Jungle Noises
Rainbow’s ruby eyes stared straight up at Squall in a mixture of anger, dizziness, and determination.
Squall’s gray eyes stared back down at Rainbow with simmering rage, faux sweetness, and a veiled promise of excruciating pain.
“Do I have to repeat myself?” Squall asked, leaning in a little closer to the dizzy and concussed mare sitting across from her. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Rainbow gritted her teeth and tried to keep her swimming gaze focused straight on the mare ahead. Her jaw clenched and she matched the pirate’s stare with unyielding stubbornness.
“Who. Else. Survived. The crash,” Squall growled, and her red magic plucked one of the cutlasses from her chest. Rainbow flinched as the sword swung at her neck only to stop a hair’s width short of slicing open her arteries. “I’m going to become very unpleasant if you don’t answer me now.”
When Rainbow swallowed, her bobbing throat kissed the cool steel of Squall’s sword. Ultimately, that terrifying sensation was enough to break her silence. “You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?”
“Hence why I’m asking.” Squall growled and pushed the sword closer, the cutlass digging into Rainbow’s flesh. A slice of pain seared across her neck, followed moments later by the trickle of warm blood dribbling out of the shallow gash in her flesh. When Rainbow remained obstinate, Squall pulled the sword back. “Do you think I’ll hesitate to kill you because you’re an Element Bearer? That you’re worth something to me?”
“I was certainly worth something to you on the Concordia,” Rainbow muttered.
“The only thing you’re worth to me now is a pardon, assuming anypony even finds us,” Squall spat back. “Six weeks out here on the island, and not a ship in sight. I didn’t even know these islands existed until the hurricane took my ships down, and I’ve flown over these waters for years. We’re so far off the map that nopony will ever find us. So why the fuck should I keep you alive if you’re more trouble than you’re worth?”
Rainbow didn’t particularly want to answer that question. Whatever it happened to be, she knew it was the only reason Squall hadn’t gutted her yet.
Smirking, Squall flipped the blade around in her magic and ran her tongue over the flat, licking off whatever amount of Rainbow’s blood still stuck to the steel. “I’ve murdered dozens of ponies. The brave, the stubborn, and the stupid fall just the same. Those that cooperate… don’t.” Sighing, she twirled the cutlass in the air and placed the blade under Rainbow’s chin. “If I weren’t already going to be hanged for piracy, I’d almost feel bad about this.”
Even Rainbow, ever brave and bold, ultimately decided that wasn’t a bluff she wanted to call. “W-Wait!” she shouted, leaning away from the cutlass. “I’ll tell you! Promise!”
Squall rolled her eyes. “We’re past that, little birdy—”
“Twenty!” Rainbow shuffled backwards a step, putting a few more inches of distance between her and the sword. “There’s twenty of us, on another island. We’ve got tools, weapons, and shelter! We’re surviving out here, and they’re gonna know if I don’t come back!”
“Twenty?” Squall’s curved cutlass drifted away and idly twirled as she thought. “You claim that there are twenty more of you on one of the other islands? That many of you survived the crash?”
Rainbow emphatically nodded. “We got some of the passengers and crew onto a lifeboat before the Concordia went down. We ended up on the island northea—I mean, north of here. That’s where we’re all hanging out.”
“That’s certainly interesting…” Squall looked around the camp at the hoofful of pirates milling about, at their skeptical faces, before leering back down at Rainbow. “…if it were true.”
“It is,” Rainbow insisted. “If they find out that pirates killed me, they’d wipe you out.”
“It’s a good thing they won’t, because they don’t exist.” Squall stomped closer and knocked Rainbow onto her flanks with her indomitable, seething presence. “The only thing on the north island is minotaurs. Their canoes came down here all the time, but if they got too close, it was the last mistake they ever made. Seems like the learned their lesson, because there aren’t any more coming this way. If there really were that many of you, well, I don’t think you’d survive that long against them if you came from their island. So I know you’re full of shit.”
Rainbow blinked, quickly running out of ideas and panicking that her bluffs were being called. “That’s not—!”
Squall put the point of her cutlass on Rainbow’s throat and pressed the slightest pressure on it. “If your next word is going to be ‘true’, then I will kill you now and stain the fucking sand red with your blood, Wonderbolt. Tell me straight or lose your neck: who survived the crash?”
Hopeless and scared, Rainbow felt herself cracking. “J-Just two others that I know!” she stammered. “Rarity and a mechanic! There could be more, but I haven’t seen them!”
The blood red mare smiled and pulled the cutlass away. “That’s more like it,” she purred, and she began to circle Rainbow, her hooves pushing white sand aside with every step. “You can be cooperative, can’t you? Now, where are they?”
Even still, Rainbow wasn’t about to completely betray her friends. “They’re not here,” she said. “I’m the only one with wings, so I flew out here to investigate. Alone. They’re waiting for me to return.” It wasn’t technically a lie, right? She did leave them behind and fly out to the island in advance of them, a decision which she now deeply regretted…
“I see,” Squall said, coming to a stop behind Rainbow. “And what will they do if you don’t make it back to them?”
“They’ll look for me,” Rainbow said. “They’re good friends like that. They wouldn’t give up on me.” Swallowing hard, she dared to look the pirate captain in the eye. “Why are we fighting and threatening each other? We could… could work together to get home.”
“Implying that I want to go back to Equestria. I told you before, it’s only the gallows for me and my crew.”
“Returning us safely could get you pardoned,” Rainbow insisted. “You said so yourself.”
“I don’t trust anypony’s word,” Squall said, resuming her circling. “I won’t sell my crew into custody on a promise we won’t hang. Once we have the resources, and once hurricane season is over, we’re going to build a boat, sail to the Confederacy, and acquire a new ship there. We’ll start all over again. And I don’t trust you to stay safely tucked away in our custody that long.” Raising her sword, she sang, “Thank you for everything, and it was nice knowing you. Put in a nice word to the Big Mare upstairs for me, won’t you?”
Before she could swing, however, a resounding boom echoed throughout the forest, shaking the very trees. A coconut fell from a palm tree and thudded into the ground, and the pirates gave their surroundings a weary look. “What was that?” one of them asked nopony in particular, his sword at the ready.
Squall sneered in the direction it’d come from. “From the north,” she growled. Hateful gray eyes turned to Rainbow. “I thought you said you were alone.”
Rainbow swallowed hard. “I… did…”
“Figures.” Her attention shifted back to her crew. “You three, go figure out what made that noise. Report back to me as soon as you can. If you find anypony, kill them immediately. We have enough problems on our hooves.” While the crew saluted and set about their captain’s orders, Squall wrenched Rainbow’s head around with her magic and forced the mare to stare up at her. “I hate liars…”
Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, but instead ate the hilt of the cutlass as Squall spun it around and slammed it into her muzzle. Pain exploded down her jaw and she ended up on her back, but it wasn’t over yet. Practically spitting and frothing with rage, Squall stood over the pegasus and pummeled and bludgeoned her with the hilt of her sword, over and over and over again.
It took too long before the pain sent Rainbow into the comforting oblivion of unconsciousness.
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I really hate Squall. I hate him with a passion.
8622949
I assure you: All readers do.
Hopefully she will face justice later.
I want Squall to die the most painful death imaginable. Preferably being burned alive, that'd do it
Fuggin' hell.
8622949
Squall's a mare. And yeah, she's both stupid and arrogant, never a good combination for someone in any position of power. Let alone one where she can kill people.
Holy hell, my bad about that. Cat got on my keyboard just as I posted and trampled all over the spacebar. Multi-post extravaganza.
8623153
She's arrogant, but not stupid. Braving a storm when they risk capture otherwise is a risk. Killing those that land with you when outnumbered and with few resources is evil and cruel, but pragmatic. Choosing to lay low and try for another land when she knows death awaits in equestria is only wise.
Arrogant and bloodthirsty, but not stupid.
I severely doubt Rainbow and Rarity will come out in one piece, though. Hell, Squall will most likely cut off her wings as vengeance, and Rarity's horn if she's not killed outright. The lack of a Tragedy tag goes against that, though, and that makes me curious how they'll survive whole without a huge Deus Ex Machina.
.......
So everypony's unconscious!
8623524
Not Gyro! She's just Lieutenant Dan
8623477
no stupid for going into a hurricane which her ships are not rated for.
8623765
Considering she had only the word of a prisoner in that, not so much. Staying would mean risking capture, braving a storm she didn't think was that that bad meant escaping. A prisoner would lie to help save itself and the others, after all. She'd be stupid if she stood put on the word of the most valuable reward she ever captured.
8624161
wasn't just a prisoner, some of her own crew said their concerns. Now your ships and the weather. and she failed both.
Sorry Rainbow! It seemed like a good idea a few chapters back...
8622949
8623153
Squall's such a dick she changed gender!
But, like, why, Squall? What so-called problems were other survivors ever going to pose you?
I swear this psyschobitch just gets off on murder and poor decision making.
She should have just shouted "I guarantee pardons for all mutineers." Then there choice is chance of civilization at the cost of ending squall, or die with her on an island.