Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Landfall

Rarity felt like the foal all parents dreaded on long train or carriage rides. Her and Rainbow had been paddling their makeshift raft for what felt like hours, but it hardly seemed like they made any progress. Somewhere in the middle of the two islands, the currents seemed to clash, adamantly trying to stay their raft in the wide blue. Two more hours of steady paddling had brought them closer to their destination, but they still had a lot of water to cover.

Rainbow Dash nearly collapsed, barely managing to save her oar and toss it into the middle of the raft before she teetered over. “Fuck,” she swore, cheek resting against the wood. “I’m so tired. How do the minotaurs do it?”

“Better crafted canoes and teams of four,” Rarity said. “And I assume they’re simply stronger than us, too.”

“If only we had another two ponies,” Rainbow said. She tried stretching her legs out; it took a few seconds before her joints fully straightened. “When we make landfall—if we make landfall—I don’t think I’ll be able to move for a week.”

Rarity set her oar aside for a bit and crossed the wobbling raft to go stroke Rainbow’s mane. “I don’t think we’ll have that luxury, darling. I’d be surprised if we weren’t running for our lives from the moment we reach the shore.”

“I knew I should’ve waited for my wing to heal first,” Rainbow glowered. “I could fly circles around those minotaurs if I had to.”

“If we’d waited for that, we’d be waiting another three weeks,” Rarity said. “How is it, by the way?”

Rainbow glanced at her bound wing and shrugged. “Doesn’t really hurt anymore. I think my bones started fusing back together, but I’m not going to put any weight on it and find out. I can move my wingtip again, though.” Blue feathers twitched and briefly fanned out as she said that before returning to their coiled positions.

“It’s progress,” Rarity said. “Just give it time to heal.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, Rares,” Rainbow said. “My wings are my life, and I’m not going to mess them up if I can help it. The last thing I need is for it to set or heal wrong. It could be the difference between being the best Wonderbolt and a nopony.”

“You’ll never be a nopony,” Rarity assured her. “I bet you could fly just as well as the rest of the Wonderbolts with a lame wing. Besides, it’ll heal stronger, right?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I’m not a doctor. Twilight would know. All I know is that I’m glad it wasn’t a muscle tear. Those never heal as strong as they once were, and they’re likely to tear again later.”

“That’s at least something we can count our blessings for, then.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow forced herself to sit up and stretch her spine before setting the head of her oar back in the water. “We should keep paddling. That current’s gonna undo everything if we sit here any longer.”

Rarity nodded, and after kissing Rainbow on the cheek, she shuffled back to her side of the raft and dipped her paddle beneath the waves. “How much longer do you think it’ll take us?” she asked.

Rainbow squinted through the thin haze sitting on top of the ocean. “Hopefully no more than another hour or two. We’re getting closer.”

“I certainly hope so.” With a simple thought, Rarity set her paddle in regular rhythmic motions, keeping time with Rainbow’s own strokes. At least she’d only suffer from a migraine when all was said and done, not cramps and muscle soreness like Rainbow would. In that way, she felt sorry for her friend. But she’d also lifted the whole thing and moved it into the water by herself, so some petty part of her didn’t care.

She peered through the haze of the hot day to the island in front of her and Rainbow. Now that they’d gotten closer, she could start to make out the shape of it. It was definitely much larger than the one they’d called home for the past three weeks; it was longer and higher, with a flat-topped mountain in the center. The whole thing was covered in dense, lush greenery, giving it a much fuller look than the small pile of sand and stone that they’d just come from. Looking back over her shoulder, their sandy island seemed so small and tiny by comparison. Given that there was barely enough space and resources for just her and Rainbow, Rarity started to understand why the minotaurs hadn’t colonized it. It simply wasn’t worth the effort.

But the island up ahead could hold hundreds of minotaurs, Rarity figured. She didn’t know how far back it went, but what she could see from out here on the sea was already more than enough to impress her. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard for her and Rainbow to hide on an island that big. Then they just had to find out where the little pony idol was supposedly being kept. She just hoped that her and Rainbow and that explorer were right. If they couldn’t find the figurine, what would they do then?

“See any canoes?” Rainbow asked, her eyes scanning the horizon. “We’re starting to get close, and we’re really exposed out here. Anypony could see us from that island.”

Rarity looked around but didn’t see anything wooden or guided by minotaurs. “Everything looks clear to me,” she said. “Just us and the sea.”

That didn’t seem to please Rainbow as much as Rarity thought it would. “Where are they?” she asked herself, ruby eyes darting between waves like she expected a canoe full of minotaurs to breach the waves at any second. “We’re getting close to their home turf and there’s nothing. I don’t like this at all.”

“Let’s not disparage our blessing so quickly,” Rarity cautioned her. “This is good for us. Let’s not wonder why.”

“I suppose…”

Soon, the couple could make out short, sandy beaches in front of them. There was barely five or six feet of sand before the trees began to rise. They crowded out much of the beach, and Rarity could tell just from their swiftly ascending canopies that the ground rose steeply just beyond. Perhaps that would explain why they hadn’t seen anything yet. Maybe the minotaurs kept their canoes and their civilization on the other side of the island where the beaches were larger and shallower.

The waves began to swell beneath them, and Rainbow smiled and paddled with renewed vigor. “We have the surf behind us, now,” she said. “We just gotta ride one of these in and we’re set!”

Rarity hunched over and focused on paddling harder. “Together!” she shouted, matching Rainbow stroke for stroke. And indeed, together, they carried the raft in on the tide. A sudden surge of a breaking wave behind them nearly knocked Rarity out of the raft, but soon she found herself tucking her oar in next to her as it slid across the shallows of the swash.

“Out!” Rainbow yelled, hopping off of the raft and into the water. The swash rose just above her knees, and she bit onto one of the vines holding the planks together to try and steady it. Rarity followed suit, and with her blanket of magic, she heaved the raft out of the water and onto the sand. Then she collapsed.

Rainbow trotted over to Rarity and knelt down beside her. “You alright, Rares?”

“Simply peachy,” she said, panting lightly. But she could feel the sand under her body, and even the waves sounded different with a different shoreline to echo off of. She forced herself to sit up and look around at the new landscape, the first one she’d seen in weeks. “We made it!” she exclaimed, weakly grinning. “We did it!”

“Yeah, we did,” Rainbow said, matching her grin. Then she turned her gaze up the hill. “Now we’ve just gotta not die while we’re here.”

Comments

[Snow]

Incidentally, because of how ocean currents work, you could actually cross the sea on a raft without paddling. It just wouldn't take you particularly close to shore on just the flow. Possibly not even in sight of it, but it's doable.

[CaptnemoVII456]

8542549
Absolutely. Look up the story of the Kon-Tiki. Great book, but just the quick wiki article is good for the basics. Thor Heyerdal (or some spelling) crossed the south pacific from Peru to, funnily enough, French Polynesia

[PropMaster]

Island hopping! Yay!