Survival against all odds

by thesupernile

Chapter 6

Pinching starvation hovered omnipresent in the corner of her mind. Though eating was better since they'd discovered the bitter taste of nettles, they hadn't found nearly enough to go around. It made her feel sick too, the flavour was atrocious, but it was all they had. They needed those nettles.

Another camp had been built before her. Much like the ones before but bearing the vague marks of growing expertise.

How long had they been here? It felt like forever? It was another day. Another morning. Monotony merged into a single monolithic memory. Of hunger, pain and despair. It all felt so similar now. As if her whole life had been a tragedy.

They were searching for higher ground now. Somewhere they might catch the distant glow of a town or have someone else catch the distant glow of their own megre fires. Through the trees, they could see mountains far in the distance. Hopefully they wouldn't need to go that far to get a good view. A small hill would do the job. There had to be plenty of those around.

Beside her, Oscar was trying to make a knot with his hooves. It was hopeless, but he was surprisingly determined. Isabel understood, they'd all been trying to make themselves as useful as possible. But hooves couldn't tie a knot and his horn wouldn't help him like her wings.

Sparkling a ghostly blue, the rope was suddenly suspended in a blue aura. Isabel was up immediately and ready to intervene if anything went badly. It slithered through the air like a flying serpent, moving this way and that seemingly at random.

It wasn't random. Oscar seemed to control it. Looking up at his horn, she could see it shared the same glorious blue haze. It looked magical. Seeing what it did, maybe it was.

Magic. If that was possible for a unicorn… who knew what else was. A whole new avenue of possibility and danger was opened.

“Isabel?” Oscar looked terrified, “you see this too right? I'm not hallucinating?”

“I do,” Isabel was fascinated, “it's coming from your horn. Do you think it's magic?”

“I don't know,” Oscar's panic turned to mystified confusion, “it defies everything I know about science.”

He concentrated hard and the rope knotted itself. Whatever dexterity that had was infinitely better than Isabel's wings. She began to empathise with Henry's jealousy. The things they could do if they all had that power: tie knots, lift logs, maybe even lift a person over that river.

Maybe not. That would be bound to end in disaster.

“I have telekinesis!” Oscar yelled happily, “I have telekinesis! Isn't that awesome?”

"Yeah," Isabel nodded, still unsure of how to react.

"What do you think I can do with it?"

“Tie knots at the least,” Isabel said dumbfounded, “who knows what's possible.”

All the commotion had caused Emma to stir. Ever since that night in the bitter cold shelter, she'd been slow and lethargic. It was getting worse; she'd barely left bed all day.

The leading theory was sickness. Some kind of cold from the time in the frosty rain. Feed a cold. That's how the saying went. Unfortunately, they didn't have any food.

But she could still recover. She wasn't dead yet. And that meant she was bound to get better. No cuts were infected. It was probably a cold from that night. Right?

She had to get better.

But it stalled their progress again and Henry was restless. He wanted to keep going. All of them did really. The more distance between them and that fateful campsite the better. Emma wasn't going anywhere though. If any of them were abandoned they would surely die. Survival together was better than survival alone.

Sitting there waiting made Isabel feel useless. She couldn't help Emma. No antibiotic medicines or painkillers that might have eased the pain. They had only hope.

They'd need an awful lot of hope.

And hope was fading fast.

---

Twilight Sparkle was examining the third of the metal boxes that had been delivered to her. Stranded ponies were an oddity but Twilight hadn't seen technology like this before. Each had some kind of purpose and they were all similar enough that they must have had the same function. They were some advanced arcane device by the looks of it. But why would some random ponies have that?

The damage on them was severe, too much to allow any of it to be successfully salvaged. Any hope of reverse engineering it was a flame miles away.

Burned and blackened, these devices had been used as a magical conduit. Whether that was the intended use of the objects, without the survivors, they could not hope to know. An anomaly like that would have to be powerful. She was surprised that anything survived. Unless they were just observers of course. Like a lab experiment gone wrong. That would make more sense. But why the middle of nowhere? And why getting lost?

Picking up a report, Twilight scanned through it. Survivors… Going up the river… Feathers found… Pegasus… She'd only been keeping a token of focus on the investigation. Celestia had been more interested in the ponies but Twilight couldn't turn down a magical mystery. Though now she wondered if perhaps she should have.

A blue bolt of lightning hit her hard enough to knock her over. Initial shock was replaced by confusion as she saw the light blue pegasus’ rainbow coloured mane. One who's enterances like this were all too common.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, “what are you doing?”

“Sorry Twi, I was working on a super awesome trick for the wonderbolts but I think I put a couple too many spins in it,” Rainbow jumped to her feet and looked over the reports with sudden interest, “what's this about… Survivors?”

“Princess stuff,” Twilight dismissed her, “I'm not that involved with it. Just reading the reports from the guard. I've been focused on these artifacts.” She tried to direct her friend towards the metal boxes in vain.

“Survivors of what?” Rainbow prodded further, returning to the survivors, “was it some kind of disaster? What happened? Was it awesome?”

“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded, “disasters aren't awesome; they're tragedies.”

Rainbow just stared expectantly at her. She couldn't dodge the question for long.

Twilight sighed, “we found a distress message on a beach almost two weeks ago. Some of the guards have been tracking them down.”

“Cool,” Rainbow Dash kept asking, “any idea who they are?”

“No we don't. We've found some feathers, so there's definitely a pegasus. The sign had to have been made by a unicorn so there's probably one of those as well. And…” she scanned through the rest of the report.

“If that pegasus is half as cool as I am, there's nothing to worry about. They'll be safe and sound before you can fly to Cloudsdale and back.”

“And an earth pony,” Twilight added, “they found her.”

“They found her? That's good right? Why do you look so sad?” Rainbow nudged her friend.

“She died Rainbow. They found her dead. And they give the rest of them a week at most.” That was just numbers though. Numbers could be wrong. Couldn't they?

“Oh,” Rainbow dropped down from her flight, “I see.”

Twilight gave an anguished growl, “why can't we find them?” She read the next report, “all identification attempts failed? Who are these ponies? No one just shows up out of nowhere. Celestia has good records dating back to Princess Luna's banishment. How have they missed them? Why aren't they found? Why can't-”

She stopped herself and took a deep breath, moving her hoof out and away from her as she did. One of many calming techniques she had tried to teach herself to use.

“Please find them…” Twilight muttered, turning back to her papers, “please…”

Taking her level, Rainbow exited the room, deflated and distraught. News of death wasn't cool.

---

Another sunrise greeted the weary crew. Rays of light streamed through the trees as the sky painted itself blood red.

Emma's condition was worsening. Her body was hot and she was sweating. Even if she survived this, she'd be the first to die of starvation. Sweat was a waste of energy. Energy they didn't have. Why couldn't there just be more nettles? Isabel was surprised she'd ever be glad to see them.

Oscar's magic had improved, getting stronger and more precise than it ever was before. He could lift with ease the logs that had taken them hours to get into the trees. The kind of life-saving skill they all needed. If he knew half as much about survival as he did everything else they might have had a chance out here.

But he didn't. And they didn't either.

Her mind was wandering again, as it began to when they stayed in one place too long. It went to the future. After they were rescued.

It was a scary thought not many of them had pondered. What would they do? Isabel was sure, for her part, they were in an alien world. How could they ever hope to learn how it worked? Maybe they never would. Or maybe it would be easy. But getting home seemed more and more like a distant fantasy.

Home was relative anyway. Isabel had never really felt welcomed anywhere. It was why she quit scouting seven years ago and why she left home as soon as she was eighteen. How long ago that felt now? It almost made her laugh.

Home was a distant dream to her. The wilderness was the closest she had ever gotten. Before it was life or death. And before Phoebe... Nevermind.

Now she didn't think she'd ever step foot in a forest again. Even looking at a tree might bring back the memories. But stomach growls interrupted her thoughts.

Hunger. Everything before felt more and more like a dream to that hunger. Hunger could control a pony and drag them to places they never would go on their own. Fortunately, she could still make good decisions. Or at least, she thought she could. Hunger could mess with your brain.

Emma started coughing again, which brought Isabel back to the real world. No one else could die. She wouldn't let them.

But that cough rang out like a dirge. She begged it to stop. To let her friend go. Unrelenting, each only got more and more fierce. Preemptive tears brimmed in her eyes. Losing another friend wasn't something she could take. Flooding down her muzzle and threatening to make a puddle at her feet, the tears only got more and more intense. Emotions erupted from a dormant mind.

Emma grabbed her shoulder, “Isabel. Listen. It's not your fault. Spare your tears till the water isn't precious. Please. Don't die for me; don't die because of me. You need to survive. Tell our story. Me and Phoebe both-” she was interrupted by a fit of violent coughing. Clinging to life she uttered her final words, “keep going for me. Please…”

Her grip went slack. Isabel watched as the warmth of her eyes faded. Adrenaline pushed her headfirst again. She couldn't let Emma die.

Brain reeling with a thousand possibilities, she defaulted to CPR. It had to work. It had to. Emma couldn't be dead.

Ten compressions in she heard the crack of ribs and thirty compressions further and she began to give rescue breaths. One two three, then back to compressions. But it was hopeless. CPR wouldn't cure disease. Emma hadn't died of a heart attack. She'd died of a mystery illness in an alien world.

She was gone. Another friend was gone.

And it still looked hopeless.

---

Standing before another dead friend was a bitter experience. One that tainted the tongue and stuck invariably to it. Never would it go back to what it once was. They were forever changed. A part of them exorcised.

Another floral ring had been constructed by the remaining members. Golden red poppies and little blue roses. By four, no longer six. No amount of tears could bring back the other two. But still they dripped down freely like waves let through a floodgate. Unstoppable torrents of water.

Three more feathers, this time placed over the head like a crown. Another little part of her would stay with Emma forever. She looked like a Queen. Queen Emma. It was fake but felt so real. As if a goddess had died before them. A second goddess.

Whispering their goodbyes, the final four set off again. Again to the depths of that dark forest. Again to certain death with a dash of survival.

But it was the only path.

Hopefully it would lead to success.

Comments

[Skyblazer9]

Hopefully the group can be found before there is no one left to be rescued.