Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Audience Interaction

A brilliant line of green emerald light lit up the night sky, casting stark shadows across the raft. Even after it faded, its afterglow remained burned onto the back of Rainbow’s eyes, persisting even when she blinked. Far, far away, a deadly battle raged, and the echoes of music occasionally clattered against the hull of the raft like little hailstones in the rain.

Rainbow could only watch the whole thing from afar in worry, unable to help as the raft drifted further into the water. The distant cacophony of noise accompanying the occasional flashes of light worried her. Somewhere out in the sea, Rarity and Melody fought for their lives against Soft Step. She had originally assumed that two sirens would have been too much for the alicorn to handle, that eventually they would overwhelm her with songs and magic. But that beam of pure energy… that was something else. Rainbow remembered stories about how the Dazzlings had used such brute force while fighting the Pillars so very long ago. Seeing something like that come from Melody left Rainbow deeply concerned that the battle was going anything but as smoothly as they had hoped.

“We need to help them,” Rainbow said aloud. “This is taking too long. They’re in trouble.”

“How do you know for sure?” Stargazer asked her. “Nopony ever said that it was going to be over quick.”

“But it still shouldn’t take this long for two sirens to subdue one alicorn,” Rainbow insisted. “Something’s up.”

Rainbow felt somepony place a hoof on her shoulder, preemptively trying to stay her before she could do something stupid like fly away and attempt to help. “Just have faith in them,” Gyro said. “Melody can do more than any of us can. What would you do anyway, Rainbow? As soon as Soft Step sees you on the field, she’s going to try to catch you for her ritual.”

“That’s exactly it!” Rainbow exclaimed, turning to the rest of them in excitement. “If I can distract Soft Step, give the two of them some breathing room…”

“Absolutely out of the question,” Stargazer met her with a hard, resolute stare. “If you go out there, you’re going to risk all of our lives for nothing. Let the sirens do their job. Ours is to stay safe along the sidelines.”

Rainbow growled in frustration and pointedly turned away from them, crossing her forelegs. They didn’t understand. Rarity was in danger out there; she could feel it in her gut. If they acted now, they could probably turn the tide of the fight. All she needed was one surprise attack on Soft Step, and she could possibly end the fight altogether. She could be the hero that saved the day.

While she mulled it over, she heard Champagne talking behind her. “We’re getting awfully close to the moonlight,” she said, a hoof pointed skyward. “If we keep drifting, we’ll slide out from under the cloud cover. We should so something about it.”

“Yeah, good point.” Stargazer cocked an eyebrow at Rainbow. “What do you think, Rainbow? Do you think the clouds here are pliable enough that we can move them? They don’t seem like the kind magically appearing over the island.”

Chewing on her lip, Rainbow frowned and looked up to the sky. Sure enough, at the rate they were drifting, it would barely be more than half an hour before the moon started to shine down on them. And it wasn’t like they could move the raft all that easily; there wasn’t something for them to grab onto and push it while flying, and if they got too low to the water to grab onto the raft’s edge, their wings would get soaked and become useless in minutes. If they wanted to stay hidden, then their best bet was to snatch some clouds and get them positioned to keep the raft covered as it drifted.

“It’s worth a shot,” Rainbow said, nodding along. “We don’t really have much of a choice otherwise, to be fair.”

“Then let’s get started,” Stargazer said, taking wing. Champagne jumped up shortly after him, and the two hovered above the drifting raft while Rainbow stood up. “The sooner we can get this done, the less risk we have of that moonlight falling on us.”

With a grunt, Rainbow jumped into the air, caught herself on blue wings, and began to climb in a circle around the raft. “Yeah, we don’t want a repeat of what happened with the tomb door,” she said. “We need to figure out right away if we can move this stuff. So come on, let’s go!”

Gyro sighed and rolled onto her back, watching the three pegasi climb into the night sky without her. “Don’t worry about me,” she muttered to herself. “The stupid mud pony’s just gonna sit down here and make sure the raft doesn’t, like, capsize or something…”

-----

Soft Step growled in frustration as she once more stepped through the shadows to avoid the siren’s magic. The green siren has proven herself to be a much more formidable foe than she’d given her credit for. Between a barrage of songs, sheer muscle mass and size, and the occasional application of brute force magic, the creature prevented Soft Step from landing any solid blows with any of the weapons in her arsenal that could cut through her armored hide. And to make matters worse, she didn’t play defensive or passive. The siren followed all of Soft’s attacks with vicious counters, trying to seize and press any advantage she could get her hooves on, never offering Soft Step any respite.

It was clear she needed to try something else. She didn’t know if outlasting the siren was possible; though the moon gave her strength beyond her body’s limits, she only had until it set to finish the fight and complete the ritual. The siren, meanwhile, wasn’t slowing down, nor did she seem to tire. She had great stamina at the very least, and Soft Step found it hard to believe she wasn’t fighting at full bore. But how did she crack the monster’s defenses?

The siren inhaled again, and the spark in her throat was the only warning Soft Step had before she unleashed another scorching ray of pure destruction at her. Once more, Soft Step dissolved into the shadows, reappearing safely out of reach of the attack, even as the siren swung her head and the beam around to find her. Where the brilliantly green attack smashed through the water, it instantly vaporized it into steam, giving off huge clouds of scalding white vapor that sat on top of the water for a few seconds before fading away. But, apart from a second to breathe, the siren seemed unbothered by the sheer scale of the power she’d thrown into the attack.

Soft Step responded by summoning dozens of razors from the night around her. Their handles were pure shadow, and their blades glistened with moonlight. Roaring, Soft Step drove them all at the siren, trying to find something to solidly connect with, but a quick three note arpeggio caused her to lose her grip on many of the razors, and the siren slipped through the gap in her attack. She sank below the water once more, where the darkness of the night and the dazzling, glittery spots of the moonlight sitting on the water obscured her movements even from Soft’s remarkably sharp eyes.

Summoning arrows of pure moonlight, Soft Step began raining them down on the entirety of the water around her, blanketing the entire area in a blind hunt for the submerged siren. One way or another, she knew that her magic would have to draw the siren back out again in an attempt to stop her from casting, and she was right. Only, instead of rising out of the water to sing another dispelling song, the siren breached the surface, her tail pushing her upwards, until her sharp beak came within snapping distance of Soft Step. Soft flared her wings and juked out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid the siren biting down on her tail. With a flick of her own powerful fin, the siren reversed her momentum, falling down to the water and dragging Soft Step down with her before she could slip into the shadows once more.

The impact with the ocean’s surface knocked the breath from Soft’s lungs, and the siren continued to drag her down into the water like she was going to drown her. Fortunately for Soft Step, that was little more than a nuisance to her; she didn’t need to breathe when she could rearrange her body through the shadows at will. And down here, it was very, very dark. Slipping out of the siren’s grasp was practically trivial.

But the water was a siren’s domain, and she couldn’t fight the green beast here. As soon as she melded into the shadows, she shunted herself back to the surface. There, drawing strength from the moonlight once more, she roared and struck a veritable thunderbolt of lunar energy into the water, splashing the water fifty feet into the sky as her magic exploded beneath the surface. A large, green body was tossed into the air, flailing helplessly, while Soft Step hovered in place, panting and recuperating her strength. What she wouldn’t give to have access to just a little more of His power!

The siren immediately righted herself at the apex of her ascent, using that curious ability her kind had to fly and meet Soft Step eye to eye. Her voice slid through a few notes, and Soft Step immediately readied herself to jaunt again once she knew what the monster planned to do. Suddenly, she began to writhe in pain as the siren’s song turned the water around her into steam, the vapor burning through her coat and scalding her skin from horn to hoof. The vapor frayed her feathers, and the alicorn couldn’t focus on the magic she needed to perform her jaunt. She plummeted to the sea, dazed from the pain and all but helpless, but barely managed to catch herself before she could splash beneath the waves once more.

As she floated on the surface, simply trying to recover her strength, she saw the siren’s shadow growing larger as the beast dived down to the surface. Yet while Soft Step desperately tried to ready her horn to move before another blast of raw magic could incinerate her, the siren suddenly cried out and changed directions. “Rarity!” she shouted, and Soft Step craned her head back to watch the siren dive past her and in the direction of her thrall. Once more, the siren’s chest glowed as she screeched a powerful beam of magical energy at a block of sand sitting on the surface of the water nearby, disintegrating it entirely and allowing the white siren trapped inside to escape.

The momentary distraction was all she needed to let the moonlight pour strength back into her bones and heal her wounds. Sure, the green siren had freed her friend, but it had cost her an opportunity to win the fight. Her care for her friend was a weakness—a weakness Soft knew she could exploit.

With her body fully restored and rejuvenated, she took to the skies once again, ready to press her newfound advantage.

Comments

[PonyDragon]

As she floated on the surface, simply trying to recover her strength, she saw the siren’s shadow growing larger as the beast dived down to the surface. Yet while Soft Step desperately tried to ready her horn to move before another blast of raw magic could incinerate her, the siren suddenly cried out and changed directions. [...]
The momentary distraction was all she needed to let the moonlight pour strength back into her bones and heal her wounds. Sure, the green siren had freed her friend, but it had cost her an opportunity to win the fight.

[Merula]

They will not win a battle of atrition, thats for sure

[zaponator]

Well shit. I get the distinct feeling that this is the moment we'll all look back on when this fight is finally done. This is the moment where it could have ended quickly and easily.

Oh well! More monster smackdown time!