Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Canoes

“Coco-not. Hmph. Really.”

Rarity wandered between the trees at the interior of the island, gravitating toward the south. Hopefully the coconuts she’d left Rainbow would keep her occupied for the next while. Maybe they’d get her to think about the crime she’d committed. Rarity still couldn’t believe that Rainbow had actually said that.

Chirp landed on her back and tugged at her sandy mane. Rolling her eyes, Rarity pulled her mane away from the bird. “I am not overreacting, Chirp. Celestia, I’m sure puns that awful are a war crime.”

The macaw squawked and flew back up to a tree. Rarity stopped and watched him climb around the fronds until he found a solid perch to sit on, and then he stared back at her. Apart from a few squawks and the constant tilting and moving of his head, Chirp remained impassive as Rarity sat down a short distance away.

Her white hooves pushed through the sand, causing it to stick to her coat. She didn’t even care anymore. Out here, she could either get used to the sand or die, and so far she was still living. It hardly bothered her anymore, and that revelation disturbed her in some way. How quickly her standards of hygiene had fallen away when there wasn’t anything to hold them to.

She tried to imagine the ponies that supposedly had once lived here. How many of them were there? How did they live on such a tiny island? Maybe they didn’t, not really, and the other islands were bigger or something. How did they end up on a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere? Were they castaways like her and Rainbow, or did they discover them some time long before recorded history?

And what about the minotaurs? Where did they come from? Come to think about it, where were they in the first place? Rarity knew she hadn’t hallucinated those hoofprints or the pegasus wing bones. Those were real. But where were the minotaurs, then? If she knew what they were doing, Rarity knew that they wouldn’t be as much as a frightening mystery to her and Rainbow. Even if they regularly came to their island to eat and dance in the night, Rarity would feel better because she’d know what to expect of them. But not knowing anything about their behavior or patterns left her feeling like they could attack her at any moment, and she felt continuously on edge. It also left her worrying about what she and Rainbow could expect when they visited the other islands.

Unfortunately (or perhaps not), they were in no position to cross the ocean and see what the minotaurs had in store for them. Not yet, at least. They had to somehow build a raft, and to do that they’d need tools. That led Rarity to a different train of thought. If these islands were once inhabited by ponies, then they had to have had a way to make the tools they needed to craft their boats and build up the necessary trappings of civilization they needed to survive. And if primitives could build tools, then what was taking her and Rainbow so long? Rarity considered herself intelligent and educated; if she couldn’t figure out how to make simple tools like the ponies of Ponynesia could, then did she really deserve to get off this island?

“Stone tools,” she muttered to herself, standing up. “Let’s see. It can’t be that difficult, can it? All we’d need are some rocks, some sticks, and some vine to tie them together. That or coconut husk rope, but I’ll need to work on that first.” Her gaze drifted to the rising ground to the south. “There’s likely many suitable rocks to the south, especially around the ridges. It’ll be a good place to start searching.”

She made her way to the south, leaving Chirp behind; it seemed like the bird had lost his interest in her and was probably going back to their shelter to see if Rainbow had anything for him to eat. Rarity kicked herself too as she climbed the hill; she should’ve remembered to bring the baskets with her so she could stock up on fruit at the hill. Now that she had her magic back, harvesting fruit would be easier than ever. She could clear an entire plant in seconds with her magic. Still, she knew that she shouldn’t push her magic now that it was back; the healing along her horn was fragile, and if she pushed herself too much, she could end up cracking it again. That was the last thing that she and Rainbow needed right now.

Time hardly seemed to pass as she hiked up the south hill; she’d done it so many times now that it was almost effortless to her. But once she was at the top, she turned her attention from fruit to rocks. The fruit was always there, and her and Rainbow knew where it was, but the rocks were a different matter. They’d never seen the value in looking for them until now, but now they needed them if they were going to survive. Thankfully, Rarity knew far more about rocks than she cared to admit. She figured she knew almost as much as Maud Pie, minus the dedicated classes and rigorous studies on geology. One doesn’t find gems without first knowing the compositions of rocks and the environs in which they can be found, after all.

Rarity soon started a growing pile of rocks that she set aside for possible use in tools. Straight rocks, curved rocks, flat ones. A few smaller rocks she carefully selected for use in chipping—they could sharpen the others. The longer she worked, the less she paid attention to the world around her. And it wasn’t until several birds let out a series of warning chirps that Rarity finally looked up again.

Her breath caught in her throat, and she immediately pressed herself low into the grass. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear…

A canoe floated in the shallow waters of the lagoon. Rarity saw that first. It must’ve been fifteen feet long, and an outrigger to its starboard served to stabilize it in the choppy ocean waters. On either side, two minotaurs grabbed onto the wooden hull and helped push the boat toward the shore, their large, muscular bodies making it seem trivial. Each minotaur’s torso was covered in paint, and their bulging muscles led Rarity to believe that they could easily break her neck with a twitch of their fingers.

Her mouth ran dry. Here they were. After all this time, here they were.

She dropped her rocks and ran. Rainbow needed to know. Celestia, they needed to hide now, or this would be their last day on the island—and the last day of their lives.

Comments

[Matthewl419]

Well, you certainly know how to leave a reader in suspense...

[Flare]

How fitting, with Iron Will in the latest episode and everything. Suspense!!

[Snowdrifter]

Another lovely cliff. I shall hang off it in suspense!

[Snowdrifter]

Jose, canoe sea, by the dawn's early light...

... I'll just go over there now.

[Merula]

Here we go...

[zaponator]

Well shit...

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

Shit.... I hope they don't die.