Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Somepony Call a Timeout

Without a horde of mummies and zombies descending on them, the night felt almost peaceful outside the tomb doors.

Rainbow Dash dropped her cutlass on the ground and fell to her haunches on a clean section of the stairs that wasn’t covered in zombie gore. After such a frantic flight and fight for survival, her body felt like it was going to simply shut down and sleep for a million years. She’d had too many wild nights in a row now, and what she really needed was some peace and quiet to rest and recover. But apart from this one moment, she doubted she’d have that luxury any time soon. What she had seen beyond the door, and even simply what was happening at these temples, left her worried about what was to come.

“Is… is everypony alright?” Ratchet asked, leaning against a wall for support. “Nopony’s hurt, right?”

“Does being bit count?” Ruse asked. “These aren’t the kind of zombies that infect with a bite, right?”

“I don’t think so. They’re raised by magic, not some sort of plague.” After a few more moments to recover his breath, Ratchet stepped away from the wall and toward Rainbow. “You alright, Rainbow? You look like you got bit some.”

Rainbow waved him off with a wing. “I’m fine. It hurts, but it’s nothing.”

“If you say so.” He lingered a bit longer, and ultimately sat down next to Rainbow. “You seem distracted. If you’re worried about Rarity… well, the tomb was in a big cavern, right? Surely there’s another way out for her.”

“It’s not just that,” Rainbow said. “I… thought I saw something, right when we were closing the doors.”

“Saw something?” Ratchet raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t see anything, but then again, I was too busy fighting off a horde of moon mummies to really pay attention to what was happening on the other side of the doors.”

“What was it?” Flag asked, approaching the two of them. “If this shit isn’t over, I want to know, now.”

Rainbow shrugged her wings, beginning to doubt that what she’d seen. It just seemed too unreal, too impossible. “I… thought I saw a dark alicorn,” she said. “Behind the zombies. She had slitted eyes and fangs and a big, curved horn to go with her big wings. She… she looked like Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare Moon?” Champagne asked, piping up from further up the stairs. “But that’s… that can’t be right. Can it?”

“Unless good Princess Luna decided to roleplay as her alter ego out in the middle of nowhere just to scare us, I don’t believe it,” Jolly Roger said. He flicked his wings and snorted. “You were seeing things, you dumb bitch. Freaking out about nothing.”

Rainbow glared at him and ruffled her feathers some. “I know what I saw,” she growled at him. “Something like that sticks out.”

“Then if there’s really a dark alicorn inside of those doors,” Roger countered, pointing with his wing, “how come she hasn’t smashed them open yet? Alicorns can do anything. A tomb like this would be fucking nothing to them.”

“Alicorns can’t do everything. This tomb’s magically protected and stuff. I don’t think one could get through that.”

“Oh yeah? How would you know?”

“Because I’m best friends with one, you friggin’ idiot.” Rainbow groaned and rubbed a sore spot on her muzzle, her damaged teeth beginning to ache and throb after fighting with a cutlass in her mouth. “You know what, I don’t really care if you believe me. The important thing is that we’re not zombie chow, and closing the doors seems to have stopped it for the time being.”

“What happens when the moon returns tomorrow night?” Flag asked. “This whole ordeal could start all over again.”

“Hopefully the weather keeps the moon away,” Rainbow said. “The cloud cover over the temple was magically summoned. Assuming that magic is still working, then the moon shouldn’t touch the doors tomorrow.”

“If there really is a dark alicorn inside there,” Ratchet began, “do you really think that enchantment will continue to work?”

Rainbow bit down on her lip. “I don’t’ really know,” she admitted. “But it’s working now. So we’re safe for the time being.”

“Safe?” Jolly scowled at Rainbow and opened his wings some in a display of aggressive body language. “I still don’t really know what you did or what you were trying to do, but we’re all fucked now if those doors ever open again. You fucked us all! Zombies and now supposedly a dark alicorn? We’re screwed!”

Ratchet glared at the pirate. “We’re not screwed yet—”

“I’m surprised you can even take her side,” Flag said. “How many members of your crew did you lose tonight on her stupid plan, huh? Because I just know that opening the tomb and trying to get at what’s inside was her idea, not yours.”

The aging engineer sighed and lowered his head. “Four. Maybe five, if Fresh Linens makes it or not.”

“We lost three,” Flag said. “Hayseed died screaming down there, and Matchlock and Scabbard were turned by this dark magic shit. We’ve lost seven ponies because you idiots wanted to open a fucking door. Eight, if you include that missing unicorn bitch of yours, and nine if the bleeding one dies too. Now how many of us are left? Just the six of us here? Plus however many you have back at your camp?”

“There are eight of us that can fight, altogether,” Ratchet said. “That’s it.”

Flag nodded and glared at Rainbow, and Rainbow shrank back when she realized some of that ire was reflected in Champagne’s and Ruse’s faces. “Last night, after your attack on our camp, there were seventeen of us in good shape on this island. Now you’ve halved it. And for what? Did you even find what you were looking for?”

Rainbow swallowed hard and hung her head. “Rarity might have it…”

“She’s fucking dead,” Roger spat at her. “You don’t need to see a body to know that.”

“She’s not dead!” Rainbow protested. “I know it!”

“She’s fucking dead. Get over yourself.” Flag shook his head and sneered. “You’ve fucked us all over, you colorful queer. If you were a part of my crew, I’d fucking slice you open and let the flies eat you from the inside out for this.” He shifted his glare to Ratchet. “How you ever let yourself get talked into a stupid idea by this cunt when it’s clear she has no idea what she’s actually doing, I’ll never know. But now we’re all paying the price for it, like it or not.”

He turned around and started marching up the stairs. “I’m gonna take a shit,” he growled. “Nothing would bring me greater joy than hearing that bitch scream as somepony pulls her wings off while I do.”

He disappeared over the top of the stairs, and Jolly Roger soon after took wing and vanished into the sky. Champagne, Ruse, and Ratchet lingered by the door, but they didn’t meet Rainbow’s gaze.

“Y-You guys know why we had to do this, right?” Rainbow asked him in a small voice. “You understand, don’t you?”

“I understand why you thought we had to,” Ratchet said. “But with nothing to show for it except a pile of corpses, I don’t think it was worth it.”

“We were a crew. We were friends,” Champagne said, and she wiped at her eyes with a wingtip. “Soft Step was one of my best friends. And now she’s dead. Or worse.” Sniffling, the mare turned away and galloped up the stairs, her wings fluttering and ultimately giving her the lift she needed to get airborne and escape from the carnage.

“Champagne, I…” Rainbow sighed and lowered her hoof as the mare continued to flee into solitude. She glanced at Ruse, who merely watched her with a judging glare, and hung her head. “I’m sorry,” she managed. “I… I didn’t think any of this was going to happen.”

“Neither did we,” Ruse said, walking away. “Neither did we.”

Comments

[alamais]

Okay, wait, this is kinda BS.

...Matchlock and Scabbard were turned by this dark magic shit.

Yeah, before the tomb was opened, while patrolling around the pirates' camp. So they were in no way safe prior to this stuff—it might have taken longer, but they probably would have slowly been picked off by the bats while the moonstruck tried to undo the tomb's protections from the outside and start all this up with none of them the wiser.

[zaponator]

Alright, you bunch of bitches. Listen up.
You dumb fucks were killing each other left and right every dayum day before Rainbow and Rarity showed up. Those seven ponies are peanuts compared to the wanton slaughter and murder that both of your dumbass sides inflicted on each other for no reason!
Yeah, Rainbow and Rarity's plan didn't work (that you know of), but at least the proposed endstate of that plan was an actual way back to civilization! What the fuck was the endstate of the petty pirate/survivor conflict? A bunch of corpses and nothing else! There was no goal, no plan, nothing but senseless death before Rarity and Rainbow showed up.
Rarity and Rainbow aren't the reason ponies died, but they are the reason that ponies aren't dying for nothing.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

8785684
Yeah at least the had a plan to escape. No way to know this moon guy would be anything.

[esplin10]

To be fair, Rarity and Rainbow asked if the survivors saw anything weird at the temple and they thought it was perfectly safe at the time. No one could have predicted that aneldritch horror lived in there.

[Aurora Dimmet]

Their logic is dumb as hell. They were just sitting on this island killing each other. Eventually the minotaurs woulda got them, or a siren. They had 0 guaranteed survival. In fact, the civilians were gonna be dead in a matter of days if Rainbow and Rarity hadn't killed the captain.

Dying trying to get home is far more noble than being cut down and raped to death by pirates. How many ponies get to die fighting a GOD?

[Merula]

8785986
True. Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse!

[Merula]

And killing each other is a better plan? Fucking please, Black Flag

[Aurora Dimmet]

8786057

That's how I'd want to go in this situation, real talk. Tortured and violated by pirates, eaten by minotaurs, preyed on by sirens? Nah. Holding back an army of the dead as a dark god rises?

Too good, hand it here. They should be grateful for the honorable death. Also the survivors may be emotional and whatnot, but blaming someone for something that they couldn't possibly know is still a dick move. Just because it's understandable doesn't make it right or acceptable.

[Eroraf86]

And cue the injured but victorious Rarity in three, two...