dungeons, she still hadn't really managed to master the old languages.
“You can't even read it, can you?”
She stared him down in silence.
He rolled his eyes. “It says, 'Bow before the holy might of the sun. Only those purified by his light may enter. Death comes quickly to those who trespass against him,' but that's not the important part.” He pointed down to another set of glyphs, a little scrawl just off to the side. It was carved much more crudely than the other set. “'Beware what lurks the halls when the Sun God sleeps.' I really don't think we should go in there at night.”
Daring winced. Face the unknown danger of the temple by night, or wait until morning and risk being found by the hyenas? Maybe she could think of a 'plan C'?
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New chapter's up!
Shelter should still be top priority, they don't have to go far inside, just enough to hide and weather the night. The danger inside may be much farther in. Should also contemplate food, it doesn't sound like either have any
Shelter is best. Stay at the entrance, but try to conceal it with palm leaves.
Oh man, I might have to leave this one alone... For now anyway.
I seem to be caught in a mental rut for some reason. All I can think of is Congo, not that I am happy to admit that.
I am sure I will have something productive for you in a few hours... hopefully. Right now I need some sesame cake.
I like this story. I like this story a whole lot!
Now then, onto the plan of action!
Shelter is important, but so is food, fire and weaponry. The Hyena's already know where you are and it's better to be ready for them then to not be. Also, a fire would allow the other two Pegasuses from your team to have a slim chance of finding you in the night (Unlikely, but hope springs eternal). With your rope and the nearby resources it shouldn't be hard to create at least two makeshift spears and a fire (With fire pit) at the entrance off the temple. A quick look for food would also not go amiss.
Since you're going to be camping in front of the temple tonight, you might as well take advantage of Pineapple's knowledge to see if he can work out what 'purified by the light' means (You did carry him all the way here at great expense on your part now it's time for him to get to work!)
Based on the cryptic warning, Daring should wait out the night. Shelter is always a top priority but the hyena's make it impossible to create any form of fire or shelter without revealing her location. She should make a fire and shelter in front of the entrance and place traps around it. There's more than enough trees for her to make an ensnarement trap or two. She doesn't want to kill them since she needs to find out who sent them in the first place. Also, a search for any form of food is important.
That warning sounds to me like there might be one or more dangerous, nocturnal creatures known to live in the tomb. Hyenas outside, possibly danger and traps inside. They could take shelter just inside the temple, but that could mean getting sandwiched between the hyenas and whatever danger lurks inside (assuming it's mobile). Stuck between a rock and a hard place, for sure.
As far as survival concerns go, an ancient temple isn't likely to have food; even if you counted mummies and rats, that's still not pony food. Stuffing your pockets with grass isn't exactly cool, but it might be a good idea. They could squirt out the suntan lotion in that bottle, though, and use it to carry at least a little bit of water.
I can't think of a third option, so I'd say fill up on any vegetation and water around and brave the temple, perhaps setting a few traps at the entrance to deter the hyenas from following them (if they themselves are brave enough, that is). I'd suggest upgrading their arsenal first, though. A good knife can be used to make a wide variety of weapons and tools. A couple of spears would be a good start, if the trees around have suitable material for it. Perhaps even tipped with stone points, if they can find sharp rocks to tie on. But they should be quick, for those hyenas are likely getting closer by the minute.
i suggest climbing the outside of the temple, if possible. With a high enough vantage point, you might get a visual on the missing party members. Plus, you are safe from ground attacks, and have an eye out for the ones who attacked the carriage.
Risk it.
Ancient magic usually turns out to be nothing but ridiculous superstition.
Go back and lure in one of those sand-sharks, catch it with the rope, then drag it back to the temple and toss it in to see if it gets attacked by whatever is supposed in there at night, while listening from far enough away to not be seen by the entrance. If the sand shark doesn't get attacked, and the hyenas find the temple entrance, they'll hear the shark thing, and maybe think that was the guardian thing, and decide daring is dead, and leave.
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Don't worry, it happens.
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not so much 
In fiction?
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But sand sharks aren't as helpless on dry land as regular sharks... you've given Daring a bit of a tall order there!
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Thanks, everybody. ^.^ Lots of good suggestions this time.
I expect to have the next chapter ready by later today.