Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Building Bridges

As the day beat on, Rainbow watched the pirate camp slowly empty out. Squall and her officer, who she’d figured out was named Black Flag, dispatched orders as necessary. Patrols were planned, scout parties organized, and camp guards drawn. By the time the afternoon rolled in, the camp was empty except for Rainbow and one other pony. And it just so happened that the other pony was the stallion Rainbow wanted to talk to.

Currently, Rainbow lied on her side, her lip swollen and chin covered in dried blood now that the cut Squall inflicted on it had finally stopped bleeding. Her body ached, and even if she wasn’t so tightly bound, she figured she could hardly move given how stiff her muscles were. The few inches of wiggle room she could secure for her legs through their bindings were a godsend, but even that wasn’t enough to stop them from turning into wooden planks. Once more, she eyed the nailed plank tucked away in the corner of the lean-to, and once more, she had to resist the urge to reach for it. Now wasn’t the time to try and escape, even despite how antsy she was swiftly becoming. Now was the time for talk.

Raising her head, she spotted the other stallion, who the pirates only referred to as Coals, tending to a smoldering fire in the middle of the camp. Why the pirates felt the need to keep a fire going at all times, Rainbow could only guess, but at the very least the smoke had kept the worst of the flies and mosquitos away from her while she lied helpless on the ground. But more importantly, it kept Coals occupied at the moment, and now that she had a captive audience, Rainbow wanted to take advantage of their privacy.

“H-Hey,” she squeaked, voice cracking on the first syllable she’d uttered in hours. “You, uh, got a minute?”

The pirate raised his eyes from the flames and scowled at Rainbow. “No.”

“Coulda fooled me.” A few seconds beat by, during which the pirate returned his gaze to the fire, before Rainbow spoke again. “So you all think Squall’s a bitch, right?”

Coals sighed and glowered at Rainbow. “I don’t want to talk to you. If it was up to me, I’d be out in the island right now, doing… not foalsitter duty for you.”

“Yeah, but like, you don’t really have a choice, because if Squall finds out you left me alone for even a minute, she’s gonna beat your flank or something.” Rainbow grinned at the irritated frown the pirate shot her, knowing that she’d won. “So yeah, Squall’s just the worst, right?”

“Only from your perspective,” Coals growled at her. “You’re her prisoner.”

“Which sucks, yeah, but at least it’s better than being a tool wielded by a crazy pony who obviously doesn’t care about anypony but herself.”

“That’s not true.”

“I’m no Applejack, but I know for a fact you’re lying to yourself.” She managed to slide across the sand a few inches with the help of her wing. “You want to go home, don’t you?”

“I want to get off this island and back into the sky,” Coals said. “I don’t want to go back to Equestria and get hanged.”

“Squall isn’t gonna get you there, you know,” Rainbow said. “And you heard her earlier. She’s content to stay on this island for the rest of her days if she wants to.”

“And I suppose you know how to get off this place?” Coals retorted.

“Actually, yeah, I do.”

He blinked. “Like shit you do.”

“Do you really think I was gonna tell Squall everything?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “So long as she knows I’m holding something back from her, she’ll at least keep me alive a little longer. It’s the only thing I’ve got going for me.”

“Or you’ll just piss her off like yesterday and almost get killed again.” Coals shook his head and looked away, but eventually he angled his gaze back toward Rainbow. “You really think Equestria would pardon us if we helped you get back home?”

That was the moment of doubt Rainbow had been waiting for. She enthusiastically nodded her head. “You know we’re super important, right? Just because there aren’t any more Elements of Harmony and stuff, doesn’t mean that we’re not still famous and important for saving it from bad stuff. Plus, we’re friends with the princesses—all of them. They’d definitely pardon you if you helped get us back home.”

Doubt and distrust fought with hope in Coals’ face. “Why should I even trust you?” he asked. “I’ve been a pirate for years. I’ve helped Squall plunder and kill for a long time. Somethings seem like too much for even Celestia to forgive.”

Rainbow didn’t really have a good answer for that, so she instead decided to press a different angle to get the stallion to trust her. “Coals… what’s your full name?”

The stallion drew back in suspicion. “Why is that important?”

“Is it Hot Coals?”

He froze for a few seconds. “How do you know?” he asked in a low voice. “Lucky guess?”

But Rainbow shook her head. “No,” she said. “A friend told me. A pony I think you know very well.”

Coals glowered and scoffed. “I doubt that very much. You and I don’t have anypony—”

“Her name is Gyro.”

Hot Coals’ mouth hung agape as his words suddenly died in his throat. He closed his mouth and tried to speak a few times, but didn’t get anywhere. Ultimately, he simply murmured, “…Gyro? She’s… she’s here?”

Rainbow cheered a little inwardly. So her suspicions had been right the whole time. “She was on the Concordia,” she said. “She was an engineer for it. We found her on the minotaur island and saved her life. She… she told us all about you, once.”

Coals seemed to deflate a bit and looked at his charcoal hooves. “I haven’t spoken to her in so long,” he said. “I haven’t had the chance. None of this was my choice.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “Couldn’t you have said something? Find some way to leave her a message?”

“I never wanted to be a pirate,” Coals said. “The airship I was on, the Luxury, was attacked by Squall’s crew years ago. They gave me a choice: either serve as their engineer, or die.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t interested in dying if I could help it. So I became a pirate, and I helped Squall become captain when the crew mutinied and got rid of the last one three years ago.”

Rainbow blinked. “Squall’s only been captain for three years? I thought she’d been doing this forever.”

“She’d been with the crew longer as a mate, but she only recently decided she should be the one in charge.” He shuddered. “I thought she’d be better than the stallion who was captain then. I’d only been on the ship for three or four months. But no. She was worse.

“When she and the old captain dueled, it wasn’t much of a contest,” Coals continued. “He was a pegasus, but she was a unicorn. She doesn’t know many spells, but she doesn’t need to to do what she does. She picked the captain up and slammed him through the deck, then hopped down the hole and ripped his wings off with her magic alone. She cut off his muzzle with a sword, shot him in the flank, and then threw the screaming, crying bastard off her ship. She could’ve killed him easily, but she showed just how cruel she was that day.”

Rainbow shuddered. “Celestia, that’s horrible.”

“It was. And ever since I saw that, I’ve been too afraid to try to escape or find a way out. So here I’ve been.” He shook his head. “If Gyro mentioned that I stopped writing her seemingly out of the blue, then that’s why. It’s because I couldn’t. And I’ve missed that more than anything.”

Smiling, Rainbow lazily rubbed her muzzle with her free wing. “Well, how would you feel if I told you she was on this island right now?”

Coals blinked. “She… she is?”

“Yup. Her and Rarity came over after me so we could all find what we needed together. Only thing is, you guys made me your prisoner before I could meet up with them again.”

“Do you know where she is?” Coals asked.

“I don’t know,” Rainbow admitted. “They could’ve gone anywhere since I got captured. But they’re here. I know it.” Winking at him, she grinned. “If you let me go, I might be able to show you where…”

But before Coals could respond, Rainbow’s ears twitched at the sound of returning pirates. Instead of saying anything more, Coals quickly withdrew to the fire, turning his back to Rainbow and pretending to ignore her. Sighing, Rainbow lowered her head and retreated into the shelter of the lean-to as the pirates returned from foraging.

There wasn’t a chance to escape yet, but she felt like she’d solidly turned Coals to her side. And now that she had an ally, it was only a matter of time before she was free.

Assuming, that was, that Squall didn’t kill her first.

Comments

[Merula]

Well, she has an ally now...

[RoboRed]

OH.
I hadn't expected that. I think its pretty safe to say that Rainbow's got an ally now to help her get out of this mess.

Unless...y'know...a certain author decides to be a jerk and have him double-cross her at the last second.

[The 24th Pegasus]

8647228

[N4rwh41]

...annnd... all caught up! D***, this got interesting fast.

[PonyDragon]

And the hope growed bigger.
Just slightly, but still.

[zaponator]

Oh wow! It's that guy! Neat.

[AstraPony]

8647228
DON'T GIVE HER ANY IDEAS!!

[Lexiebommel10]

Luckkky break
They really need it after all the handiecaps that came their way

[nomu s117]

So it seems the crew isn’t kept together by loyalty but their basically under threat with Squall’s magic