Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Death Race

Rarity hated everything.

She hated the clouds, which didn’t leave her any light to see by as she ran for her life through the jungle. She hated the tropical plants and their razorlike leaves, which slashed and whipped at her eyes as she tore through the undergrowth. She hated the mud and silt beneath her hooves, trying to suck them down and hold her back with each step she took, weighing her limbs down with gunk and grime that clung to the hair around her fetlocks. She hated her ribs, her injuries to them making it difficult to run and breathe as she fled for her life. She hated the pirates that were scrambling after her, shouting to each other in the night, and yelling promises of pain and death into the air as they closed in on her. Most importantly, though, she hated herself for being such a clumsy imbecile that she’d given herself away and gotten herself into this mess in the first place.

Her legs drummed out an unsteady rhythm as she ran through the island, simply trying to get away from the pirate camp. Her cracked ribs stoked a fire inside her chest, a blisteringly painful, searing fire that made her want to double over and scream with each breath. And to top it all off, she was tiring quickly with the buildup of mud around her hooves. All that together led to the pirates closing the distance on her, likely tracking her by her panting, ragged breaths more than their sight. But even then, they’d brought torches with them, and the forest was brightening up around Rarity by the second.

And then she saw her shadow dance in front of her as a light source emerged behind her. She flung a look over her shoulder to see an earth pony with a torch sticking out the side of his mouth glaring at her. They made eye contact, and she saw him grin around the torch.

She wasted no time redoubling her efforts after that, fear temporarily pushing away the pain in her chest as she poured on a new burst of speed. The pirate shouted to his companions, and Rarity counted four different hoof cadences closing in on her from behind. She had to lose them in the jungle somehow if she had any hope of getting out of this alive. But how could she lose them when her hooves left and obvious trail in the muddy ground for them to follow?

There was a break in the trees up ahead, and though Rarity was hesitant to take it since it’d steal her cover, she took a gamble that it might be a shallow channel to cross, something that would hide her hoofprints and throw the pirates off her trail. So when she burst through the ferns and felt water almost up to her knees, she had to fight down the urge to cry out in glee.

But she only had seconds to work with before the pirates arrived after her, so she galloped twenty feet through the water before immediately doubling back to the island she’d come from instead of crossing the channel. No sooner did she slide back into the plants and undergrowth did she hear the pirates arriving on the scene, waving their torches around and cursing her.

“Fuck, where did that cunt go?!”

“The other island, dipshit! Come on!”

“There’s no hoofprints there! Maybe she doubled back?”

“She was a unicorn, she could do anything with her magic. Spread out, find her!”

Though Rarity didn’t linger near the pirates, that last one clued her in to something important: the pirates knew she was a unicorn but didn’t realize her horn was busted. If they thought she could still cast spells, then she had an advantage. She wasn’t sure what that advantage was, but it was certainly better than them knowing she couldn’t cast spells. At the very least, it meant they were likely to be more wary of approaching her directly or one on one.

But for the moment, she’d bought herself some time, so she needed to use it before they regrouped and found her trail again. This time, she decided to double back along the way she’d come, hoping to lose her fresh hoofprints in the five sets so freshly beat into the muck. The plants were still dense enough to hide her from the channel, and only a little reflected, flickering light illuminated the foliage around her. But now, pain was overpowering her adrenaline, and she knew she couldn’t run much farther. She needed to stop and rest, or she feared she simply would die wherever she fell.

So she immediately adjusted her course for the thickest cluster of plants she could find and burst through them, collapsing onto the ground. She immediately regretted the stress it put on her ribs, but she put both hooves on her muzzle and bit down on her tongue until it began to bleed to stifle her scream. And then, trusting that she’d be safe for a little while, having lost the pirates for the time being, she sat still and waited.

Her actions bought her five minutes of quiet and relief from her pursuers; five precious minutes she used wisely, getting oxygen back to her muscles and stretching her limbs for more running. But soon enough those hooves returned to her corner of the island, accompanied by familiar, angry voices.

“I told you she didn’t cross the channel!”

“She could’ve! I didn’t think this bitch would be smart enough to double back on us!”

“Well, fuck, we’ll never find her in this mess! There’s too many hoofprints! She could’ve stopped anywhere along the trail!”

“Fuck, damn it.”

“Shit!”

There was a moment of silence where Rarity dared not breathe out of fear that the tiniest sound would give her away. She was almost certain the pirates could hear her heart thundering in her chest, but she was too frightened to move. Thankfully, the pirates began to shuffle along without too much further delay, grumbling to themselves as they retreated.

“Fuck, Squall’s not gonna be happy about this.”

“Don’t tell her about it, okay? Nopony say a word. The last thing we need is that crazy bitch finding an excuse to go psycho on any of us.”

“At least she has that rainbow bitch to take it out on. You wanna take bets on how long she lasts?”

“I give her a week.”

“A week? Ha! Four days at the most. She already did a number on her face, she’s only a tantrum away from caving in her skull…”

And then their conversation faded into the noises of the night, leaving Rarity all alone in the thicket of plants. Still, their words worried her about Rainbow’s fate even more than she’d been before. On the one hoof, she knew Rainbow was alive, but on the other hoof, it didn’t sound like she’d last much longer. If she didn’t get Rainbow out of that camp quickly, she might not ever get her out at all.

Chewing on her lip, Rarity stood up—and walked away from the camp. “Oh, forgive me, Rainbow,” she worriedly muttered to herself, “But I can’t help you right now. But I promise you, hang in there, and I’ll have you out as soon as I can.”

She only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

Comments

[PonyDragon]

Rarity hated everything.

She hated the clouds, which didn’t leave her any light to see by as she ran for her life through the jungle. She hated the tropical plants and their razorlike leaves, which slashed and whipped at her eyes as she tore through the undergrowth. She hated the mud and silt beneath her hooves, trying to suck them down and hold her back with each step she took, weighing her limbs down with gunk and grime that clung to the hair around her fetlocks. She hated her ribs, her injuries to them making it difficult to run and breathe as she fled for her life. She hated the pirates that were scrambling after her, shouting to each other in the night, and yelling promises of pain and death into the air as they closed in on her. Most importantly, though, she hated herself for being such a clumsy imbecile that she’d given herself away and gotten herself into this mess in the first place.

Use your hate and turn into a literal Nightmare!
(Again! I mean, you had already done that at some point earlier.)

And a good trick from Rarity to lose the pirates using the channel.
I think I should remember that one.

[RoboRed]

...Clock is ticking...

[BroBpony]

8635499
you're god damn right

[zaponator]

Well you better get ready to kill...

[FridayPie]

8635363
Nyxes used despair, not hatred to coax Nightmare Generosity. Rara didn't that much of the latter.