Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Undertow

Rarity’s head broke the surface of the roiling waves, gasping and sputtering for breath. Her limp mane was plastered to her face, and her hooves furiously paddled in the tumultuous water around her. She spun in circles, desperately seeking for some orientation as the winds whipped up seawater, spraying her face and threatening to blind her.

She didn’t even know how she got out of her seat; everything from when the lifeboat hit the water to her surfacing just now was blurry. At least she was conscious and active; the impact could have easily knocked her out, and without a lifejacket, she would’ve drowned in the storm.

“Rainbow!” she screamed into the middle of the gales, her voice hoarse from nearly drowning. The current pulled on her tail, and it was all the warning she had to take a breath before the waves dragged her under again. She could feel it breaking right above her head, and the turbulence sent her spinning and cartwheeling through the water. On instinct, she tried to open her eyes to look around, but the salt stung them so much that she coughed and nearly inhaled a lungful of water.

Miraculously, her head broke the surface again. Her chest heaved with deep breaths, and something bumped against her hoof. She immediately latched herself to it and winced as sharp, splintery wood scratched her chest. Though she squeaked in pain, she didn’t dare let go of the piece of flotsam, her only life raft in the storm the very heavens themselves had sent down to smite her. Though it was barely enough to keep her shoulders above the water, it let her pant and recoup her strength. Every little bit of energy she could save right now was important.

Instead, she screamed again into the storm. “Rainbow! Rainbow, where are you?!” Powered by desperation and the adrenaline that comes with it, she managed to turn her little plank of wood in circles as she cried out into the night. Lightning arced overhead and struck the ocean a few hundred yards away; the faintest trace of an electric tingle danced across Rarity’s water-slick coat. The accompanying light illuminated the hundreds of pieces of wood and debris around her, as well as the rolling waves masquerading as mountains. And there, cresting a wave not fifty feet away, a colorful piece of the sky clung to the remains of the bow of a lifeboat, her limbs locked in the vice grip of the dead.

Then the resounding boom of the thunder nearly ruptured Rarity’s eardrums as it bounced off the water and hit her in the face. She shrieked and flattened her ears against her head, desperate to stop the ringing, and could only shiver in incapacitated silence until she could hear her thoughts again. Gingerly lifting her head from the plank, she braved the winds swirling around the surging waves to spot Rainbow.

The pegasus was clinging to the bow of the shattered life boat, but she didn’t make any motion. Her body was rigid, locked in place, with one wing extended almost straight to her side, and the other pointing downwards—or at least, half of it was. The other half flopped with the violent heaving of the water, and the pain of that alone must’ve put Rainbow into shock. At least, that’s what Rarity hoped had happened. She couldn’t bear the thought that Rainbow might be…

She couldn’t think about that now. Rainbow had managed to get herself out of her seat, so she had to be alive still. Now they had to get to safety, or at the very least, she had to get Rainbow off of the lifeboat before its remains went under. Another crest was beginning to swell beneath her, while Rainbow was falling into a trough. It’d give her the line of sight she needed to use her telekinesis… if she could just get it through the restraining spell.

“Come on,” Rarity hissed, her face screwing in concentration and pain as she tried to force her magic through a straw. “Come on, come on!” A few sparks flared from her horn, fizzled, then died. “Gah!” she croaked, holding a hoof to her forehead to stifle the pain. “Come on!”

A sweeping undertow pulled on her tail as the swell passed her by, and Rarity momentarily took her eyes off of Dash to look in its direction. She blinked, wide-eyed, then tilted her head back as her eyes traveled up, up, up.

“Oh… Celestia…”

The rogue wave whipped up by the fury of the storm towered in the distance, rising some forty feet above the water and only growing taller. Not only did the behemoth grow in size and power, but it had Rarity in its crosshairs. Gulping, Rarity turned back to Rainbow and again tried to force her telekinesis to take hold of the lifeboat. She flailed her limbs, trying to push her little piece of driftwood closer to Rainbow, and made agonizingly little progress. She shut her eyes, bit hard on her cheek, and squeezed her magic through her horn… to be met with the sensation of something solid under its influence.

Her eyes flew open, and through the rain and the spray of the sea, she could see a feeble blue shimmer on the very end of the lifeboat’s prow. As she focused, the light intensified, and she could feel the restraining spell beginning to slip away. She reared her head back like she was trying to leverage her body against the lifeboat, and she was rewarded by the wreckage drifting closer. Fifty feet. Forty. Thirty. Rarity heaved and heaved until her horn threatened burnout, and then she heaved some more.

Then the water began to rise.

Thin sheets of water began to ripple off of the wave now beginning to loom over Rarity’s head. She looked up for just a moment and instantly regretted it. It was like staring into the very face of death, a cold, briny, watery death. Rarity wondered if it’d be the last thing she’d ever see.

The remains of the lifeboat were only ten feet away now, and so Rarity tugged one last time. She felt a searing pain run down her horn, followed by a dim crack as some being hammered a red hot chisel into her skull. It hurt so much she couldn’t even find the breath to scream. But through the red haze in her vision, she saw the stern of the lifeboat before her, and the blue figure clinging to it, chest barely moving in the tumult of the water.

Rarity’s hoof touched the lifeboat, and her other wrapped around Rainbow’s fetlock.

Then the wave broke.

Comments

[FloydienSlip]

Well, fuck.

[PonySage86]

8393339
The Twin
Couldn't have said it better myself

[Neece]

So Rainbow has a completely busted wing and Rarity cracked her horn to get them together. Crap, let's hope they can recover after that.

[RoboRed]

rip

[Gerbold]

So, I am glad you took the time to make us care about the Airship and the Passangers bevore brutally murdering them in a Shipcrash ( I Suppose).
I am also glad that the introduction to the wole setting is over and am exited for the next chapters as they realize just how fucked they are

[Aurora Dimmet]

It was bound to happen. You can't have a pegasus and/or unicorn on a deserted island unless they're working with less than earth ponies. You never see earth ponies stranded, though. Probably because they'd just grumble while building a whole new civilization. ... Like they built the current one.

[Togepixel]

This fic deserves so much more attention than it is getting at the moment.
Well-written, well-executed, and all persons are characterized near-perfectly.
Well done.

[TimeturnerJ]

This is so good. The way you build up tension and write in-the-moment action is brilliant, I'm practically devouring your chapters.
I can't believe I'm saying this because I know thousands upon thousands of stories to compare this to, but I'm pretty sure you are one of the best authors I've ever had the pleasure to find.
That is really not praise I give out easily.

Keep up the amazing work. I'm sure you'll go far.

[Dustcan]

19 chapters till the actual crash happens. What is that like 25,000 words?

Not bad interactions between Rarity and Dash before then but that's a long prologue.

[Ash Bark]

I was worried that the action part of this story would be lacking, the slice of life was dragged on for a long time, I'm glad to see that the writing adapted well to the changing scenario. This was a great chapter, and for all my grievances with the long prelude, it set up the catastrophe brilliantly. Usually stories on this site just have a bolt of lighting instigate everything. Boom, a human fell onto Celestia, Boom, Twilight accidentally fused pinkie pie with her cannon, that kind of setup. This, while still clearly being a setup, made it feel natural. I love how all the characters were right about how the storm was avoidable, only the pirates missguided redirection made them get hit.

[Sidetrack]

8458899
Pegasi-"I need to fly home."
Unicorns-"I'll just teleport home."
Earth ponies-"This is home now."