Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Tear It Down

Rarity panted and panted—as much as an aquatic creature could pant through gills. Her shoulders hurt and she was pretty sure her rattling teeth had cut her tongue, and she was swiftly becoming exhausted. She also was pretty sure she’d knocked some of her scales loose, and now her the skin of her shoulders itched but she couldn’t scratch them beneath her natural armor.

To say her mood was quickly growing foul was an understatement.

“I hate this,” Rarity grumbled, leaning back against the wall to pause and flush some more oxygen through her gills. “I hate this stupid fake ceiling, and I hate the Ponynesians for making it. I hate them for setting up this overly complicated barrier, and I hate them for summoning a god of darkness that warranted it in the first place. And I hate that god of darkness too for stealing my blood and even being a problem we have to deal with in the first place.”

“Perhaps you’d like to list off what you don’t hate?” Melody quipped, her shoulders still trembling as she held open the door. Her stamina impressed Rarity—she’d held the two door halves open for approaching half an hour now without complaint. Though Rarity could see she was slowly growing more and more tired, the siren hadn’t said anything about her sore muscles yet. She was, to borrow some of Rainbow’s lexicon, a ‘beast’.

“I’m not nearly that sour,” Rarity said. “I just like complaining. It’s how I de-stress.”

“Right.”

“Are you sure you don’t need to take a break?” Rarity asked her. “I’m worried you’re going to hurt something.”

Melody shook her head. “I can keep this up all day,” she said. “They’re not as heavy as you think. Honest.”

Rarity’s eyes narrowed some. “I’ve spent enough time around Applejack to know a lie when I hear it. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself, or end up with me getting trapped inside this chamber.”

“I’m a lot stronger than I look,” Melody insisted. “I told you, I’ll warn you when I feel like I can’t hold it open anymore. I haven’t gotten there yet.” She grunted, let her chest expand some, and pushed the door halves a few inches farther apart again. “Just focus on taking down the ceiling, okay? It doesn’t look like you’ve made much progress.”

Rarity glowered at the ceiling. “You’re not the one trying to use your shoulder as a battering ram to bring down several tons of stone.”

“You’re not the one holding several tons of stone open with your legs so they don’t crush you and trap your friend inside.”

“Point… point taken.” Rarity sighed and pushed herself away from the wall again. For all the effort she’d put into it, the ceiling hardly seemed changed. The rocks still hung down from their roots, and apart from knocking a few small pieces of gravel out of the cracks, Rarity hadn’t accomplished much with her brute force approach. While Melody was right about her armor softening the blows, it just didn’t seem like she could put enough force into it to actually dislodge the rocks and allow the ceiling to collapse.

“I need to think of another approach to this,” Rarity said, drifting back towards the ceiling. “I’m thinking like Rainbow Dash, and Celestia knows that hardly gets anypony anywhere when it matters.”

“She certainly seemed like she was the kind of pony to think after she flies,” Melody agreed. “I’m afraid to hear what her singing voice is like.”

“I’m afraid to hear anypony sing again after experiencing what it’s like to be a siren,” Rarity said. “I’m afraid it would just sound horrible.”

“Trust me, it does.” Melody chuckled and smirked. “I’ve listened to seaponies sing before. They’re really bad at it. Then again, everyone sounds bad when they try to sing if they’re not a siren.”

“Oh, shush. Not all of us could be ‘born from the first song’ or however you described it. Though I will admit, that legend has a sort of beautiful romanticism to it.”

“You should hear an oracle sing it sometime,” Melody said. “We don’t have reading or writing, but we do have a very strong oral tradition. You’d be hard pressed to find a better epic.”

“I’m sure you’re right about that,” Rarity said. But, frowning, she shook her head and rubbed her hooves against the sides of her face. “Unfortunately, that isn’t going to help us get anywhere, as much as I’d love to hear it.”

“It’s certainly not making holding this door open any easier.”

Rarity put her hooves on the blocks hanging down from the ceiling and looked them over. If she could figure out how they were made, then maybe she could figure out how to get the ceiling to collapse. There had to be a much more intricate answer to this puzzle than what she was trying, because it certainly wasn’t getting her anywhere. It would certainly help her if she could see into the cracks in the ceiling, but there was hardly any light to see by. For the first time, Rarity realized that there weren’t any light sources other than what drifted into the structure from the open courtyards and windows of the structure, and her slitted, draconic eyes were allowing her to see everything perfectly clearly. It was yet another improvement over her pony form that she was just discovering, though the final test would still be to see if she could do magic with her voice.

As her thoughts momentarily wandered, Rarity accidentally put some pressure on one of the blocks, which went completely unnoticed by her until it shifted slightly, releasing a tiny trickle of sediment that rolled off her leg. Blinking, Rarity leaned in for a closer look, and she discovered that the block she was touching wasn’t perfectly square, but instead narrowed toward the ceiling, almost like a large wedge. The block had been nestled between other, larger blocks, sheltering it from Rarity’s repeated shoulder checks, but there was just enough space around the edges for Rarity to dig the cleft of her hooves into the seam and pull. Grunting and gritting her teeth, Rarity managed to start slowly pulling the block out, even arching her back so she could put her tail against the ceiling and use it to help push herself downwards and pull on the block.

“I… think I found the answer,” Rarity grunted between pulls. “It’s all held together… by this keystone!”

“Really?” Melody asked, squinting at the stone. “If it’s all held together by one stone, you should be careful it doesn’t—!”

“Hah!” With one last heave, Rarity popped the heavy stone out of place and dropped it onto the ground. “There! Now, let’s start with the next—!”

Before she could finish her thought, the chamber rumbled and the ceiling shifted. Gasping, Rarity pushed herself away from the center of the chamber just before the rocks began to fall and tumble. Their impacts with the ground through up thick clouds of sediment, and Rarity felt the sand irritate the gills in her neck as they drifted over them. Grimacing, she pressed her back against the wall and rubbed her hooves over her gills, curling her tail up to avoid getting it pinned under any falling rocks.

When the cloud of sediment cleared, Rarity saw Melody staring worriedly across the room. The green siren’s features immediately softened when she realized Rarity was alright, and her shoulders sagged as she finally relaxed. “I thought the ceiling would crush you,” she said. “You should have been more careful.”

Rarity pushed herself off the ground and dusted off her scales. “Perhaps, but I’m not hurt, at least. And I got the ceiling to collapse! The brain is always mightier than the brawn!”

“Well, what can you see in there?” Melody asked, her eyes peering at the hole in the ceiling. “Does it have what we’re looking for?”

“I don’t know,” Rarity said, swimming up to the hole, “but I’m going to find out.”

Comments

[Eroraf86]

Wouldn't a keystone narrow towards the bottom? If it narrowed towards the top, friction might not be enough to anchor it.

[Merula]

Well, thats one way to do it

[zaponator]

we do have a very strong oral tradition.

So do Rarity and Rainbow.