Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Blissfully Unawares

Black Flag carefully picked his way along the rocky west shore of the island. With evening quickly beating on and the moon starting to rise on the opposite horizon, the ground had turned shadowy and treacherous in a matter of minutes. If he wasn’t careful with where he placed his hooves, it would be all too easy to lose his balance, tumble down the rocks, and possibly break something. The last thing he needed was to break a leg out here and be stuck on the island, useless, next to the traitor and his insufferable marefriend.

“Rainbow Dash said it was somewhere around here,” Ratchet said. The older stallion had taken the lead like he always did, and led the group of four along the coast. “Just keep your horns near the waterline and we should find a gap in the rocks hiding a cave.”

Flag lazily turned his eyes closer to the water, where Gauze and Ruse walked among the rocks, their horns providing illumination for the area. They moved at a slow and ponderous pace, and Flag sighed, shaking his head. “While I always wanted to play explorer as a colt, I’d like it if we could hurry the fuck along,” he growled at them. “I don’t have all night to deal with this bullshit.”

“Really?” Ruse asked, smirking up at Flag. “Where you got to be? You have a date or something?”

Flag scowled down at the annoying performer. He wanted nothing more than to just rip that idiot’s stupid grin off his face in as bloody a way as possible. “I’ve been hungover almost all fucking day,” he growled down at him. “The only date I have is with the Sandmare so I can catch up on some lost sleep.”

“We’ll try not to keep you up too long past your bedtime,” Doctor Gauze said, his voice as flat and disinterested as ever. Flag couldn’t exactly pin down his thoughts on the doctor; he seemed hardly moved by anything, almost to the point of boringness, but he carried a simple wit with him that only showed itself at the most opportune times, cutting through a conversation like a surgeon’s scalpel. He could be infuriating to deal with, but thankfully, the doctor made it his own initiative to avoid dealing with idle conversation as much as he could. If anypony, he was the one Flag liked the most out of this motley band of civilians he’d found himself stuck with.

They proceeded onward for a bit longer until Gauze came to a stop down by the water’s edge. “Here,” he said, pointing to a slight overhang of rock. “This must be the entrance. There are echoes coming from underneath these rocks.”

“Good job,” Ratchet said, clambering his way down the rocks to join Gauze by his side. He lowered his head almost to the water level and peered into the overhang. “Yeah, that looks like what we’re after. Wish there was a better way to get into it.” He stood up and shrugged, then turned to the rest of his team assembling behind him. “So, Gauze and Ruse, which one of you two wants to go in first so we can get a light in there?”

Ruse quickly placed a hoof over his nose. “Nose goes!” he proclaimed, snickering and looking at Gauze expectantly.

Gauze just slowly turned his head to the side and deadpan stared at Ruse in response.

After a few seconds, Ruse’s amused smirk fell off his face and he sighed, lowering his hoof to the ground. “You’re no fun,” he grumbled before stepping forward to the edge of the rocks. Taking a breath, eh stupidly grinned and stretched a leg out over the water. “At least it’s tropical, so it isn’t that cold!”

The unicorn simply leaned forward until he dropped into the water with a splash. Moments later, he stuck his head back up, horn glowing, and shook some of the seawater out of his eyes. “See? Not so bad! The water’s even deep enough to dive in!”

“Just get in the hole,” Flag growled at him, already more than impatient with Ruse’s antics.

Ruse chuckled and started to swim into the cave. “Wouldn’t be the first time somepony’s said that to me…”

While Flag refused to take the bait from the obnoxious ventriloquist, Ruse swam into the cave, taking his horn light with him. The waters beneath the rocks began to glow, shifting as the unicorn climbed out of the water on the other side. “Ooh, it’s nice and cozy in here. I might make this my secret hideout or something!”

Ratchet chuckled and shook his head. “If you want to get wet to get to your hideout whenever it’s low tide, then be my guest.” He glanced over his shoulder at Flag and Gauze. “See you two on the other side.”

He too jumped into the water, and Flag sighed and shortly followed suit. After all, there was no reason to delay any longer. He was going to get wet, and the sooner that they checked the shrine for anything to help them, the sooner he could get back and catch some much needed sleep.

The water was cool, but at least it wasn’t uncomfortably so; that was the benefit of being in the tropics, after all. Still, Flag quickly navigated his way into the cave and broke the surface, hauling himself back up onto the small ledge of stone waiting for him. There, he shook himself off, the water leaving his shoulders splattering against the stone walls of the cave and Ruse standing next to him.

Ruse held up a hoof and frowned. “Hey, watch it, I don’t need to get more wet.”

“I can throw you back in the water,” Flag said.

“That would have the opposite desired effect.” Ruse chuckled and made way for Gauze to climb up onto the platform, and together, the two unicorns used their horns to brighten the room. Ruse whistled as he looked around and nodded his head approving. “This is a pretty neat space. I can’t believe it’s just been hiding here under our noses the whole time.”

“There’s more to it than just this room,” Gauze said, already striding past Ruse and going down the sole hallway in the chamber. “We need to go deeper inside if we ant to find something useful.”

Ratchet shrugged and began to follow him. “Can’t say I disagree with that. Let’s go see what we can find before the tide comes in again and gets us trapped inside.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be the worst?” Ruse asked, following them inside. “Can’t think of a worse fate than being stuck down here with everypony’s favorite bundle of sunshine and piracy!”

Flag rolled his eyes and set off after them. “If we remove your head, I think we could improve it…”

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

they invoked murphy. sigh

[Merula]

8946811
And now disaster shall come to them. Goddamnit...

[AC97]

>chapter title

Welp, now I'm dreading what happens next...

[alamais]

o they ded

[Eroraf86]

Cue Murphy in 3...2...1...

[ry_fluttershy]

100% they’ll be stuck down there while Soft Step comes