Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Campgrounds

After topping off with some food and water, Rainbow and Rarity started walking north through the heart of the island. Chirp joined them after a few minutes, evidently having spotted them from the trees nearby. The macaw perched himself squarely on Rainbow’s back, contentedly preening his wings while Rainbow and Rarity walked through the tiny jungle.

Once they made it to the north shore, passing by Jetstream’s grave, the two friends turned west and started combing over the northwest part of the island. It was one of the few spots on the island they hadn’t touched yet, now more than a week into their stay. But apart from some scrap left high in the sand on the western end of the island’s corner, it looked almost the same as everything else.

“There’s some good wood here,” Rainbow said, eyeing the salvage on the shore. “We should at least make sure it’s not gonna wash away. Who knows when we’ll need it.”

Rarity seemed less than thrilled about that prospect. “Don’t we already have a sizeable stockpile of wood and scrap back at our camp? I don’t want to drag all this across the island. I’ll get splinters in my tongue!”

Rainbow wanted to groan; it was too early to be arguing with Rarity. “We might need it, Rares,” she said. “You never know. Look, I’ll go pull this stuff out of the sand, and maybe you can look around this area some more. Save us some time.”

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for,” Rarity said. “It’s just sand and trees as far as the eye can see.”

“Then, I don’t know, look for something that isn’t sand and trees.” Rainbow shook her head and trotted down to the beach. “Come find me if you find something!”

Rarity sighed and disappeared into the trees, leaving Rainbow alone on the beach. With the peace and quiet afforded to her by Rarity’s absence, she set to work, hauling up wood and salvageable scrap, creating a sort of depot in the trees to access later. She made sure to leave it out of sight of the western beach. The last thing her and Rarity needed were the elusive minotaurs spotting a pile of obviously recovered scrap. Though apart from those hoofprints in the sand, they hadn’t seen anything of them. By now, Rainbow was starting to wonder if it was all just their imagination.

No, it wasn’t that. She’d seen the bones in the sand. Being a pegasus herself, that wasn’t something her mind had just made up to mess with her. Maybe she should consider herself lucky that she hadn’t seen any minotaurs yet instead of wondering if her mind had just made it all up.

“Rainbow!” Rarity called out from the interior of the island. “Come quick! I think I found something!”

Rainbow paused and raised an eyebrow. She didn’t expect Rarity to actually find something. What could be out here in this stretch of the island?

“Coming, Rares,” Rainbow said, leaving the rest of the scrap behind for now. She wandered between the trees, spotting Rarity’s white coat not too far ahead of her. When she made it to the unicorn’s side, she looked around, only seeing sand and trees. “What is it?”

Rarity pointed downwards, into the sand. “Here,” she said, pushing it aside. Charred bits of wood and a few oddly-placed stones emerged from the grit. “It looks like an old campfire. I don’t know how old, though.”

“A campfire?” Rainbow stepped forward and started digging with her own hooves. Sure enough, a ring of stones and little bits of burnt wood emerged from the sand. Some black specks she assumed were ash came with it as well. “If this thing was buried in sand, it had to have been here for a while. Maybe the minotaurs left it here some time ago?”

“I don’t think they were minotaurs,” Rarity said, and she slid something across the sand to Rainbow. Rainbow narrowed her eyes at it and gasped when she realized what it was. “I found it not too far from here, too. Somepony left it here.”

Rainbow picked up a weathered and rusty horseshoe. It was slightly bigger than her own hoof, and she doubted that the minotaurs had the technology to work with metal on tiny islands like this one. That was all she needed to see. “So we’re not the first,” she said, looking around herself as if she might be standing in the middle of a graveyard. “I wonder how old this stuff is! You think there’s a conveniently placed journal somewhere around here?”

She expectantly looked toward Rarity, but the unicorn simply shrugged. “I didn’t find anything of the sort.”

“You know, I was kind of hoping that you’d coincidentally have that one on you, too,” Rainbow grumbled. She dropped the horseshoe to the ground and looked around. “So, ponies have been here before. Awesome. But why?”

“Maybe they were castaways like us?” Rarity offered.

“Or maybe they were after something!” Rainbow grinned. “Didn’t you say that you thought there’s something on this island that’s stopping Luna from finding us? Maybe these ponies were looking for it! A hidden temple or something!”

Rarity frowned. “I think that’s a bit of a stretch, darling.”

“Maybe. But it’s something to hope for!” She excitedly began to brush through the sand and sediment around the campsite. “Come on! Let’s do some digging! Maybe we’ll find something!”

Sighing, Rarity followed Rainbow as she started sweeping sand aside with her wing. “And here I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to do any more dirty work…”

Comments

[Aurora Dimmet]

And Rainbow just picks a random spot to dig, and due to her extreme luck factor completely unearths a hidden ancient temple.

[Sir Budginton]

Sighing, Rarity followed Rainbow as she started sweeping sand aside with her wing. “And here I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to do any more dirty work…”

Well your in sand, not dirt, so it's more like sandy work.

[PropMaster]

Top of those cliffs that Rainbow was trying to climb earlier. Calling it.

[Czar_Yoshi]

So there's something spooky that apparently scares Minotaurs and other stuff away from this particular island... and the one actually sentient thing they've found there so far is Chirp.

I wonder if he's the big bad.