Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Splitting the Party

Rarity hummed to herself as she sent the raft gliding along the surface of the water. Once she got the shape of the field correct, gravity did the actual propulsion for her. All she had to do was maintain a waterproof barrier under the raft and relax.

Which of course wasn’t as simple as merely relaxing. The field still drew on Rarity’s horn, and occasionally she’d have to redirect her thoughts to strengthen it in one area or another as the waves she sailed over battered her magic. Though it only took a minimal amount of focus to keep her magic going once she’d started it, it was still a test of her mental endurance to keep it going throughout the entirety of the trip.

Gyro sat in the middle of the raft to look over their supplies and keep the weight evenly balanced. Her eyes scanned the horizon, but less so to keep watch and more for her own curiosity. With Rainbow Dash flying high above them, they didn’t need to look out for minotaurs and their rafts, only make sure they stayed on course and nothing got them from the water. After all, the siren could’ve still been around the islands, and the last thing they wanted was for her to catch them and capsize the raft. Then again, maybe the worst they’d see would be a pod of dolphins. Rarity figured that’d be a neat sight to see up close. So far, they hadn’t seen any in the waters around the islands, but maybe they’d turn up eventually.

“How much longer you think it’ll take us?” Gyro asked.

“Maybe another hour or two,” Rarity said. “Even with this means of propulsion, these islands are scattered a fair ways apart. It’d take two hours to go between them with a motorboat, and I can’t get the raft to go nearly that fast.”

“It’s definitely faster than we could’ve gone by rowing.” Gyro lowered her head and sighed, letting her limbs sprawl a bit in the sunlight. “All this gentle rocking and stuff makes me want to take a nap.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “When don’t you want to take a nap?”

“Good question,” the mechanic said, fluttering her eyes shut. “I like naps.”

Unfortunately for her, blue hooves crashing down on the bow of the raft startled the mare out of her prospective rest before she could get comfortable. Rarity grimaced as she adjusted her field to compensate and make sure the raft didn’t plow directly into a wave and capsize. When the wobbling finally stabilized, she shot a furious glare at Rainbow, who was standing on the bow with her wings outstretched. “Rainbow Dash, are you trying to get us all killed?!”

Rainbow shrank back a bit. “Uhhh… sorry, Rares, I didn’t mean it.”

Rarity sighed. “I know you didn’t, but can you at least think about what might happen if you do something before you do it? I know I’m asking a lot, but if you could, you would save us all a future headache or ten.”

“Sheesh, sorry, I was just trying to tell you guys what I saw.”

“You saw something?” Gyro asked. “What is it? We can only see the island’s mountain from here.”

“Well, first there’s actually nine islands,” Rainbow said.

Rarity blinked. “Nine islands? Heavens, what do you mean?”

Rainbow pointed to the one in front of them. “That’s the biggest island, and there’s eight others scattered around it in like a ring or something. There might be a bunch of smaller ones that I couldn’t count from this far out, too. I think it was a volcano that blew up eons ago and the crater thing collapsed into the sea. The others aren’t as big as the big island, but we’ll probably have to look them over.”

“Huh.” Gyro nodded her head as she mulled on that thought. “See anything that might help us figure out where to look? Any spooky temples that might have ponies locked up and starving inside of them?”

Rainbow shook her head from side to side. “No,” she said. “I didn’t see a thing. Just trees and rocks and sand. Unless it’s on the other side of the big island, there wasn’t anything visible.”

“I just hope it’s not underwater like our shrine,” Rarity said. “Nine islands is a lot of coastline to search.”

“Hopefully it won’t be,” Rainbow agreed. “But there was something else I saw. A shipwreck.”

“A shipwreck?” Rarity furrowed her brow. “How old?”

“Not old at all,” Rainbow said. “It’s still got paint on it. I’m just guessing here, but I think it might be part of the Concordia.”

Gyro’s ears perked up. “Part of the Concordia?” she asked. “That’s… is that even possible?”

“It’d depend on when and how the ship broke up,” Rainbow said. “The hurricane could have sent big chunks of it flying everywhere. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine that a big piece of the hull ended up here. I mean, Rares and I were dragging driftwood out of the water for days, so there was a lot of debris that could have ended up anywhere.”

Rarity thought it over for a moment. “So if there’s a piece of the Concordia out here and it’s still relatively intact… could there be survivors on these islands ahead of us?”

“Exactly what I was wondering.” Rainbow fluffed her wings, knocking a loose feather or two free in the process. “I wanted to go and scout the wreckage out before you guys get there, maybe get a look of the island so we can figure out what we’re dealing with before you land.”

Gyro raised her head and frowned at Rainbow. “That sounds an awful lot like splitting the party. Never split the party.”

“What party?” Rainbow asked. “Pinkie Pie’s not here.”

The mechanic huffed and rubbed her temple. “Remember when I said I was a nerd in school? It’s an Ogres and Oubliettes reference. It just means ‘don’t split up, or bad shit will happen to you’.”

“Oh. But, hey, come on, have a little faith in me!” Rainbow protested. “Look, I can fly, and I’m fast. Nothing will catch me or even know I’m there. Besides, it’s just a lousy shipwreck, it’s not like it’s infested with sea snakes or anything.”

“You say that now…” Rarity sighed. “I know that you’re going to fly off regardless of what we say, so I’ll simply tell you to please be careful. And if you find something dangerous, please for the love of Celestia just fly back to us. I don’t want to make landfall and find you missing.”

Rainbow smiled and saluted Rarity like she would a captain of the Royal Guard. “Of course, Rares. You don’t have to worry about me at all. I can look after myself.” Then she spread her wings and jumped into the air, immediately twisting her body toward the island and flapping her wings a few times to keep up with the speeding raft. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

Then, winking, she took off, gaining altitude and speed and putting distance between herself and the raft. Rarity watched her colorful body begin to dwindle into the sky, and she pursed her lips in worry as the pegasus sped off toward the island. “Do stay safe,” she murmured as her marefriend disappeared into the sky.

“She’ll be alright,” Gyro said. “She’s a tough girl. She can handle herself in a fight.”

“I know,” Rarity said. “And that’s why I’m worried.”

Comments

[Aurora Dimmet]

Soon as I saw the title I felt a sense of dread welling up from my character sheets.

Calling it. It's not from the Concordia. It's the pirate vessel, and we've got sky pirates to deal with.

[RoboRed]

...Hooooooooboy.

[SIGAWESOME]

8604083

we've got sky pirates to deal with.

If that is the case, I wonder if Dash could kite the Minotaurs to the pirates. Solve 2 problems at once.

[ZanyZapper]

8604083
Some of the pirates were on the Concordia so could be both. But I'm with you, wherever they came from I'm betting on pirates being there.

[Snowdrifter]

i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/384/075/816.png

[zaponator]

Next chapter title: "Rainbow Dash Gets Eaten by Sea Snakes"