//------------------------------// // Don't Look Back // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash glared at the raft resting on the shore while Stargazer and Champagne loaded it with supplies to last the night. While she would normally be the first to help with moving supplies, they were traveling light enough that there wasn’t much more than what two ponies could handle, and besides, she still felt sore about being pressured into the plan. She wanted to stay and help fight, to help protect Rarity and Melody from Soft Step and whatever dark powers the alicorn could wield. But it was simply too risky of an endeavor, and Melody was right, anyway. If Soft Step captured her, then it could all be over. Their only chance to survive was to run and hide until daylight, then try and clean up the mess before the moon rose again. “I don’t like it any more than you do.” Rainbow’s ear perked, and she turned to the side, where Gyro lay next to her. The gray mare’s eyes seemed dull and defeated, and her movements were slow and sluggish as she stared out over the water to the east. “They took Coals from me,” the engineer continued. “He was too exhausted from being in a coma for so long that he hardly had the strength to put the raft in the water. Almost as soon as he pushed it past the waves, the mummies got him. I couldn’t see what happened next… but Melody promises that he’s still alive.” She drew little circles in the sand with her hoof. “If he is, then I want to do nothing else but sail right back to him and rescue him in some impossible way. If he isn’t… fuck, I don’t know.” Gyro sighed and let her shoulders sag but said no more. Instead, Rainbow brushed a wingtip over them and patted her back. “I’m sure he’ll be fine, girl,” Rainbow said. “Tomorrow morning, you’ll get to see him again. It’ll be good!” “I’m certain I’ll see him one way or another…” Gyro frowned and pursed her lips. “Hey, Rainbow?” “Hmm?” “Even if we do win… if we do defeat Soft Step somehow… how are we going to get home?” Rainbow blinked. “I… I’m sure we’ll find a way, somehow.” “Because it sounds to me like she’s trying to do the same thing we’re trying to do,” Gyro continued. “She wants to lower the barrier as well. Only, she’s trying to collect everything she needs for pony sacrifices.” A look of deep concern flashed across her face. “What if… what if that’s the only way to lower the barrier? What if ponies have to die for it?” Rainbow felt her face pale. Gyro had a good point. If the barrier had been raised on some kind of blood sacrifice, and Soft Step was trying to push a blood sacrifice to lower it… Would that mean they’d still have to kill ponies to lower the barrier even after she’d been defeated? Rainbow recoiled from her own thoughts. They were too horrible to think about, but what if they were right? Would she have to kill her friends to go home? Would it even be worth it at that point? “There has to be another way,” Rainbow said, as much to placate Gyro as to assure herself. “We’re not going to start sacrificing each other just to go home. There’s no way I’m gonna let that happen.” “And what if it’s the only way to go home?” Gyro asked. “Then we’ll… we’ll…” Rainbow nervously chewed on her lips. “We’ll not worry about it for now,” she concluded, abruptly trying to steer the conversation away from that topic. “It’s not gonna matter unless we defeat Soft Step tonight. Heck, Stargazer was right. If she just lies low and we can’t put a stop to this tonight, we’re doubly screwed tomorrow. She can keep this up almost forever now that she’s out of that tomb. We can’t.” Gyro nodded once. “So I guess this is it, then,” she said. “All our eggs are in this one basket.” “We don’t really have a second basket to put some in,” Rainbow said. “It’s really all or nothing tonight.” “Well then…” Gyro lightly smirked and imitated a salute to Rainbow. “Regardless of what happens, it’s been an honor serving with you, Captain Rainbow.” Rainbow snickered and shook her head. “Couldn’t have done it without you, grease monkey.” The two mares shared a few giggles, reveling in the brief levity of the situation. They both knew it simply wouldn’t last that much longer, and it was better to try and enjoy the few moments of peace they had left now before they could only watch helplessly from afar, wondering if Rarity and Melody would be up to the task of stopping Soft Step or not. It truly was the calm before the storm. Rainbow didn’t know if a saying had ever resonated with her as much as that one tonight. But even those moments had to come to an end. Rainbow spied Champagne slowly trotting over to them from the raft, and she preemptively stood up, already knowing that they were ready to move out. She offered her hoof to help Gyro stand, and the mare gladly took it. Together, the two mares trudged across the sand, joining up with Champagne and then assembling around the raft. Rarity waited in the water next to it, and her fin paddled back and forth in anxious anticipation. While the pegasi and Gyro climbed on, she looked around, inhaling a deep breath through her nostrils. “This is it, then,” she said once they were all on. “It all comes down to tonight.” Rainbow nodded and sat down on the raft, looking up at the night sky above them. “How many days have we been here?” she asked. “How many has it been?” Rarity could only shrug. “A few more than fifty, I think,” she said. “I forget what we had marked on the calendar.” “Fifty…” Rainbow chuckled and flopped onto her back. “Fifty-some days on this island. And here I thought that we’d be rescued in two weeks, tops.” “Nopony could have known about what we were getting ourselves into,” Rarity said. “True enough. But I swear to you, Rares, we’re getting out of here.” She sat up again, her restless limbs preventing her from simply settling into a comfortable position. “We’re not gonna spend sixty days trapped here with no hope of getting home. We’re finishing this once and for all, and then we’ll get to see our families again. I promise.” Rarity returned her a soft smile. “I believe you,” she said. “We just have one more night of hardship left to contend with.” She looked over her shoulder at Melody idly floating in the water a bit from the shore and sighed. “Ready? Melody is going to need me to help keep watch.” “No,” Rainbow said, frowning at the beach, “but we’ll do it anyway.” Rarity nodded and dragged the raft out of the sand while the four ponies on board held on tight. Then, guiding it through the waves, she maneuvered it into calmer waters past the breaking point of the waves and began to swim. Rainbow’s eyes remained locked on Melody as she gradually drew farther and farther away. She wondered if, when it was all over, she’d regret not speaking to the siren one last time.