Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

The Chimes of Death

Rainbow Dash was covered in blood.

She hadn’t left Coals’ side in hours. Her wing and shoulder shook from the constant pressure she exuded on his side in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. Her blue feathers were dark red and brown, soaked to the point of saturation with the stallion’s blood. Her entire limb felt sticky and heavy, but she didn’t dare take it off of the hole in Coals’ side. She feared that the bleeding would start again if she did.

The other pirates had taken on a darker tone ever since Squall’s display. For the most part, they refused to even acknowledge Rainbow’s desperate struggle to keep their former shipmate alive. They kept their backs to them and heads turned away, pretending that they weren’t even there.

Coals’ breathing eventually slowed to small, shallow breaths, and the blood pouring from the wound in his side had slowed to a trickle. Rainbow didn’t know if the latter was a good thing or not. Had she stemmed the bleeding, or had the stallion finally approached the verge of bleeding out? Rainbow cautiously removed her sodden wing from the hole in Coals’ side, where the black hairs glistened in the light of the fire, clumped together and plastered flat to his skin with blood. She didn’t let her eyes linger on the puckered wound in his side; the mere sight of it made her queasy and sick. But from what she could see, she considered it a miracle he wasn’t killed outright.

Of course, that wouldn’t matter if he still died anyway…

Rainbow used her blood-soaked wing to shuffle backwards a bit to see Coals’ face. The stallion had fallen unconscious long ago, and Rainbow feared he’d been declining ever since. She wished she had cloth or something to help bandage him with and stop the bleeding other than her own wing. Even though they were only a largely ceremonial part of Equestria’s small military, Wonderbolts still received basic training in survival and first aid. Rainbow knew what she needed to do to help Coals, but she didn’t have the resources to do it. And even if she did, she couldn’t move because of her bindings. With every passing minute, she worried more and more that Coals would draw his last breath.

Swallowing hard, Rainbow laid her head down on the sand directly in front of Coals’ muzzle. “Just hang in there,” she whispered to him. “You’re not gonna die yet, okay? You still haven’t seen Gyro yet. You can’t die before you see her again. She’s been so worried about you for so long, and I know that she’ll be super jazzed and stuff to see you again. And… and you two can talk and laugh and stuff and just be happy that you’re back together, right? It’ll be great… it’ll be great, just… just don’t die, okay?” She grimaced and wriggled a little in the sand. “Don’t die.”

Of course, Coals remained impassive, not like Rainbow expected him to respond to her words in any way. But she merely hoped that hearing them would help him fight through the gunshot wound. He had to survive, he just had to. Rainbow couldn’t bear to lose a pony so important to a friend. She couldn’t bear to see Squall win again. The psychopathic pirate’s cruelty couldn’t be allowed to take any more lives.

A tiny, damp gasp of air drifted across the camp. It instinctively sent a shiver down Rainbow’s spine. Rain. The first drops would fall within five minutes. Though her senses told her it’d be little more than a misting or a few sprinkles for a little while after that, she expected the skies to tear open within the half hour. And she did not want to be caught out in the open when that happened. That was also the last thing Coals needed, too.

Wiggling her limbs some more, Rainbow managed to bite down on Coals’ sandy, torn shirt and started dragging him backwards to the lean-to. She knew it wouldn’t provide the greatest cover from the rain, especially if the wind blew from the wrong direction, but it was still better than nothing. But after a full day of being tied up, beaten, and given very little food and water, Rainbow felt weak. Her usual boundless energy was sapped and spent, and dragging a stallion larger than she was across the sand with only a single wing to move herself with was incredibly difficult. For all her heaving and grunting, she could only manage to drag him back by an inch or two at a time. She had an agonizingly long way to go before the rain began to fall, and a part of her doubted that she’d make it in time.

And then there was a loud crash and bang from somewhere out in the jungle.

She froze in place, ears pointing in that direction. The other pirates around the fire stuck their heads up as well. Even Squall emerged from her shelter, small pieces of branches and sticks tied into her mane to curl it. “What the fuck was that?” she barked at her crew.

“I don’t know,” Black Flag answered. “It… came from the jungle.”

As soon as he said that, the noise repeated itself. It sounded like metal slamming against metal somewhere in the darkness of the forest. Not even Rainbow could place what exactly it was supposed to be.

Squall frowned at it and carefully removed the branches from the curls in her mane; even when stranded on an island and torturing ponies for sport, the pirate mare’s vanity astounded Rainbow. For a moment, Rainbow likened her to an evil sister of Rarity or something of the sort. That in itself was a scary thought.

“Find out what’s making that noise,” Squall growled. “If it’s other ponies, I want you to deal with them. Take as many as you need.”

Black Flag saluted her and started picking ponies out from around the campfire. “You four, let’s go. We’re going to find whoever’s making that noise and cut them open from ear to ear.”

When the pirates stood up and left with Flag, Rainbow realized that it was just her, Coals, Squall, and two others in the camp. But instead of returning to her hut like Rainbow expected her to, Squall sat down in front of the fire, took out her two cutlasses, and started sharpening them with a stone. “Matchlock, Scabbard, patrol the perimeter. This could just be a distraction. If you find anything, yell first and fight second. I need to know if there’s somepony out there.”

Matchlock stood up and checked the pistol in her shoulder brace. “What about you, captain?” she asked. “You’ll be alone in the camp.”

“You think I can’t handle myself?” Squall spat back, making Matchlock flinch. Then, humming to herself, Squall sheathed her swords and began loading her pistols with powder from a horn by her side. “If they see me alone, they’ll be stupid and think they can jump me. I’m the mare that killed so many of their friends and family. They’ll be angry and come at me stupid. And since they don’t have firearms, they’ll have to get in close. And then they die.”

Her horn flared to life, and the air surrounding her briefly shimmered before it died away. The sand around her stirred, shifted, and then fell still. Matchlock and Scabbard both took a wary step back, but after saluting once, they vanished into the undergrowth as well. Rainbow swallowed as the first raindrop thudded onto the sand. Whatever was going on now, she knew that it would decide whether she escaped or died a prisoner.

Her eyes drifted to the plank in the back of the lean-to. She realized that the tarp would give her a little bit of cover from where Squall sat, humming to herself. If she was careful, she could hide herself back there and make it look like she was only seeking shelter from the rain.

It was time to escape.

Comments

[zaponator]

Well, Squall seems confident. That's good. She was confident about flying into that hurricane, too.
Moment of truth time! Someone's coming out of this dead, but hopefully it's not Coals or Gyro. Hopefully it's all of the pirates.

[Merula]

Here we go...

[PonyDragon]

This could just be a distraction. If you find anything, yell first and fight second. I need to know if there’s somepony out there.

Shit.

8658985

Well, Squall seems confident. That's good. She was confident about flying into that hurricane, too.

True, but at least for me it looks like she has a reason to be confident.
She has an invisible shild (?), pistols and is in top condition.
All advantages Rarity hasn't, at worst even don't know/thinks about.