• Published 14th Aug 2017
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Surviving Sand Island - The 24th Pegasus



An airship wreck leaves Rainbow Dash and Rarity stranded on a deserted island. Together, they must find a way to survive until help comes—if it comes.

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What a Neat Little Collection

Rarity let Rainbow take the earth pony figurine out of her hoof and watched how the petite pegasus looked it over. “You just… got it?” Rainbow asked, admiring the work that had gone into carving the little totem. “Just like that? No problems or anything?”

“Apart from opening the door, it was fairly straightforward,” Rarity said. She rubbed her shoulder as an achy pang reminder her of just how complicated that ‘fairly straightforward’ path had been. “The Ponynesians had put some work into hiding the figurine and the sarcophagus it was stowed in, but I was able to figure it out without too much trouble.”

“You’re sure you didn’t release some sort of horrible curse?” Gyro asked, staring up at Rarity. When Rarity tilted her head down, Gyro blinked and roughly shook herself. “Sorry. I just can’t get over the fact that you’re… this.”

“You can blame Melody for that,” Rarity said, gesturing to the larger siren, who still kept herself in the shallows surrounding the island instead of pulling herself onto the beaches like Rarity did. “And as for any horrible curses, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t sense anything magical happening, and nothing changed when I opened the tomb.”

“What was in the big coffin?” Ratchet asked, managing to overcome his awe at the sight of the two sirens to ask his question. “Did you see?”

Rarity shook her head. “I couldn’t see into it, because it was too cramped. But I think it was the body of the previous moon god’s avatar when the Ponynesians slew him.”

That sentence roused a chorus of confused murmurs. Blinking, Rarity chuckled to herself when she realized that none of the other survivors knew what exactly had happened beneath the tomb on the archipelago, and neither did they know any of the lore or history of the islands and Ponynesian history like Melody did. “Right, I suppose there’s quite a lot to explain. I forgot that not everypony has had a hundred year old siren to explain everything to them.”

“Knowing about that… might be helpful,” Gyro said with a sarcastic lilt. “Not all of us are so well informed.”

“Then perhaps Melody can explain it better later.” Rarity smiled down at the survivors, then at Rainbow Dash. “In the meanwhile, I think it’s about time that we get all the figurines together and get ready to go home, wouldn’t you all agree?”

“Heck yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed, and her wings blurred as she spun about in the air and darted back into the interior of the island. “Let me get the others!” she shouted as she flew. “We’ll be out of here in no time!”

While Rainbow dashed off into the interior of the island, Rarity shifted her attention to Melody and the survivors, who still seemed to be in some kind of awkward standoff fueled by awe and anxiety in equal measures. Her strong legs slid her siren body across the sand until she could touch Melody’s shoulder with her tail and gently encourage the green siren to come closer to the shore. “While she’s doing that, you all should get to know each other better,” Rarity said. “Everypony, meet Melody Glow. She’s very friendly, and I promise you, she won’t bite.”

Melody parted her lips just enough to smile, but enough to keep her teeth mostly hidden. Rarity figured after the sort of reception her and Rainbow had given the siren upon meeting her for the first time, Melody knew it was a good idea to hide the full extent of her fangs. Rarity started wondering if maybe she should do the same as well, even if the rest of the survivors already knew her by name and person, if not so much by her new body.

“And Melody, this is Ratchet, Clever Ruse, Stargazer, Doctor Gauze, Gyro, and Hot Coals,” she said, pointing to each pony in turn. “And of course you know Champagne and Rainbow.” Frowning, she looked up and down the beach. “Is that everypony?” she asked. “There aren’t more of us left?”

“The others are dead and gone,” Ratchet said. “We lost them at the tomb.”

“There are still the pirate brothers, Black Flag and Jolly Roger,” Clever Ruse said. “But they’re in hiding, at the moment.”

“They were also getting into the rum,” Gyro said. “I bet they’re passed out somewhere. At least that means they won’t bother us for the time being.”

“Quite.” Rarity shrugged. “Well, Melody, at least you won’t have to deal with them. I haven’t met the pirates yet, but that sounds like a good thing.”

“Trust me, it is.” Gyro glanced back into the interior of the island, presumably where she figured the pirates had to be hiding. “They’re nothing but trouble. We half expected them to come out of the trees shooting pistols and being stupid when you two showed up.”

Rarity narrowed her eyes at the line of palm trees as if she expected to spot some movement on the other side, but there was nothing. She’d been away from her home island for so long that she’d nearly forgotten how thick the foliage could be inside it. “Well, perhaps they’ll have some time to calm down before they meet us, then,” Rarity said.

“They wouldn’t be able to hurt me,” Melody said. “My armor is too thick. Rarity would be more vulnerable, since her scales are still hardening.”

Light shimmered against the beach and the trees as Rarity moved her forelegs about. “Perhaps my scales will dull some, then.”

“Yeah,” Gyro said, shielding her eyes. “They’re pretty bright.”

While the conversation momentarily lapsed as everypony waited for Rainbow to return with the other figurines, Clever Ruse braved a few steps closer to the swash zone of the beach and to Melody, who still lingered just out of reach of the island. “You’re a real siren then, eh?” he asked her, approvingly looking her over. “I’ve always wanted to meet one of you.”

Melody blinked in surprise. “Really?” she asked. “I thought all ponies were terrified of sirens and hated us.”

“Not all, darling,” Rarity assured her.

Ruse shook his head. “I’ve been fascinated with the mythical and the magical all my life. Nopony I knew had ever seen a siren before, and ponies as a whole don’t know much about you. SO I wanted to become a marine biologist when I was a colt and maybe meet one of you some day.” He chuckled and brushed his hoof over his chest. “Turns out I didn’t have the best grades or attention span in school, so that was little more than a pipe dream. But I’ve always been interested.”

“Oh.” Rarity thought she saw Melody blush slightly, and the siren awkwardly crossed her forelegs in front of her chest. “Then I hope I don’t disappoint.”

“You are the furthest thing from disappointment I can imagine,” Ruse said, sitting down on the sand in front of her. “May I hear you sing, if you don’t mind?”

“Uhmmm…” To Rarity’s surprise, Melody glanced at her like she was asking if it was okay. “Maybe? Perhaps not right now, though, it’s probably not the best time, right?”

“Right,” Rarity hastily agreed, saving the strangely embarrassed siren. “Perhaps later tonight when we don’t have anything else to do. It will be a good way to celebrate removing the barrier.”

“Tonight sounds great, then,” Ruse agreed. He glanced over his shoulders at the rest of the survivors on the beach. “I assume we’ll all be excited to hear it.”

Blue wings blurred across the sand, and Rainbow Dash returned in a hurry, dropping three figurines from her forelegs. “Phew! There they are! I had a little bit of trouble finding the pegasus one, because we got that so long ago. But they’re here! That’s all of them!”

Rarity lowered her head closer to the sand to get a better look at the three figurines. Sure enough, a celestial pegasus, a dark unicorn, and a stout earth pony stared back up at her with varying expressions and levels of malice. She couldn’t believe that they were all in one place—all save for the final figurine, already deep below the surface of the island.

“I never thought I’d see them all together,” Rarity said. “Yet here they are.”

“Now we just gotta put them under the island!” Rainbow gathered them up again and immediately took off, her wings inadvertently blasting sand at Gyro and Hot Coals. “Come on, guys! Let’s get the heck outta here!”

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