//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: A Lifeboat Made for Two 
// by Phil Ken Sebben 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7


As you open your eyes, it takes you a second to remember where you are. You do your best to sit up, but it's rough. Sleeping on stone certainly didn't do your back any favors. You blink a few times, and glance around. There's a little bit of light making it's way into the cave; it must be morning. It's still pretty dark, but you can see well enough to tell Rarity isn't beside you anymore. 
You stand with a groan, and make your way toward the front of the cave. Rarity is sitting at the bottom, in front of the pool of water. It looks like it's a lot deeper than when you entered the cave. 
She doesn't turn around as you approach her. Sitting down beside her, she finally acknowledges you. 
"Good morning." she says, her voice almost monotone.
"Hey. Waiting for me to get up?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I assumed you didn't want to try and wade through this by yourself." you say, motioning toward the water.
She doesn't reply, but you can tell from her expression that's pretty much it. Guess she's still too proud to outright ask you to carry her. 
Working your way down to the pool, at you peer into it. It looks like it'd come up to your waist, so Rarity would definitely have trouble with it, especially with her leg. But most importantly, you notice how clean it looks. You can see the bottom of the pool clearly, no dirt or mud or creatures swimming around. Then again, this IS rain water; it should be perfectly fine to drink. Reaching into the water with one hand, you scoop some out, and bring it to your lips. It's cool, and refreshing, but most of all,  it wasn't more coconut milk.
Dropping down to your stomach, you bring your lips to the pool, and drink deeply. Your stomach stretches painfully after being empty for so long, but at least you have some real water in it. Rarity slowly walks up besides you, watching you drink with a curious look.
"Are... are you sure that's safe you drink?"
Her voice is quivering a little, hoping whatever answer you give is good enough for her to drink for herself. You push yourself up away from the water, and sit back down.
"It's rain water," you say, gesturing at the pool. "Unless there's a lot of pollution in the middle of the ocean, it's perfectly OK to drink."
Satisfied with the answer, she carefully kneels down and brings her mouth to the water. Even as thirsty as she is, she maintains her self control, and drinks slowly and elegantly. She still drinks for nearly a minute, though, before sitting back with a contented sigh. The two of you sit in silence for a moment, before you get to your feet.
"I hate to dirty this water up, but we should clean your leg again, with CLEAN water."
Rarity hesitates for a moment, like she's going to protest. Instead, she gives a quick sigh and nods. Using her magic, she unbinds the leaves from her leg, wincing slightly as they come off. Kneeling down, you inspect her wound. 
It doesn't look too good; it's red and slightly swollen, a layer of pus coating the surface. 
"Well then? How is it?"
"I, uh..." you sigh. "I think it might be getting infected."
Again, she says nothing, but you can see a look of fear flash in her eyes. 
"But, hey! That's what the clean water is for? It'll clean it right out."
You're pretty sure that's not true, but you need to try and keep her calm. Taking off your shirt, you dip it in the pool, and scrub it against itself briefly, until the smell is gone. Taking it back to Rarity, you try and clean her leg like you did before. This time it's harder, because the wound is much more tender and sore. 
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" is your mantra as you clean her leg as quickly but gently as you can. Rarity is almost in tears by the time you're satisfied that it's finally clean. Putting your shirt back on, you grab the leaves and wash them in the pool, and hand them back to Rarity.  She uses her magic to twist them back into shape around her leg. You sit there in silence for a few minutes, letting her rest from her ordeal.
"Rarity. We should head back to camp."
She sits there for a moment, like she didn't hear you, or she was ignoring you. Then, she slowly stands up, careful to keep weight off her bad leg. She doesn't protest as you bend down and scoop her up in your arms. Even carrying her, the touches her hooves as you wade through the water, to the exit of the cave.
Outside, everything looks like chaos. Big, green leaves cover the entire ground, with entire trees strewn about. Carrying Rarity and stepping over downed trees at the same time is difficult and very painful on your back, but you keep your mouth closed; it's your own fault you have to carry her. 
Eventually, you make your way back to camp. Or, at least where camp used to be. There's not a single trace that either of you had been here. he sand is still damp, and there are puddles of water littering the ground. Whether it's ocean or rain water, you don't know; probably a mixture of both. 
You stand there for a moment, taking it all in, before setting Rarity down in the ground. Wracking your brain, you try to think of something to say.
"This is fine.  We can just start over, right?"
"Anonymous."
"I mean, what do we need? A fire and a tent, right? That wasn't so hard before!"
"Anonymous!" she says harder this time.
You glance at her, and see her pointing at the trees with her hooves. Looking up, you don't see anything; there's nothing in the trees. Wait... there's nothing in the trees. All the coconuts are gone. You stare at the empty trees for a moment, then fall back in the sand, defeated. The two of you sit there almost a full hour before she speaks up.
"So. Now what?"
You push yourself into a sitting position.
"Now? Nothing."
"What do you mean, 'nothing?'"
"I mean there's nothing we can do."
"So what? Now you're just going to give up?" she cries indignantly.
"What do you want me to do?" you reply. It sounded much angrier in your head, but you just can't spare the energy to yell. "There's nothing clean to drink anymore. Even if we drink that water we contaminated, it'll go stagnant in a few days. And on top of that, I've had almost nothing to eat in like a week. So yes, Rarity, I think I'm going to just give up, now. Sorry to disappoint you."
You fall back to the ground, and stare up at the sky. Rarity is silent for a few minutes, clearly thinking. Her expression goes from depressed, to angry, to determined. She climbs to her hooves, marches over to you, and jabs a hoof into your ribs.
"Ah! What the hell!?"
"Get up! Get up right now!" 
She pokes you again, harder than before.
"Jesus, OK, OK!" You jump to your feet. 
"Now, those coconuts didn't just vanish. They're still out there, somewhere! And you're going to go find them!" she says, pointing a hoof at the wreckage of the inland, and staring at you with narrowed eyes.
You want to protest, but you know it's not worth it. With a sigh, you turn and head into the trees. There are leaves and downed trees everywhere; you can even see the ground. Shaking your head, you start kicking leaves aside. To your surprise, you find a coconut almost immediately. With a shrug, you throw it behind you back into the clearing. A few minutes later, you find another. Maybe Rarity was onto something. You feel hoping playing your emotions, and start looking with renewed vigor. 

After a few hours, you found just over 40 coconuts.  That should be good for now; the sun's starting to get low, anyway. Heading back into the clearing, it doesn't even look the same as it did. Rarity had built a new tent, complete with flaps this time, and a new mat inside. More importantly, there was a fire burning in the middle of the camp. Over top of it looked like some kind of makeshift spit, with something hanging from it. 
"Ah, you're back!" 
You turn and see Rarity piling sticks off to the side of the camp; presumably firewood. 
"You did all this?"
"Hmph. You sound surprised!"
"Well yeah, I kind of am! You did so much!" You point to the flame. "You even made a new fire?"
"You showed me how, darling." she chuckles.
"And what's that over top?" you say, pointing at the spit.
"Ahh, I'm glad you noticed. They must be done by now." she magically pulls the spit off the flame and hovers it to you. Six large fish are skewered on the stick, their scales brown and flaking, with the stomachs slit open and the guts removed. 
"How did you catch-" 
"Pointy stick."
"But how did you clean-"
"Sharp rock."
You stare at her, for a moment, unable to form words. 
"I hope you appreciate that, because it was absolutely the most disgusting thing I've ever done."
You snatch the stick out of the air, and dig into the fish. They're so hot they burn your mouth, but you don't care; it's the the best thing you've ever tasted. You snarf all six of the fish down in minutes. Sitting back, you sigh in content, feeling full for the first time in days. Rarity floats a coconut over to you, and takes a seat beside you. ou take the coconut and drink the contents all at once.
"There, now. Do you feel better?"
You grin at her.
"You don't even know. I could kiss you right now, Rarity."
She seems taken aback by the comment, but blushes anyway. You didn't mean it literally, but your mind is taken back to the night this all started.
"Rarity. A few nights ago, in the lifeboat..."
"I thought we agreed never to speak of that." she says, her blush deepening.	
"It's just... what WAS that? What happened there?"
Oh, I- I-" she stutters, flustered, before giving a deep sigh. "I don't know. I suppose it's because you were right. I get so wrapped up in my work that I... And anyway, I was drunk. It seemed like a good idea at the time." she says, looking away.
You shift yourself around to face her, and take her front hooves in your hands.
"Anonymous?"
"I want you to promise me something, Rarity."
"What's that?"
"If we get off this island-"
"WHEN we get off this island." she interjects, sternly.
"Alright. When we get off this island, promise me you'll spend less time working."
"I suppose I could try." she says with a sigh.
"How about one other thing?"
"Hmm?"
"How about we drop all the petty name calling and just be friends?"
She gives a warm smile.
"Deal."
The two of you move in to hug each other, your hand patting her back.
"Ha! I KNEW it!"
The two of you jump at the sudden interruption. You turn to face the source, heart in your throat. Rainbow Dash is rolling on the ground laughing. 	
"R-Rainbow Dash!?" you stutter.
"You two are alone together for a few days, and I find you getting all lovey-dovey!" she shouts through her laughter.
Rarity blushes, finally finds her voice.
"I-it was nothing like that!"
Rainbow Dash ignores her and continues laughing.
"Now see here! I'll not having you thinking the wrong thing!" Rarity shouts, raising her voice.
You cut in before Rarity gets more worked up.	
"How did you find us?"
Rainbow Dash finishes her laughing fit and wipes away a mock tear.
"Easy, we found the Lifeboat."
"What?"
She sighs in annoyance, as if it was obvious.
"We were searching for you two along the cruise route when we found the lifeboat. We just looked in the opposite direction the boat was drifting, until we saw the island. You really went off course."
You just sit there in stunned silence. It was finally over, and you could get off this island!
"So...?" Rarity asks.
"Oh, right!" Rainbow Dash says. "I'll go tell the others I found you. They'll have a rescue raft out here in no time."
And with that, she zooms off, kicking up wall of sand, leaving a rainbow trail behind her. The two of you sit in silence for a moment. You both turn and look at each other. Then you both laugh until you cry tears of joy. 

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You're sitting on a bench in the park, basking in the peacefulness. Sitting in the shade, warm breeze blowing through, fillies laughing and playing around. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a flash of white and purple. You turn to look, and sure enough, it's Rarity, trotting along with one of her oversized sun hats. Walking alongside Rarity, carrying a picnic basket on his back is her husband; you can never remember his name, but he seems like a nice pony.
"Ah, Anonymous!" 
Rarity spies you, and trots over to where you're sitting.
"Anonymous! I haven't seen much of you since the wedding!"
"Yeah, sorry about that. I've been busy with stuff." you lie. You don't want to tell her it was because she was spending so much time with her stallion friend, since it was your idea in the first place. "How's your leg doing?"
"Fantastic, actually, and thank you for asking."
She turns and shows her leg. You can't even see the scar since her coat grew back in.
"Well, we were just going to have a nice little picnic." she says, pointing at her husband. He gives you a quick nod; you wave back. "Would you care to join us?"
You shake your head. 
"Nah, I don't want to impose. Thanks, though." 
"Alright then. I'll be seeing you." she says with a smile. She turns and trots back back to her partner. They smile at each other and walk off into the park, looking for a good spot.
Feeling a bit hungry yourself, you head to Sugar Cube Corner. 
"Hi there!" Pinkie exclaims as you enter.
"Hey Pinkie. I'd just like a cupcake, please."
In a second, Pinkie is in the kitchen and back, cupcake in hoof. 
"Here you go, fresh from the oven!"
You hand her a few bits, and take the cupcake. Taking a big bite, you chew for a second, before spitting it out in her face. Ugh. Coconut.

THE END