Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Washed Up

Rarity shivered. She could vaguely feel rain pattering on her wet coat and the cool kiss of sand against her cheek. A stubborn wind blew across her body, only making the cuts and welts covering her coat sting more. The pounding of waves competed with the bass rumbling of thunder for her attention, while someplace ahead of her, the wind whistled through some kind of vegetation.

Ice cold water rushed up around her legs, and that was finally enough to get her to move. She yipped and clawed at the sand in front of her, dragging her shivering and dirty body out of the surf on the beach. It was nearly pitch black out, and she could only see the palest glow off of her white hooves to guide her way around. The sky was thick with dimly lit clouds; if they weren’t there, the moon would’ve given her enough light to see clearly with.

Once she was finally out of range of the surf, Rarity flopped down onto the sand again. Her whole body hurt, and the inside of her cheek was shredded and swollen; she must’ve bit it as she tumbled through the waves. As soon as she thought that, though, her dazed mind began to reconstruct events, and she bolted upright and looked around the beach. “Rainbow?!” she shouted, feeling lonely and afraid now that she’d taken stock of her situation. She couldn’t be the only one left. She just couldn’t.

She tried to ignite her horn to provide some illumination, but even sending mana into it sent her reeling to the ground in pain. When she finally stopped feeling nauseous, she gingerly felt around it with a hoof. Sure enough, she felt a long, deep crack running from the tip of her horn to halfway down its length, and even prodding it was impossibly painful. She realized that it must’ve split open when she tried to force her magic through the restraining spell enough to grab Rainbow Dash in the remains of the lifeboat. Until it healed, any magic whatsoever was going to be incredibly painful.

Hopefully she wouldn’t need her horn…

She spotted a glimpse of muted color out of the corner of her eye. “Rainbow!” she shouted, immediately galloping across the sand. Though her limbs were stiff and sore, she forced them to move anyway, and in a moment, she was at Rainbow’s side. “Rainbow, are you alright?” she asked, carefully rolling her friend over. The sight of Rainbow’s wing snapped like a twig made her sick, but when she held her ear to Rainbow’s muzzle, the faintest of breaths tickled its sodden hairs.

Rarity sat down and breathed a huge sigh of relief. So long as Rainbow was with her, this wouldn’t be as bad. At least she had a friend on the island. That would make passing the time until a rescue party came for them much more bearable.

She swallowed and looked out over the roiling waves and the swirling clouds in the distance, right to the point where they melted into the blackness of the night. If a rescue party came for them. How far from their flight plan had the pirates flown the Concordia before the storm hit?

Another wave washed up on the beach, swelling around Rainbow’s torso. When her friend shivered and whimpered, Rarity wasted no time pulling her off of the beach and back towards the treeline. She could tell as she passed them that they were palm trees of some kind; hopefully they had coconuts on them. Her mind was already planning ahead, trying to think of just what they’d need to survive the next few days. Food and water were a top priority, but with the storm still buffeting the beach, shelter was the most important right now.

Rarity wished that Twilight were there with them. Twilight would know exactly what to do in a situation like this. Even Spike would be phenomenal; his ability to send messages to Princess Celestia could’ve solved the problem almost immediately.

The island was quiet, still, and dark. Rarity didn’t know if her and Rainbow were the only living things on it (besides the trees and grasses, of course) or what. What she did know was that it was more than the stereotypical single palm tree on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere, though. At the very least, she didn’t see another body of water once she went through the first line of trees. Of course, she didn’t have a lot of light to see by, but there was just more sand on the other side.

She managed to drag Rainbow into a sandy gulley. Hopefully the embankment of trees and sand would be enough to keep the water from rushing in as the tides changed. She didn’t know if it was technically high or low tide, but with the storm nearby, the waters had to be higher than usual. Hopefully they’d stay dry, or at the very least, wouldn’t be washed away.

Rarity fell to the ground next to Rainbow, too exhausted to do much more. Despite however long she’d been unconscious for, she still felt exhausted. Nearly drowning twice had taken a lot out of her. She didn’t even care that she was covered head to hoof in sand, or that her mane was an absolute tangled mess, or that it was still raining on her through the palm trees. With Rainbow safe and breathing easier, Rarity just buried her chin into the sand and closed her eyes.

She slept like a rock.

Comments

[Neece]

It hurts to see them so beaten. At least they are somewhat safe... For now.

[RoboRed]

Gritty.