Rarity dreamt that night. She dreamt of the Concordia going down in flames with her still trapped on it. Her pearly white hooves wrapped tight around a railing as the ship took the plunge into the sea below, wind howling across her face, her voice torn from her throat. The icy splash that broke and mangled her body into unrecognizable pieces. The last choking gasp as what was left of her torso slipped beneath the waves.
She awoke with a start just as light began to dawn outside of the shelter. When she realized she was still on dry land, she hunched over and focused on breathing. Her heart pounded and she could still feel the fingers of salt water around her muzzle. Her mouth was dry, and she immediately went to the bucket to get a drink. Even still, the feeling of water on her muzzle left her shivering.
And then another detail stood out to her: there had been no Luna. Maybe Rarity had subconsciously summoned that nightmare into existence to try and attract Luna’s attention per her revelation the previous night, but the Princess of the Night remained absent. Normally, Luna would be there to guard a pony’s dreams against nightmares nowhere near as awful as that, but there had been nothing. Not even a glimmer of the guardian of the dream world.
Rarity swallowed hard. Either Luna wasn’t looking for their dreams, or something was keeping her from finding them. She didn’t like either prospect all that much.
In the meanwhile, all she could do was focus on the here and now. She was still alive, Rainbow was still alive, and for now, it was up to her to keep them that way. Worrying about why their divine intervention wasn’t coming to save them could take place later; right now, she needed to make sure Rainbow recovered from her poisoning and that they had what they needed to live another day.
She turned to the side and looked down at Rainbow. The pegasus had stopped shivering during the night, and now her breathing was much smoother. It was still weak and labored at times, but she seemed to be on the upswing. Rarity smiled and stroked her cheek. This whole ordeal had scared her, but it looked like Rainbow was pulling through. Barring something entirely awful happening, Rainbow would hopefully be back to full speed in a few days.
Rainbow groaned, and Rarity jerked her hoof back. One after the other, blue eyelids fluttered open to reveal bloodshot, ruby eyes. Rarity brushed some of Rainbow’s mane out of her face and smiled. “I hope I didn’t wake you, Rainbow. Are you feeling better?”
“Mrff…” Rainbow grimaced and tried to stand up. “I gotta… help me outside, Rares.” She shuddered and wiped away some drool dripping from her lower lip. “Quick.”
Gears clicked into place in Rarity’s head, and she didn’t waste any time getting Rainbow onto her hooves and shepherding her outside of their shelter. No sooner did Rainbow stagger through the door and around the corner did she fall to her knees and vomit into the sand. She retched and heaved until she could only cough up bile, and then she rolled onto her back. A few seconds later, a small smile crept onto her puke-stained muzzle. “I already feel much better…”
“At least you gave me enough warning,” Rarity said, kicking sand over Rainbow’s mess. At least there wasn’t a whole lot of it; Rainbow hadn’t really eaten anything since she fell on the urchins. “Let’s try to get some water and food in you, okay? You need the energy.”
Rainbow wiped her chin clean and then ran her fetlock through the sand to get it off. “You gonna kiss-feed me again?”
Rarity started blushing and anxiously cleared her throat. “I was doing what I had to to get you to drink…”
Fuzzy blue ears twitched in the sand. “Yeah, totally,” she said, chuckling. She tried to sit up, winced, gasped, and ended up on her back again. “I’m just gonna lie here for a while,” she said, grimacing. “Still too weak to move… Stupid spiky death balls…”
“Yes, I do think some breakfast is in order,” Rarity said, taking a step away. “Can you roll over, at least? You should probably eat while lying on your stomach, darling.”
“I make no promises…”
Rarity left Rainbow to that little exercise while she went back to their food supplies. They were starting to run low on fruit; they’d have to go make another run soon, or at least, Rarity would. In the meanwhile, she just needed to focus on making sure Rainbow got her bed rest and didn’t try to exert herself too much, too soon. She knew that was easier said than done; Rainbow hated lying around doing nothing, and she’d probably be trying to walk around and help sooner than she should.
She returned with several star apples and a sugar apple to share. While Rainbow nibbled on her food—it was clear her appetite hadn’t fully returned yet—Rarity happily watched the life flickering beneath her lethargy. “I was worried, you know,” she said, fiddling with a star apple between her hooves. “I believed you’d pull through, but there was a while yesterday where you were in really bad shape. I didn’t want to… be left alone.”
Rainbow swallowed a star apple and licked her lips. “I don’t leave my friends behind,” she finally said after several seconds of silence. “I’m not going anywhere, Rares. Not now, not ever.”
Her words stoked a rosy warmth in Rarity’s cheeks. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that, darling,” she said, popping a sugar apple clove into her mouth. “I couldn’t do any of this without you. Even if I had the knowledge and the know-how, I’d be completely at a loss after a few days of loneliness.”
The corners of Rainbow’s muzzles turned upwards. “I’m surprised you think I’m good company.”
“Your social skills and mannerisms leave much to be desired, that much is true…” She shoveled sand with her ivory hooves, marveling at the gritty feeling against her frogs. “But I don’t think there’s much need for those things in our situation. To tell you the truth, you seem like you’d be the most at home here out of either of us or any of our friends. Something about the wild and unknown just suits you, darling.”
That got more than a little smirk from Rainbow. “Heh, I suppose you’re right. Applejack would probably do well, too; she’s pretty resourceful when it comes down to it.”
“Necessity is the mother of invention, after all,” Rarity agreed. “Myself, on the other hoof; this is absolutely not the environment I thrive in.”
“Aww, come on, Rares, you’ve done pretty great so far.” Another pause for another bite, and Rainbow wiped some of the dribbling juice off her chin. “You’re, like, a lot tougher than I thought you were.”
Rarity’s eyebrow rose. “Whatever do you mean by that?”
“Like, when we first got here and I realized that we were gonna be stuck here for a while, I thought you were just gonna die and be whiny and miserable the whole time.” Rarity’s brow lowered, but Rainbow continued. “But I don’t think I’ve really heard you whine since we got here, and you’ve been tough and done what needed to be done so we could even survive this long. You saved me from drowning at sea, and then you dragged me out of the water when we washed up here. Now you’re taking care of me and trying to keep this place together without me, while I’ve just been lying in agony inside all day, and you haven’t complained once the entire time.” She offered Rarity a genuinely proud smile. “You’re awesome, Rares.”
Blushing, Rarity parted her salt-stiff mane and slung it back over her shoulders. “You’re too kind, Rainbow. You give me too much credit; I’m merely doing what we have to to survive.”
“And doing a damn good job of it.” She popped a few more cloves of sugar apple into her mouth and lowered her head onto her fetlocks. Yawning, she closed her eyes and stretched her leg even though it made her wince. “I’m just gonna lie in the sun for a bit. It feels nice, at least right now.”
“I’m sure it won’t feel so nice when it’s directly overhead,” Rarity said. She stood up and started walking back to the shelter. “I’m going to get some more food and water; we’re almost out. Just holler if you need me!”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Rainbow mumbled. “I’m just gonna go back to sleep, where I don’t feel like shit.”
Rarity chuckled and shook her head. “You do that, Rainbow.”
“You betcha.”