There wasn’t much that needed to be done that day apart from the basics. With everypony agreed on a course of action, they had little to discuss save for the mundane task of preparing to survive another day. But with eight ponies and a siren, it was simple enough to divvy up the tasks so they were easy to handle. Thus, by the time night fell again, there was nothing that needed to be finished for tomorrow.
That didn’t stop Rainbow from being wary. She felt like she was personally traumatized by the night, and she worried that she’d never be able to sleep soundly once the sun set ever again. The previous night had been the worst night of her life, and she hoped that nothing would ever top it or even come close to it in terms of the sheer amount of pain she’d suffered through, both physically and emotionally. Even now, as darkness reclaimed the island once more, she found she couldn’t settle down just in case the evil god of darkness had something more in store for the rest of them.
But she’d checked the ashes of the pyre. Soft’s body had been completely incinerated, leaving only tiny shards of bleached bone that hadn’t been destroyed in the blaze. She had seen something that might once have been the wicked and curved horn, but she didn’t know for sure. Jolly Roger had badly broken it with a rock, and the fire had destroyed the rest. What had once been a cursed remain that had twisted Soft into an alicorn of darkness had finally surrendered to the dust and dirt of the earth. It should have made her feel better… but in reality, being unable to identify its remains only made her worried again. Perhaps more worried than she should be, even.
Rainbow hated herself for it. Why couldn’t she relax when they’d won? Didn’t she deserve some respite after everything she’d done the night before?
All this led to her sitting on the east shore long after most everypony else had gone to sleep. Though she was tired, her mind had pushed the exhaustion aside in favor of horrible paranoia. She was determined to not get caught flat-hoofed again. If something happened in the middle of the night, she knew she needed to be the first to respond. She had Chirp’s blessing, after all. Only she could foil the moon god’s plans if he happened to show his ugly face that night.
The waves crashed against the beach, once more bathing her in that hypnotic rhythm. Her eyes watched the swash come in and out without her even thinking about it. She felt like the ocean had the only calming remedy to soothe her troubled mind. Would this really be so bad to look at for the rest of her life? Would it really be so bad to wake up every morning to the sound of the tides, to bathe in the salty water, to play in its crystal clear hands from sunup to sundown? Would it really be so bad to leave Equestria behind, to make a home for herself and her friends out here, so far from civilization?
It was something that she realized was worth thinking about. That possibility seemed all the more real every day. If she couldn’t go back home, she could at least try to make herself comfortable out here. Maybe now that she had Chirp’s feathers in her wings she could negotiate with the minotaurs and learn their language. If they could work with the natives instead of trying to fight each other, then they all had a much better shot at surviving this ordeal. The cooperation they showed while fighting off Soft Step’s minions was a start. Perhaps it would be worth it to look into fostering a growing bond in the future.
She saw Rarity approaching through the water long before the siren actually made it to the beach. When she did, Rarity groaned and rolled onto her side, her tall dorsal fin keeping her propped up. “The siren thing is nice and all, but I’m really starting to grow tired of it,” she said in a weary voice. She yawned, opening her beak wide and revealing the sharp and pointy depths of her maw for the world to see. “If I want to go anywhere on this island, I have to swim around the edges. I can’t just walk into the middle anymore.”
“At least it means I won’t lose track of you,” Rainbow said, smiling slightly. “Besides, I’m sure you can fix that in some way.”
Rarity blinked. “Fix it? Fix it how?”
“With your magic, duh.” Rainbow looked Rarity’s scaly body over. “If you can sing and tear apart rocks, surely you can sing and turn yourself back into a pony, right? That sounds like something a siren could do.”
“I… suppose.” Rarity shrugged and gazed up at the stars. “I’d just need to figure out how to do it.”
“We’ve got time,” Rainbow said. “It’s not like we’re going anywhere any time soon.”
“I know,” Rarity said. Sighing, she idly drew nonsensical patterns in the sand with the tip of her hoof. “The other plans aren’t going to work, are they.”
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, one that Rainbow unfortunately agreed with. “I don’t see why they would,” she said. “The sacrifice was made with hearts. Not blood. Soft didn’t care about the blood, she only wanted the heart. There’s a big difference between the two.”
“Is there?” Rarity asked. “I’m not quite up to date with my ritual sacrifice 101.”
“Isn’t, like, the heart where the soul is?” Rainbow asked. “That’s probably why she needed them. There’s nothing special about blood.”
Frowning, she shook her head and rolled onto her stomach. “It doesn’t mean we can’t try.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Rainbow said. “I’m just not gonna get my hopes up, because I know we’re going to be disappointed.”
Silence fell between them once more, long and uncomfortable. Both knew the truth but didn’t dare to speak it: that it would take nothing short of a miracle to go home once again. Perhaps they’d been doomed since the moment they set hoof on the island, or perhaps they had a window to go home long ago and missed it. Perhaps the opportunity hadn’t yet arisen. There was always the guaranteed way to go home, but it was too unacceptable, too wrong. Nopony was willing to kill another to make that final sacrifice. And even though it might mean that they’d all be stuck out here for the rest of their lives, Rainbow was proud of them for it. Surviving on this sandy island wasn’t merely about making it to the next day. To Rainbow, it meant making it to the next day with her equinity intact. If she sacrificed that, then Rainbow Dash would have died on the islands, and some doppelganger would be the one going home. It simply wasn’t worth it.
“You know, darling,” Rarity began once the silence had dragged on for long enough. “It’s simply beautiful out here.”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, it is,” she said. “It’s a perfect night. There’s almost nothing like it back home.”
Rarity hummed and moved closer to Rainbow, her large, purple tail fin curling as she stretched. “We’ve spent so much time grieving that we’re never going home. But just for once, I’d like to imagine the opposite.” When Rainbow turned to her with a brow raised, she smiled and gestured out into the great dark emptiness around them. “If this was to be our last night out here, darling, what would you like to do? If we were to be brought home tomorrow…how would you spend this last night?”
The question caught Rainbow off guard. “I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s just… I haven’t really thought about it, you know? Because I’ve been expecting the opposite. I’ve just accepted the opposite.”
“It certainly wouldn’t hurt to at least imagine the best case scenario,” Rarity said. “But I think this is just perfect. I’d like to sit on the beach, listen to the waves, and let the noise of the ocean lull me to sleep. There’s nothing quite like the serene tranquility of the beach under the stars.”
“You know, I think I’d like that, too,” Rainbow said.
Rarity scoffed in surprise. “Really? I would’ve thought you’d be spending your time on a night flight high above the sea, where you can watch the moon glitter on the waves far below you.”
Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, well, that sounds pretty awesome, now that you mention it.” But she shifted closer to Rarity and leaned against her scaly side. “But if I did that, I couldn’t be with you.”
It was sappy, Rainbow knew, but she also knew that it was exactly the kind of thing Rarity would have loved to hear. And judging by the siren’s stunned reaction, she’d played her cards perfectly. “Why… I… Oh, you’re too sweet, darling.”
“Hey,” Rainbow said, looking up into Rarity’s eyes, “just because you’re a big fish doesn’t mean you’re not my big fish. Even if you can’t change back, I’m gonna love you no matter what.”
Rarity blinked in surprise and had to look away. “Oh, Rainbow, you… you don’t know how much that means to me to hear you say that.”
“I think I do,” Rainbow said. “And no matter what happens, Rares, we’re gonna get through this together. Whether you’re a siren or a pony, we’ll always be in it to win it as a team. I promise you that.”
“And I promise you the same,” Rarity said. She turned back to Rainbow, eyes sparkling, and lowered her beak to the pegasus. “I love you, Rainbow. No matter what happens, and no matter what comes. If we go home or not, it doesn’t matter much to me anymore. So long as I have you, I can survive anything.”
Rainbow felt her heart swell, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “Same, Rares,” she said, nuzzling the siren’s cheek. “I love you, too. And we’ll get through this. We’re too awesome not to.”
Rarity giggled. “That, I can believe.”
She curled up on the beach, and Rainbow moved to huddle into her protective scaly warmth. Resting her chin on Rarity’s cheek, the two lovers watched the waves roll in and out and let the stars shine down on them from high above. They’d braved everything that had been thrown at them so far. They’d faced it all down and come out on top, no matter how dire things may have seemed. They’d lost friends of all kinds, but they knew the fallen would always live on in their hearts.
There were mysteries that had yet to be solved. The missing body from the sunken temple. What exactly the minotaurs had found in those papers that were so important to them. If Chirp was really just a bird with magical powers or something more. But there was always time to solve them. There would always be time to figure out what had happened. After all, it wasn’t like they were going anywhere, right?
What was important was that they had survived. And not only had they survived, but they had thrived, and they’d done so together. Now they had a group of friends so they wouldn’t be so alone, and even out here in the middle of tropical nowhere, they had made the magic of friendship bloom once more.
No matter what might come, no matter how good or bad, Rainbow knew that she would be alright.
They had survived.
And they would continue to survive.
No matter how long it took.