//------------------------------// // All That's Left // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Hours passed. Rainbow Dash kept her ears pointed to the south. She could hear the hooting and hollering of the minotaurs somewhere through the trees; she just prayed that it wouldn’t get any closer. But the trees diffused the sound and caused it to echo from strange angles, so Rainbow couldn’t pin down where exactly the minotaurs were. All she knew was that they weren’t near her and Rarity. The two of them had found shelter near a cluster of palm trees. The sand fell away into a shallow divot here, and bushes grew low around the rim of the hollow. It would keep them safe at a distance, but the leaves weren’t high enough nor the foliage thick enough to stop a minotaur from catching a glimpse at them if he got close enough. They just had to hope that it wouldn’t happen. Rarity shivered and pressed herself closer to Rainbow, and Rainbow’s wing and hooves wrapped tightly around her in response. Neither said a word, afraid that even the slightest sound would draw the minotaurs’ attention no matter how far away they were. All they could do was hold each other close for comfort and wait out the storm. Purple hair tickled Rainbow’s nose as she nuzzled Rarity’s mane. She thought it funny how she held onto Rarity like she was going to protect her, when in reality if they had to fight, Rainbow would have to count on Rarity’s magic to do most of the fighting for them. She simply wasn’t agile enough with a broken wing to skirmish with the minotaurs and keep them away; she’d get caught in a flash by their nets or skewered on a spear. Rarity’s magic and intangible touch would level the playing field, but Rainbow would be nearly helpless if she couldn’t move and fly. Chirp landed in front of them and huddled up next to Rarity, pressing his head against her foreleg. It was like the bird himself knew that they were in a dangerous situation and was trying to help. He did make Rainbow and Rarity smile, and Rarity scratched the bird’s head with her hoof while he trilled softly. The skies turned amber as the sun fell. Neither pony had heard the minotaurs for at least an hour. Rainbow assumed that they’d gone back to their canoe and shoved off, but she didn’t want to risk wandering around the island until enough time had passed for her to know for sure. So they stayed put, numbly eating from their basket of fruit. The star apples went quickly; without any fresh water nearby, the juices inside them had to serve as a stand-in. The sugar apples they ate sparingly, as the almost creamy nature of the fruit made them thirsty for something to wash the pulp down with. Instead, they amused themselves by letting Chirp work on a few of the cloves and stroking his feathers while he ate. Nighttime came, and the island grew quiet. Every strange noise they imagined as a minotaur hollering or shouting somewhere in the dark forest of the island. Rainbow briefly risked standing up and walking around a bit to stretch out her sore legs, but she never strayed too far and returned to their foxhole after a minute or so. At the very least, thick clouds rolling in meant that there wasn’t much moonlight to see by. It would help hide Rainbow and Rarity in case they needed it. Rainbow didn’t remember falling asleep, but she woke with a jolt in the dim hours of the morning just before dawn. Momentarily disoriented, the events of the previous day came back to her, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Rarity soundly sleeping by her side. They were both alive, and that was all that mattered. Her tongue felt rubbery and sticky, and Rainbow found herself craving water more than anything else. After taking care of her morning business, she gently shook Rarity awake. The unicorn jumped in alarm, but when she saw the gentle smile on Rainbow’s muzzle, she calmed down. “Is… is everything alright?” she murmured, rubbing at her eyes. “As far as I can tell,” Rainbow said. “I haven’t heard anything, and I’m thirsty. Let’s go get a drink and check out the damage, okay?” Rarity nodded and moved to her hooves with Rainbow’s help. Together, the two ponies carefully padded through the sand, still cautious about making too much noise. They made slow progress, stopping every so often to listen to the sounds around them, but they heard nothing other than the birds and the bugs of morning. It was almost too much for them by the time they made it to the pond, and Rainbow dunked her muzzle in the lukewarm water without a second thought. Sure, it probably wasn’t the healthiest, by she needed water now, and she wasn’t going to wait until they could boil more again. When they’d both had their fill of water, they glided across the sand to the east, to their old shelter. It was much as they’d left it, in a state of disrepair, but they could tell that it’d been the right choice. Several large hoofprints covered the sand, especially between their shelter and their pile of salvage, which had been reduced from a pile to a disorganized spread of wood and other bits they’d pulled from the Concordia’s wreckage. The vines they’d used to hold the frame of their shelter together had been split, and several of the beams were splintering. There wasn’t much they could really salvage from it except for some of the wood. Rarity fell to her haunches upon seeing the destruction around them. “We’re back to square one,” she murmured, her ears pointing downwards. “We have no shelter anymore, and it looks like it’s going to rain soon. All of our hard work…” Rainbow tried to comfort her with a hug. “We’ll rebuild it, Rares,” Rainbow said. “We still have wood and we have a lot more salvage than we did the first time. We’ll put it back together. This isn’t going to stop us.” “But what’s the point?” Rarity protested. “What’s the point of making a hut if the minotaurs could come back at any moment and we have to tear the whole thing down again? We’ll run out of usable wood for making shelter at this rate, and we need all we can get for our raft!” “We’ll survive,” Rainbow insisted. “Some stupid minotaurs aren’t gonna get me to give up. Even if I have to sleep in the open, I’m not giving up on getting home. We’ll make it, Rares. I know we will.” Rarity chewed on her lip. “And what happens if the worst comes to pass? What happens if we don’t?” Rainbow shook her head. “I’m not even gonna consider that possibility.” She put both her hooves on Rarity’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “We’re not done yet, okay? We’ll survive. This sandy island isn’t gonna be the end of us, got it?” With a breathless nod, Rarity swallowed hard and steeled her resolve. “Got it,” she said. “We’ll survive. I… I believe in us.” “Good.” She looked over her shoulder at the mess behind her. “Because we have a lot of work to do before it starts raining again.”