The last tree fell with a crash and a thud, the tremors shaking a few leaves off a dried-up bush nearby. A ripened coconut even dropped from a nearby palm, briefly rolling across the sand before it came to a stop. The birds in the surrounding trees stopped their calls at the sudden loud noise, if only for a few seconds.
Rainbow dropped her axe to the ground, letting it hit the sand a moment before her shoulder followed it. Panting, she laid still on her side in the sand, her coat dripping with sweat. But she’d done it, or at least, half of the work. She’d felled ten trees; now all that remained was to cut up the timber and shape it into a raft.
Something that could wait until tomorrow, she supposed.
“Are you alright, Rainbow?” Rarity asked, a few notes of concern in her voice. She crossed the gap between them and poked Rainbow’s belly. “Catching your breath?”
“You try cutting down ten of these stupid trees and see how spent you are afterwards,” Rainbow grumbled.
“You try lifting up a tree that weighs several hundred pounds with your mind and see how you feel afterwards,” Rarity shot back.
“Meh. The brain’s not a muscle.” Her hooves twitched in the sand. “Speaking of which, I can hardly move, and I’m starving. A little help would be awesome.”
Rarity’s horn lit up and her magic hoisted Rainbow to her hooves. The pegasus shook some of the sand off of her coat and stretched each one of her legs in turn. Picking up the axe, Rarity brushed against Rainbow’s side. “Let’s go get something to eat, then. It’s getting quite late.”
“I like this idea,” Rainbow said. “That’s a good idea.”
The two of them walked back to their shelter, leaving the fallen trees behind. Rainbow knew it was a risk to just leave them there in case the minotaurs came back, but her and Rarity were well beyond the point of trying to survive risk-free. They couldn’t afford to wait around and minimize their presence, because sooner or later they were going to get caught. It was up to them to find a way back home, and to do that, they’d have to risk everything.
But when they didn’t have to think about fashioning a plan to get themselves home safe, the islands were still peaceful. Step into the sandy hollow where they built their shelter and it was like all the worries of the world disappeared, if only for a moment. Once inside, it was only them, Chirp, and the trees, accompanied by the constant crashing of the surf.
It certainly made for a nice and relaxing dinner. By now, Rainbow had gotten used to the limited selection of food they had to eat, but she made up for it by mixing their four staples together. At least with all the fruit they’d been eating, scurvy was going to be the least of their worries, and the grass was a decent base for their nutritional needs. The coconuts just mixed things up a little, especially once the flesh dried in the sun. Plus, there were always sand crabs, too, though Rainbow knew Rarity wanted nothing more to do with them. More for her, then. She just hoped that she wouldn’t end up depopulating the island by the time she left it.
When dinner was finished, the two ponies went to their usual spot on the east beach and watched as the sky grew darker and darker. Rainbow wondered if they would hear sirens again that night; apart from the one night, they hadn’t heard anything since, and even Rainbow found herself longing for their beautiful music.
The darkness soon overtook the island, but between the occasional puffy clouds, they could see the stars above them in all of their glory. They were almost as crisp and clear as Rainbow was used to, but Rarity seemed much more impressed. “The stars are so pretty tonight,” the seamstress said. “It’s difficult to get nice views like this from Manehattan or Fillydelphia. Celestia, even Ponyville is starting to get too well-lit to see them clearly at night.”
Rainbow nodded; as a central rail hub between all the different corners of Equestria, it had really been just a matter of time before industrialization started to creep into the small town. “They’re pretty good here,” she said. “Not as good as in Cloudsdale, though.”
“Really?” Rarity asked. “I imagined Cloudsdale would be just as bad. It’s a big city, too, and big cities are always illuminated.”
“Yeah, but up there, you can just take a cloud and fly another half-mile straight up.” Happy memories of her and Fluttershy stargazing in their youth trickled back to her. “There’s nothing that high up, and the air’s a bit thinner too. You can really see the twinkle and shine of the stars without all that water vapor in the way.”
Rarity craned her neck back and focused on the brightly shimmering stars above them. “Celestia, I can hardly imagine what that must be like. If they look this pretty from down here, they must be twice as impressive that far up.”
Smiling, Rainbow rolled onto her back so she wouldn’t have to keep stressing her neck. “I’d take you up and show you, but, well, you know.” She shrugged, once more triggering a dull ache that she’d grown used to over the days they’d been on the island. Her wing felt a little bit more solid, but she knew the bones weren’t anywhere close to being healed yet. Though she diligently kept up with changing her sling and trying to keep everything set properly, she kept wondering if just maybe she’d done something wrong. Perhaps even more so than never making her way back home, never flying right again frightened her.
Rarity laid down next to Rainbow, and their tails brushed together in the sand. The unicorn watched the stars with a thoughtful sigh, but she seemed restless. Rainbow realized after a bit that her attention wasn’t on the tiny motes of fire glued to the black sheet of night, but rather somewhere else. “What is it, Rares?”
“What do you miss the most, Rainbow?” Rarity asked. “We’ve been here for so long. What would you want to have or do more than anything else in the world at this very moment?”
It wasn’t a hard question for Rainbow to answer. “I want to fly,” she said. “I’d think that would be obvious.”
A faint chuckle. “Yes, I suppose it should have been. But apart from that? Is it the Wonderbolts? The fame and fortune?” Blue eyes shifted, dimly reflecting the light of the night. “What is it?”
It was a much harder question than Rainbow had anticipated. What did she want? That one wasn’t so hard; there were lots of things she wanted. But what did she want the most? What kept her awake at night because she was afraid she’d never have it again?
“I want everypony to know that I’m okay,” she said after a while. “All our friends, the Wonderbolts, everypony in Ponyville… I want them to know that I’m alive.” She swallowed and picked out a few familiar constellations, shapes and arrangements she’d learned from her father long ago. “I want Mom and Dad to know that their little filly isn’t crab food at the bottom of an ocean. I want to fly home and give them a big hug and let them cook me my favorite meal. I don’t want them to keep worrying and wondering if their only child is dead.”
Rarity’s hoof touched Rainbow’s. “I know exactly what you mean,” she said. “My family is probably pulling out their manes to find out what happened to me. Celestia, my parents are likely investing their retirement savings trying to charter a ship or hire or crew or something to find out what happened. I can’t stand the thought that my disappearance is causing those I know and love so much misery and misfortune.”
She sighed and looked off to the side, away from the lonely hope of the tiny stars. “There are so many things that I miss out here. Nice dresses, social galas, the gossip and intrigue of the upper echelons of society, even the hard work and sleepless nights of running my fashion empire. But what I miss the most is that warm feeling I get from helping others. From making others happy. Spreading joy and relief through a simple, generous gesture. But out here?” She shook her head. “My absence is bringing sadness and worry to other ponies. I say that not through my ego, but out of selflessness. I can’t help ponies and brighten somepony’s day from out here on this island. There are things I could be doing to help that I can’t because I’m out here. That’s what tears me apart the most.”
“Maybe you can go on a big apology tour after we get back,” Rainbow quipped, trying to lighten the mood a little. “Instead of confetti, you rain designer dresses down on everypony. That’ll make up for it, right?”
“Right, right. Along with free tailoring and a fifty percent discount on all purchases for a month.” Rarity smiled. “I don’t think I’d have much of a business left after that. Generosity does have a fiscal limit beyond which point I’d have to declare bankruptcy, you know.”
Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t have to deal with any bookkeeping. The Wonderbolts are owned by the crown, so the government pays us. Worrying about my pay isn’t something that I have to do.”
“Lucky you,” Rarity teased. “As a former bearer of an Element of Harmony, maybe I should see if Twilight can give my business competitive government subsidies to expand and swallow up more of the market.”
“That doesn’t really sound all that generous, Rares. Gotta leave some room for competitors.”
“I’ll make sure they’re very well taken care of once I buy up their companies and reemploy them in my own branches.” Rarity rubbed her hooves together. “Then my fashion empire will truly be an empire with no equals.”
“You sound like a crazy mare trying to take over the world.”
“Not the world, darling. Only fashion.”
“If that means I have to wear dresses all the time, I think I want nothing to do with it.”
“Pish posh. Don’t be so stubborn about it. You look wonderful in anything I put you in.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll pass, thank you.”
“Hmph. Spoilsport.”