//------------------------------// // The Wide Blue Calling // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Rainbow was already wide awake before the sun even rose the next morning. Today was the day that could very much determine her fate. One way or another, everything would change in a few hours. She just hoped it would be for the better. Not even the birds were stirring when she sat down on the eastern shore. A few bugs buzzed and hummed in the pre-dawn glow, but the only constant noise she had for her companion was the rushing of the seas. That was fine. She didn’t want to admit it, especially not to Rarity, but the peaceful lull of the ocean helped her to meditate and clear her head. The mere thought of it sounded sentimental to her, and Rainbow Dash was never sentimental. Life was too short for sentimentalities. Or so she told herself, at least. Not even the few crabs scuttling in the sand caught her interest. It would’ve been so easy to go prowling up and down the shore, picking up a few tasty snacks here and there, but Rainbow found herself unmoved by their presence. Her mind was already preoccupied with other questions that would certainly become a matter of life and death in a few hours. How would they guide the raft? How would they deal with any minotaurs they’d come across? Rarity had already fashioned two makeshift oars to help propel them across the water, but the ocean currents would be a challenge in their own right. And if the minotaurs lived on those islands to the west, then her and Rarity might end up having to defend themselves if they got caught. The whole plan was fraught with danger every step of the way, and, Rainbow admitted, quite stupid. But so was hiding on their island, waiting to be found. The way Rainbow saw it, it’d be better to go sail to their doom than wait for another few months in a vain hope for rescue and then die anyway. Rainbow knew she was going to go down kicking and screaming, one last, valiant defiance before the afterlife claimed her soul. Or everything could go better than expected and they’d be off the island before they knew it. Sometimes it didn’t hurt to think optimistically. Rainbow almost didn’t hear Rarity’s hoofsteps in the sand over the sound of the waves—almost. She turned her ear back towards the shore as Rarity approached and sat down beside her. The unicorn stifled a yawn and rubbed at her eyes. “Mmrff… how I miss my beauty sleep,” she grumbled. “Sand just doesn’t cut it.” “I think it’s great,” Rainbow said, not so much because she actually thought it was good, but because she knew it’d bug Rarity. “It’s not as good as a cloud, but it’s form-fitting if you push it down enough. Isn’t that what all the super expensive mattresses are about these days?” Rarity scowled. “Sand hardly has the same lovely properties that make such mattresses highly desirable by the wealthy.” “Mind translating that into not-snooty speak?” “A thousand-bit mattress and sand are not the same thing.” Rarity glowered at Rainbow. “You can be insufferable at times.” Rainbow shrugged. “Just trying to get your brain working the only way I know how.” “A ‘good morning’ kiss would’ve been preferable,” Rarity grumbled. “Oh? Who’s being forward now?” Rarity stood up and whipped Rainbow’s cheek with her tail. “I’m going to fetch breakfast,” she declared. “We have a long day ahead of us.” She started to walk away, but Rainbow reached out and snatched the end of her tail at the last second. With a quick tug that had Rarity gasping in surprise, she brought the seamstress tumbling back to her. Before Rarity could hit the sand, Rainbow caught her in outstretched hooves and planted a big kiss on the end of her muzzle. Rarity’s indignation melted away after a second, and she moaned softly as she embraced the kiss. They broke it after a few seconds, and she managed a sly smile. “That is much better,” she purred, slipping out of Rainbow’s forelegs and patting her on the head. “Keep that in mind, next time.” Then she turned away and trotted back toward their shelter, her shortened tail swaying back and forth as her hips moved in exaggerated movements. Rainbow looked away, knowing that Rarity was trying to tease her as vengeance. Unfortunately for her, it was working. Rarity returned a few minutes later with a couple fruits and a bird following her. She passed Rainbow some of the tasty fruit and set a star apple in the sand for Chirp to work on, who happily swooped down and started tearing it open with his beak. As they ate, they watched the sun rise higher and higher in the east, spreading yellow light across the sparkling waters. “We leave today?” Rarity asked. “Supposing the stupid thing floats and we can get it out into the water,” Rainbow said. “Are the supplies ready?” “Our largest basket is stocked with fruit and coconut meat, and the lid is still on the pot of water we boiled last night. We just need to put together the tools and we should be good.” Rainbow still found it hard to believe that they were this close to setting sail. “I’ll take care of the tools. We’ll probably just need the knife and the axe. I don’t want to take the cleaver in case the worst happens and we lose a bunch of stuff in the water.” “Good idea,” Rarity said. “We do want to preserve some of our steel just in case.” “Exactly what I was thinking. We can take the spears, too.” Rarity hummed her agreement through a mouthful of sugar apple. “Hopefully we won’t have to use them.” “I hope so, too.” Finishing off the last of her breakfast, Rainbow tossed the rinds of the star apples into the water and stood up. “Gonna scout the west quickly before we set off. See you at the raft?” “That sounds good to me,” Rarity said, taking her time with her breakfast. “Bring the tools and the fruit basket. I can carry everything else with my magic.” “Sure.” When she made it back to camp, Rainbow felt a sense of melancholy as she looked on their shelter. They’d just rebuilt it a few days ago, and now they were abandoning it for Celestia only knew how long. She didn’t know if she’d see it again. Hopefully she would. The only reason she could think of why she couldn’t was that she was dead. The calendar plank caught her eye as she gathered her things and prepared to set off. Without even thinking, she took the cleaver and carved in the nineteenth mark in its surface. Assuming all went well, her and Rarity wouldn’t even be on their island for the twentieth day anniversary. Rainbow marveled that it took them nineteen days to put together a raft and try to make progress somewhere. Perhaps most of all, she marveled that it’d only been nineteen days. It felt like she’d already been trapped on that island for a lifetime. The island began to come to life as Rainbow wandered to the western shore. The birds started singing, and she saw colorful, feathery shapes darting between the trees. Occasionally she’d spot another macaw among the palms, but by now she could recognize Chirp’s unique feathering pattern, so it only took a glance to tell that they weren’t him. Still, they watched her with curious eyes as she stepped out onto the sandy west. The beach was empty and flat. Whatever hoofprints her and Rarity had first found all those days ago had been smoothed down by the rains and the tides. Somewhere under the sand, pegasus wing bones were buried. Perhaps there were more bones that she didn’t know about. Hopefully she wasn’t about to join them. But for now, the oceans were empty and the tide was low, so it was the perfect time to launch. They just had to go through the hard part first. Leaving the supplies on the beach, she trotted back into the jungle. It didn’t take more than a minute before she found their raft, exactly where they left it. A minute later, Rarity emerged from the trees, holding the pot full of potable water in her magic. She dropped the oars from where she’d tied them against her flanks and buried the spear hafts in the ground. With little more than a smile and a nuzzle, she turned from Rainbow to the raft. “Shall we?” “Now or never,” Rainbow said, fetching the oars and spears and making room for Rarity to work. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” Rarity nodded and spread her stance. Lowering her horn, she slowly let the magic build before she allowed it to manifest on the raft. Her shoulders rose and fell as she sucked in deep breaths of air, and then with a decidedly unladylike grunt, she bared her teeth and heaved. The logs of the raft groaned and creaked as she lifted it into the air, but after a few seconds, there was little doubt left that it was in the air. Sweat started to trickle down Rarity’s brow, and she turned a pained eye to Rainbow. “Help me through the trees?” Rainbow nodded and immediately took a forward position off to the side of the raft, somewhere where Rarity could see her and she could guide it to the water. With her help, Rarity carefully maneuvered the raft through a gap in the trees, and as soon as water touched her white fetlocks, she dropped the raft into the surf. Water splashed around the logs, darting through the gaps, and for a moment, Rainbow worried that the coconut wood was too heavy. But then the swash tried to steal it, and Rarity had to cling onto a corner with her magic to prevent it from washing out to sea. “Hah!” Rainbow exclaimed, jumping up and down in the sand. “It floats! It actually floats!” Rarity managed a weary smile through her panting. “That it does… we should get it loaded up before the ocean claims it.” Rainbow nodded and quickly started loading up their supplies while Rarity held the raft in place. Once everything was aboard, she tried to secure them with a loop of vine through the middle that Rarity had worked into the design the previous day. It wasn’t perfect, but it would at least stop things from rolling or sliding off of the raft if they hit a stretch of choppy water. Once everything was in place, she crawled on top of it and waved to Rarity. “Alright! Hop on, Rares, we’ve got places to be!” Splashing out into the water, Rarity made it to the base of the raft, where Rainbow helped her on board with a hoof. They each took an oar and positioned themselves at opposite ends of the raft, and as soon as the next wave broke over the front, Rarity released her hold on the raft. Frantically paddling with the receding water, they managed to force themselves through the next line of breaking waves, drenching themselves in a salty spray as they did so. But even though the saltwater stung Rainbow’s eyes and nearly blinded her, she simply kept paddling and paddling. They couldn’t afford to wash back up on the shore now. Minutes later, the seas finally calmed down and, nearly out of breath, Rainbow looked over her shoulder. The island grew smaller behind her by the second. “We did it!” Rarity cheered, magically lifting her oar into the air. “We’re on the open sea! We’re on the sea and we’re not sinking!” Rainbow chuckled and shook her head. “Please don’t jinx it, Rares.” “Good point,” Rarity responded. “Still, we’ve made it this far, yes?” “And we’ve still got a long ways to go,” Rainbow said, eyeing the green tops of the islands to the west. “We aren’t gonna get there if we don’t start paddling.” “Then I suppose we should start,” Rarity said. Her oar dipped back into the water and she grinned. “Nothing can stop us now!”