//------------------------------// // A Rich Sea Ride // Story: A Rich Everglow Adventure // by RadicalDishonesty //------------------------------// The sled heaved up over yet another wave, the sea slapping loudly against its hull as it slammed back down on the water. Two of the passengers stumbled and collapsed into a pile with each other. Spoiled Rich pushed up off of her husband with a humph, moving over to sit across the sled from him, glaring at her husband, flicking her gaze to the third pony. The truce appeared to be only maintained due to the mixed company. Filthy Rich didn’t know whether to be relieved at not having to argue with her now, or anxious that this might mean more arguments later. He suppressed a grunt, and turned his own eyes on the other passenger. The aquamarine seapony, clad in red, was giving the couple a half dubious half amused look, still seeming… not very distressed from the situation. But, she was the only source of potential information, so Filthy Rich tried to strike up a conversation. He sighed theatrically. “Well, seeing as we’re stuck here for now, I suppose introductions are in order.” He proffered a hoof. “I’m Filthy Rich, and this is my wife Spoiled Rich.” The seapony let out a guffaw, earning a piercing glare from Spoiled. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just…” She bit her lip looking between the two of them, then cleared her throat. “Nevermind. I’m Dawn Crest.” She put her hoof out and bumped it against Filthy Rich’s. “Nice to meet you, Filthy,” she said, with a faint accent Filthy Rich couldn’t place. Filthy Rich pursed his lips to stop himself from frowning. “Please, call me Rich.” Dawn Crest flicked an ear and raised an eyebrow, grinning. “But then how would you know if I’m talking to you or your wife?” “Filthy Rich, then.” “Mmmmh, I dunno,” Dawn said. “Filthy really rolls off the tongue, you know?” He winced, and almost snapped at her, but instead he silently reminded himself that this is the only pony who might know anything about what’s going on. “Well, anyway, we were just caught out on the beach… why were you caught by… The Deep Queen?” Dawn groaned and slouched, crossing her arms. “Queen Busybody won’t let any of ‘her’--” Filthy Rich could hear the airquotes “-- subjects go to the land except on official business.” Filthy Rich tried a shot in the dark. “And you wanted to see the land for yourself?” “Yeeees,” Dawn said, gesturing to him. “Finally, somepony gets it. Everypony else is just like ‘you must be nuts wanting to go against the queen’ and ‘you were born in the sea, why would you want to go onto the land.’ She looked up at the sky. “But I don’t want to just stay underwater forever.” She raised her chained her hooves to the sky. “Not that I know this is up here! Just look at this place! There’s so much stuff here. So many new things!” She let herself thump back down on the deck of the sled. “And now they’ve got me again and are draggin’ me home again.” “Speaking of that…” Filthy Rich segued into his main point. “You are being taken home but… we were just abducted from a random beach we found ourselves on. What is going to happen to us?” She put her hoof to her chin and hummed. “I’m not exactly sure. Normally we’d go to the underwater city but… you can’t breathe underwater, can you? I heard land ponies don’t even have things like that.” “Earth ponies,” Filthy Rich tapped his hooves on the ground. “Cannot breathe underwater, no.” She chuckled. “You’re like reverse fish, you know?” she sat up from her slump. “Anyway, I dunno what’s gonna happen to you. I’m not exactly sure why she took you.” She shrugged nonchalantly. From the back of the boat, there was a sharp rap, as Spoiled slammed her hoof down. “I suppose it’s just like a fun vacation that’s been ended, for you, isn’t it?” She stood up. “You are only going to be dragged back home, where you will, presumably, resume the life you had before.” “Hey--” Dawn Crest started to protest but was cut off. “Meanwhile we have been kidnapped by a type of pony that we have never seen before and are being dragged across the ocean to Celestia knows where”-- She stomped over to Crest-- “we were told we have been claimed by a mysterious queen like we are objects--” She leaned over Dawn Crest’s face, her voice dripping with venom “--and the only pony that might help us is acting like this is a daily occurrence.” Spoiled jumped just a little with a start, as a hoof gently landed on her shoulder. She turned back, glaring daggers at her husband, whose stern expression did not waver. Allowing herself to be guided back a step, her husband stepped closer to Dawn. “My wife has a point,” Filthy Rich said. “We are in a place of extreme uncertainty, and you have been… flippant, about it.” “It’s not like this is a walk in the park for me either,” Dawn grumbled. “The Deep Queen is not fun to live under. If you’re not training to be an invader, you’re helping prepare for it, and she’s been accelerating her timescale.” She sighed. “And I have no idea what’s going to be done to punish me for leaving. It’s just…” She shrugged. “At this point we can’t do anything. We’re stuck here.” Spoiled gestured to the wide open sea. “They haven’t even left any guards above the surface! How is it we can do exactly nothing?!” Dawn Crest gestured to the sea. “You wanna go into the water? Be my guest.” She jangled the chains, demonstrating they don’t allow for them to spread their hooves very far. “Good luck outswimming the eight guards and the Queen. You probably couldn’t even do it without the shackles, much less with.” “But… they’re not watching us at all! There must be something we can do to escape!” Spoiled protested. “Well, do you have any ideas?” Crest said, raising an eyebrow. “Well… no.” Crest settled back down. “Then it doesn’t matter, we’re still stuck and can’t do anything. So there’s no point in getting worked up about it.” The three of them settled into silence. Filthy Rich looked out over the sea. It was a murky blue, matching the dour looking sky. A pegasus team would be disgraced to allow the weather to get so dour. But… most likely there are no pegasus teams for this sea, here. He looked down at his hoof, bending at the wrong place and gnarled in a way that was unfamiliar. This was clearly not Equestria, and he was a pony but… some kind of different pony. He glanced over at his wife. She was a mess, as was he. Her mane unkempt, her coat was frazzled and dirty, although it was the same color as usual before. But, of course, the biggest difference was… the basic shape of her body. Something around her shoulders was… different. Like her shoulders had an extra joint and raised higher. And the face… The small snout he always knew her to have, that only got smaller as she grew older was gone, her whole face seeming squarer, and the natural curvature of her face and jaw were more pronounced. Her eyes were also smaller, smaller than even small ponies eyes. The effect was less unnerving as before, but this was not the wife he knew. He chuckled mirthlessly. As if he knew his wife very well, anymore. He sat down his head to wait for anything to happen, staring out at the dark blue sea. The sun had traveled across the sky and well on it’s way down when the trio of prisoners spotted their destination. As they had traveled, the frequency of small rocks and islands increased, a few other islands looming in the distance, until they spotted what was bound to be their destination. A sizable remote island was ahead of them. It’s coast was rocky, but the top clearly had enough foliage to support it’s own ecosystem. But, far more important than the size of the island, was the rock and wood compound built out into one of the caves, extending to a few simple buildings that were erected on soil instead of on rock, and with some surrounding area clearcut. “What is this place?” Filthy Rich asked. “I… I don’t know,” Crest admitted. “I had no idea we had a base aboveground like this.” “Just how long were you gone?” “It was only a month or two.” Spoiled Rich looked over the work and scoffed. “She must be hiding it. This is considerably more than a couple months of work.” Dawn Crest bit her lip. “Yeah…” The sea sled made it to a crude water gate. It was less like a fancy portcullis and more like a swinging wooden sluice. Two dark shadows drifted through the water to the edge of the gate, and it swung out slowly. The sled was pulled into the cave, settling in by a dock, where the guards pulling the sled were able to walk straight out of the water, pulling the sled into the dock. They were ushered out at speartip off the dock and through the compound. The compound was directly into the cave, and looked like it was a natural series of caves that had been widened and reinforced with wood. The lead pony lit a torch, but it only provided a very small amount of light as they trudged down the halls. The only sound was clinking, both of the sea ponies’ armor and the prisoners’ shackles. There was just enough light to see the flags hung on the walls every so often with a coat of arms on them, showing a seapony half-submerged in water with spears and tridents surrounding it, as well as unlit torches along the walls. The three prisoners were led through a large opening to a large wooden cage. The three of them were ushered in, and the gate was closed and a the guard said nothing as he locked the distinctly metal lock, lit one of the torches in the wall, and left, leaving the three of them alone, still shackled around their ankles. Fortunately, there were soft looking leafy green piles on the ground, and they even looked fresh, so Spoiled Rich took a pile for herself and plopped down. Filthy Rich spared her a look, but started taking in the room as well as he could in the dim light. Next to the cages he was in were other cages. Multiple other cages. In the dim light it looked like there were at least six other large cages, large enough to fit five or six ponies comfortably. “There’s so many cages… What could they be for?” Filthy Rich mused. “Isn’t it obvious?” Spoiled Rich’s voice called out from behind him, loud enough to be heard but haggard. He looked to her and she jangled her chains. “With these we won’t be making any swift movements… and the large entryway? The huge pens? The fact that the Queen said she claimed us.” Filthy Rich’s blood ran cold as he pieced it together, but Spoiled Rich finished the thought anyway. “These are slave pens,” she spat. “Of which we are the first.” Filthy Rich whipped around to Dawn Crest. “Dawn, tell me that your people don’t keep slaves.” She wasn’t looking at him. He grabbed her shoulder roughly and shook her. “This is important.” She turned around slowly, and for the first time, Dawn Crest was not either smiling or even indifferent. Her face was uncertain. “We… we don’t.” Filthy Rich knew there was more to this. “... But?” Dawn Crest swallowed hard. “But we used to. Centuries ago… but--but we used to only use lesser creatures for slavery,” she protested, trying to convince herself as much as the others. “Ponies could not hold ponies as slaves.” “No…” Filthy Rich stepped back, grasping his forehead. “This can’t be… this can’t…” he stumbled back and hit up against the wooden cage. He whirled around in a rage, striking it with his two hooves with full force. The cage wobbled with a dull sound, but he didn’t even put a dent in the wooden bar. With a roar, he slammed his hooves against it again and again, as the entire cage wobbled… but making no progress. The wood was supple and pliable, but this only meant that none of his strikes actually made any progress to splintering or breaking it. He panted heavily, glanced around the dimly lit cage, and found his wife staring at him. He locked eyes with his wife briefly, and in the dim light he couldn’t tell what her expression was. It wasn’t one of anger, not anymore… but he couldn't read her. She looked away. Filthy Rich fell down on the ground, slumping down, his frustration burnt out. The message was clear, and he plodded over to the cage and sat down right next to his wife, snuggled up against her, taking in the simple pleasure of the tactile closeness to his wife. After the day they had… it was welcome, even if he couldn’t be sure of anything else, at least his wife was with him. He laid down his head, when something. “Oh no…” he whispered. A groan came from his wife. “What now?” “... What about Diamond Tiara?” He could feel her tense up next to him. “She… she must be doing better than we are,” Spoiled Rich whispered. “She is still at home, and she still has the staff.” Filthy Rich paused. “I hope you’re right.” Argyle Note huffed deeply as he stared at the manor’s door. He hadn’t been nervous to knock on a door for years now, ever since he was a young man first interviewing or asking out a pretty filly. But he had never actually had to bring news like this before, so a new kind of confrontation means new anxiety. Great. He knocked on the door, and nary a few seconds later, one of the Rich’s staff opened the door. He was a blue butler stallion, somewhere in the middle ages, and he stood with the grace that Argyle expected from the Rich’s staff. He didn’t remember this one’s name, but he smiled anyway. “Good evening.” “Good evening, Mister Argyle--” Argyle inwardly winced as the butler whose name he could not remember remembered his. “--How may I help you this evening?” “Is Spoiled Rich in? I need to speak with her.” The butler faltered, his expressionless face betraying uncertainty. “I’m afraid not, you see--” There was a loud sound of hooffalls from behind the butler as something scampered behind him, approaching the door. “Daddy? Daddy is that--” A pink young filly shoved him aside, stopping suddenly as her eager face fell. “You’re… Daddy’s assistant.” Argyle nodded. “That’s right. Is your mother home?” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “Mother wasn’t here when I got home from school.” Confused, Argyle looked to the butler, who nodded. “She never returned from her luncheon this afternoon.” Argyle pursed his lips together. That wasn’t good. Diamond Tiara pointed an accusatory hoof at Argyle. “She’s not here, so where is my father!” Argyle grimaced. “He… he’s been missing since lunchtime.” The butler and Diamond Tiara were both taken aback. “Wh-what?” she blurted out. “Daddy’s missing?!” Argyle tried to explain. “Well, we were at the falls for a business meeting and… the falls started gushing forth… and when they touched you...” he shuddered a little at the intense chaotic memory, the rainbow sensory overload as the rainbow water rapidly rushed over the grounds, and  the sensation that he was just about to drown right before the water drained as rapidly as it came. He spared them the details. “When the… incident, ended, your father, Filthy Rich, was nowhere to be found.” He gulped as he delivered the hardest to swallow bit of information. “And he’s the only pony missing.” Diamond Tiara was gaping at Argyle. She blurt out laughing. “You… you’re joking. You must be joking. This is a terrible joke being played on me by my mother and father, right? They can’t both have gone missing?” “Diamond…” “No! Tell me you are joking,” she demanded. “Tell me!” He gave a look to the butler, who seemed troubled himself. “I’m… I’m afraid I am not. Filthy Rich is missing.” Diamond Tiara plopped down, clutching her head with her hooves. “No… no…” she collapsed down and started sobbing. Argyle tentatively put a hoof on her shoulder, but she had no reaction to it. “Can… is there any family she can call.” The butler bit his lip. “I… don’t think there’s anypony that would come on such short notice.” Argyle frowned. “Well… do you think she’ll be fine here… I guess it’s hardly alone but... “ He looked down at the quietly sobbing filly at his feet. “I have to get back to my family… I came here first, what if I came around again in the morning?”