Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Too Late, or Just in Time?

Gyro had lost the energy to move about the raft. Once her tears had drained her body of whatever spirit it had left, she’d collapsed on the raft with her forelegs dangling into the water. She figured she couldn’t stand even if she wanted to, she was so drained. And she certainly didn’t want to.

Coals… why had the dumb bastard done that?! Why couldn’t he have just jumped onto the raft with her? Why couldn’t she have helped him in some way? Why, why, why… Why couldn’t she stop herself from thinking about it and tearing herself apart?

Because she loved him, that was why. After years apart, they’d finally gotten to spend a few days together. They’d finally gotten the chance to love one another. And then it all came falling apart in the blink of an eye. Why had they been left to fend for themselves on the island? Why didn’t anypony think something like this could happen? Why did something like this happen?

Why, why, why?

Gyro’s body shuddered and her eyes felt warm and puffy, but she didn’t have any tears left to shed. She wanted to shed more, wanted to never stop crying, but she physically could not anymore. There simply wasn’t anything left, as much as she wanted to cry herself dry, cry until she shriveled up and blew away like dust in the wind. How could fate be so cruel? Hadn’t she suffered enough?

“I don’t want to live anymore,” she mumbled aloud. What point was there to living? Coals had disappeared beneath the horde of mummies. She knew she likely wouldn’t see him again. And if the mummies were all over the island, then they must have devoured Rainbow Dash and the others as soon as they set hoof on the archipelago. The moon god had ripped them all to pieces, and now he’d won. It wouldn’t be too long before the barrier fell and he devoured the entire world in darkness. Gyro knew she was living on borrowed time, and now she wanted nothing more than to just cash out, to take her chips home and be done with it all. She’d already suffered enough—why drag it out any longer?

She managed to muster a little strength to drag herself closer to the edge of the raft. The currents had pulled it away from the island, safely out of reach of the mummies, and would continue to drag her away well into the night. Down below her, she could see the faintest shadows of corals dotting the sandy floor. Her legs were still too weak to work for very long, and she knew that if she pulled herself over the edge of the raft and exhaled, she’d sink to the bottom and that would be it. No more Gyro. No more suffering and misery. It was better than getting her heart ripped out by an evil alicorn and all the blood drained from her body for some kind of dark ritual. Just fall, exhale, inhale, and done.

Gyro swallowed hard and tensed at the edge of the raft. Her eyes shut and she tried to focus her thoughts inward. Should she try to savor these last breaths of life she’d ever draw? Should she look ahead to the afterlife? How do you prepare to die? She wished somepony with a little more experience could have been there to help walk her through it, but that would be asking for far too much, wouldn’t it?

To her surprise, the raft violently shook while she was still contemplating how to die. She shrieked in surprise and flailed about, which ultimately sent her toppling overboard. Immediately, she began to panic and kick for the surface, desperate to get above the water. Oh, she was wrong, so horribly wrong! She didn’t want to die! She changed her mind, she wanted to go back!

Something caught her from below, and soon Gyro found herself coughing up water on the deck of the raft. After heaving and clutching at her chest, Gyro winced and managed to raise her head off of the planks. Melody awkwardly swam in place close by the raft, her hooves held over her beak. “Sorry!” the siren said, shrinking back in shame. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to hit the raft like that and knock you off! Sorry, sorry, sorry!”

Gyro blinked and managed to force herself into a sitting position. “Melody? What the crap are you doing back here?”

“I needed to warn you!” Melody said, nervously rubbing her hooves together. “I needed to warn everypony! The mummies are on the loose! They had been to the atoll by the time Rarity and I got there, and they took the old avatar’s body! They could be anywhere now!”

Gyro sighed and hung her head. “Yeah… I noticed.”

Melody’s face paled and she sunk into the water until only her neck and head poked out of it. “Oh… I’m so sorry. What happened? Is everypony…?”

“I don’t know,” Gyro said. “Coals and I barely escaped from them when they ambushed us at the camp. We tried to flee in the raft but…” She shuddered and swallowed hard. “Only I was able to get away. They got Coals. They… they probably killed him, too. I don’t know.”

“Oh dear… And the others?”

Gyro could tell from the look in Melody’s eyes that she was hoping for some good news, any good news. “I hate to disappoint you, Melody, but I don’t know.” Gyro shrugged. “They were down in the shrine when the mummies arrived. If anything, they’re probably caught down there. I don’t think they’d survive it either.”

Melody frowned and looked toward the island. “At least some of them have to still be alive.”

“Why?” Gyro asked. “Why would those undead monsters keep any of them alive?”

“Because Rarity and I found something important when we were at the atoll,” Melody said. “The Ponynesians had done some kind of blood ritual to raise the barrier. They’d sacrificed ponies to do it. And I think the moon god needs ponies for his own rituals. You can’t sacrifice something that’s already dead.”

As horrible as it was, that statement put a tiny flicker of hope back in Gyro’s eyes. “You mean… Coals could still be alive?”

“I… I don’t know, Gyro,” Melody said. “But I don’t think the moon god is going to just kill anypony he might need for whatever he needs to do. Which means he’d only be capturing them and keeping them alive for his ritual.”

“So we can go save them!” Gyro exclaimed. She abruptly stood up on the raft, the weakness in her hind legs forgotten in the sudden burst of energy coursing through her veins. “We can go get them back! We can do this!”

Melody hesitated, then shook her head. “Not now,” she said. “We can’t. Not now.”

“Why?” Gyro protested. “Hot Coals is there, everypony’s there. We have to save them!”

“We can save them,” Melody said, “but on our terms. Look, all the pegasi are on the archipelago, right?”

Gyro slowly nodded her head. “Yeah… why?”

“Because how much do you want to bet that they need ponies of each race to perform their rituals?” Melody looked in the opposite direction, towards where the distant archipelago barely peeked above the horizon. “If all the pegasi are safe there, then they have to come to us. If they do that, they spread their forces out. And I know this moon spirit isn’t going to wait very long. We can fight them, Gyro. We can fight back. It’s our only chance of stopping this madness.”

Gyro hopelessly looked on at the home island. “But…”

“The only way,” Melody reiterated. “I can promise you that the avatar isn’t going to hurt any of their captives yet. Not until they get some pegasi. So until then, we have to play it safe.”

She moved around the raft and put her hooves on the east side. “Now, hold on. We’re going to go to the archipelago, and we can plan things out further there.”

Gyro wanted to protest some more, to try and convince Melody there was still a chance they could save Coals before they left. But she knew anything she said wouldn’t sway the siren. After all, Melody was right. It was the better solution, the better plan. It was the only way they could hope to stand a chance now that the forces of the moon god were on the loose.

It just didn’t feel right to leave him behind, though.

Comments

[esplin10]

Turn all the pegasi into sirens. Then no one can leave.

[PonyDragon]

8962964
Too bad they ran out of siren-gems.

[alamais]

...Mel seems to be saying a lot more here than she and Rarara appeared to glean from any of the carvings back in the drowned temple. Not sure if she's just wildly making stuff up to raise Gyro's spirits, orrrr is revealing here that she knows more than she's let on so far.

[zaponator]

Kill all the pegasi! Then no one can leave!