Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

The Second Movement

Rarity panted and groaned, dragging herself out of the wet sand and back onto her hooves. Her body ached from numerous cuts and wounds from Squall’s last attack, many of which were gently oozing blood through the mud covering her coat. Grimacing, she collected her weapons from the ground and readied them, her attention falling on the lone figure standing in the middle of the camp.

Squall hardly looked like a pony anymore. If anything, Rarity would’ve called her a rabid animal. Though she had four hooves and a horn she looked like a wild dog, panting through clenched teeth, her eyes burning with fury, her wild mane plastered to her face. She’d lost her signature tricorn hat when Rainbow had tried to strangle her, and it only added to the effect. With the rain falling in thick sheets now and thunder and lightning dancing across the sky, Squall looked downright terrifying—even more so than usual.

The pirate spat out a red glob of spittle, and Rarity noticed that her teeth were nearly as red as her coat; she must’ve bitten her tongue or cheek when Rainbow tried to strangle her. “Some ponies don’t know when to call it quits,” Squall growled, once more advancing on Rarity. “Some ponies just don’t know when they should die. Allow me to help you!”

Once more, the animated sand shifted and rose, but Rarity noticed that it was heavy and sluggish. The pouring rain had weighed it down so much that Squall could hardly animate it into something lethal anymore. When the pirate loosed two vipers at her with a howl, it took Rarity hardly any effort to parry them and attack with her own swords. Squall still managed to raise a sand shield to protect herself from the attacks, but with a howl of frustration, she dropped the sand to the ground as soon as the immediate danger passed. The red mare brushed gray locks of mane out of her face with a fetlock, and her magic reached for her weapons.

Rarity withdrew to a safer distance as Squall armed herself with her twin cutlasses and holstered her four pistols to shield them from the rain. “I’ve been trying too hard to get fancy with you.” Squall methodically advanced on Rarity, her twin swords spinning at her sides like rotor blades. “I should’ve switched to the basics long ago. Let’s keep this simple, shall we?”

A twitch in her haunches gave Rarity a split second warning before Squall pounced on her, brandished swords ready to cut through her defenses. They moved like lightning, almost too fast for Rarity to track and predict. Her only saving grace came from the fact that she had twice as many swords as her opponent, and she almost needed the second sword to block each swing. Steel rang out into the rainy night sky as the cutlasses clashed in a cascade of sparks, briefly shedding flickering illumination across the two unicorns’ faces as they battled back and forth across the sand.

Squall was almost like a ballerina as she fought, albeit a deadly one. She didn’t keep her hooves rigidly planted in the sand and let her magic manipulate her swords like Rarity, but moved back and forth with her blades, darting first to one side, then the other, forcing Rarity to surrender ground and try to keep her front facing her opponent. Every so often, she’d dart in and slap Rarity in the face with a hoof or deliver a punch to her chest, staggering the seamstress and trying to capitalize on an opening. More through sheer luck than skill, Rarity kept Squall’s swords away from her body, but she knew she couldn’t keep it up forever.

Rainbow Dash chose that moment to come careening into the pirate from above, divebombing her and using her hooves to bowl the pirate over. Squall’s limbs flailed as Rainbow sent her flying across the campsite, but the pirate righted herself after only a few seconds of rolling across the wet sand. Her red body launched sprays of sediment into the air, and she barely managed to ready her cutlasses before Rarity took the opportunity to press her own attack. The fashionista tried to turn Squall’s techniques against her, relentlessly swinging her swords from different sides while putting physical pressure on the pirate and forcing her back. It worked at first, and Rarity thought Squall’s teeth were going to crack with how hard she clenched them while she defended herself from Rarity’s four swords with only two of her own. But Rarity was careful not to overextend herself and give Squall an opening; she knew she just had to wait for Rainbow to come back and divebomb the pirate again to give her the opening she needed.

That changed when Squall backed near the fire. Her horn momentarily surged brighter, and her magic flung hot ash and coals into Rarity’s face. Squealing, Rarity fell back, the pain disrupting her focus, and Squall quickly reversed the situation on her, attacking with renewed vigor now that Rarity was half-blinded. Hissing through the pain, Rarity nevertheless had to focus her attention on Squall’s attacks, even if the hot ashes in her left eye kept it squeezed shut and her right eye was open barely more than a squint.

There was another yell from above, and Rainbow Dash attacked Squall again. This time, Squall jumped backwards, narrowly dodging Rainbow’s hooves, and drove one of her swords into the sand. Her red magic grabbed Rainbow’s leg before she could fly back up to safety, and snarling, she whipped the pegasus back into the ground. Rainbow groaned on the sand, dazed from the blow, but kipped up with a sloppy flourish of her wings when she heard Squall galloping at her. A sword slashed through the ground where she’d lain moments before, whipping sand past Rainbow’s body. With no weapons of her own to parry and deflect Squall’s attacks, Rainbow quickly turned tail and fled, trying to gain altitude before Squall’s magic dragged her back.

Thankfully for her, Rarity managed to wipe the ash out of her eyes and charge back into the fray. Though they still hurt from the dirty trick, and though Rarity was sure they were horribly bloodshot, she could at least see clearly again. The return of her swords to the combat forced Squall to focus her magic back on Rarity, though now she only had one sword to deflect Rarity’s four with. The pirate kept up a steady retreat, parrying and deflecting what she could, sidestepping what she couldn’t, but still somehow remaining just out of reach of Rarity’s attacks.

“Rarity!” Rainbow suddenly screeched from above, and Rarity immediately jumped backwards and to the side, trusting Rainbow’s warning. Moments later, Squall’s second sword flew in from the other side of the camp, narrowly missing her as it returned to the pirate’s grasp. Rarity’s heart skipped a beat; without Rainbow’s warning, it would have gone straight through her.

“It’s better to be good than lucky,” Squall hissed at Rarity, returning with a barrage of attacks of her own. Her hooves blurred across the sand as she changed stances and positions almost constantly, and Rarity knew it was only a matter of time before she got through her wall of blades. Even as she thought that, Squall brought two of her blades together like scissors, shattering one of Rarity’s cutlasses into fragments of steel. “Eventually, luck runs out!”

She feinted an attack to Rarity’s left, then withdrew two steps back and to the right. Before Rarity could reverse and press an attack of her own, Squall pulled out one of her pistols and fired it at point blank range. The boom of the gun blended into the rumble of the thunder, and Rarity fell to the ground with a startled cry.

Squall tossed her spent pistol aside and advanced on the downed mare, and meanwhile her eyes turned skyward. “I’ve got three more shots for you, little bird, so why don’t you join your friend down here and save me the powder?” She raised one of her swords over Rarity’s head, who was still struggling to get up, her panting muzzle stretched open and half-filled with sand as she gasped for air. “You two can build a nest together in Tartarus!”

A ferocious war cry made Squall’s ears twitch to the left, and Rainbow burst through the frond walls of the longhouse, tackling the pirate and sending them both tumbling across the sand. With the aid of her wings, Rainbow ended up on top, and she immediately set her hooves to work on remodeling Squall’s face. “You monster!” she screamed. “Leave her alone!”

Squall’s nose crunched under Rainbow’s hooves and blood began to seep into her crimson coat. The pirate gasped and sputtered, but Rainbow gave her no quarter. Squall’s horn flared to life, and Rainbow immediately dropped both hooves on it, chipping it and canceling whatever spell the pirate was about to cast. But in the process, she exposed her gut to Squall, who immediately drove a steel-shod shoe into it as hard as she could. Wheezing, Rainbow recoiled, and Squall threw a headbutt to her face, her sandy horn nearly gouging out Rainbow’s eye. Magic shoved Rainbow off her chest, and then Rainbow found herself standing about ten feet away from Squall, each mare sucking in air during a brief ceasefire in the fighting.

And then Squall grinned, the blood dripping from her lips making it look like her coat was melting off her skull. “You’re mad, aren’t you?” she taunted, her words slightly slurred from her broken nose and swelling lips. “She was important to you, was she?”

“I’ll kill you!” Rainbow spat at Squall. “You’re gonna pay for hurting her!”

“Good.” Squall cracked her neck and readied a single sword in her wavering magic. “I didn’t want you holding back anyway!”

Comments

[zaponator]

Alas, poor Rarity. I knew her well.

[RoboRed]

Oh, Squall...you dun' fucked up now.

[SIGAWESOME]

Squall pulled out one of her pistols and fired it at point blank range <...> and Rarity fell to the ground with a startled cry.

(Willy Moon - Bang Bang)

8669345

Oh, Squall...you dun' fucked up now.

For revenge, Rainbow gets creative: she hobbles Squall and hitches her under a manchineel tree...

[Merula]

That's it, break her face in!

[Matthewl419]

Well, Squall is well and truly dead... soon...

[Neece]

No blood being cited in Rarity's fall. I bet she only got startled and yelped in fear. Then again, Squall had a chipped horn now. There's a good chance she'll try to overcast in anger and knock herself out in the process... And Rainbow might kill her in rage and sorrow. Only to find out Rarity was being a diva.

Either that or Rarity will hit her in the head with a coconut. Would be hilariously appropriate

[ZanyZapper]

I was wondering why RD didn't pick up a rock before her dive bomb attack and aim for Squall's head / horn. Tho in the heat of battle it can be hard to think of things like that - RD was probably just trying to do whatever she could as quickly as possible.

[PonyDragon]

Squall hardly looked like a pony anymore. If anything, Rarity would’ve called her a rabid animal.

And she would be totally right with it.